A "bizzare" Restaurant In Bkk

[sbathon]

Does anyone know the name/address of a famous restaurant in BKK that "throws chickens" & "rides unicycles"? My grandson wants to eat there. How is the food?

[JacknDanny]

Does anyone know the name/address of a famous restaurant in BKK that "throws chickens" & "rides unicycles"? My grandson wants to eat there. How is the food?

Sounds like Ronald McDonald

[mrtoad]

Does anyone know the name/address of a famous restaurant in BKK that "throws chickens" & "rides unicycles"? My grandson wants to eat there. How is the food?

Sounds like Ronald McDonald

I'd like to know where this place is, it sounds pretty interesting.

[Farma]

Maybe your grandson is referring to the huge restaurant where the waitress’s deliver the food on roller blades. I’ve heard of it and can’t remember the name.

As for throwing chickens it may be a variation of that restaurant in Chiangmai where the cook stir fries swamp cabbage then throws it across the road for the waiter to catch on a plate.

[pampal]

Do I need reservations?

[seonai]

Royal Dragon, Bangkok, Thailand (Bangkok)

Winning the Guinness Book of Records’ world’s largest restaurant title in 1992 with 5,000 seats, the Royal Dragon restaurant entertains guests with its waiters skating around on rollerblades, not to mention their star performer, a waiter precariously balancing a smoking dish while flying through the middle of the restaurant dangling from a cable

[seonai]

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bluelist/index...p;list_id=12012

[flightcrew1]

The rolling skate restaurant which was in Ratchadapiesik closed years ago. The area long developed with a shopping mall. As far as throwing chickens...I never saw that at the restaurant but also would be curious to see. Tawangdang on Naratiwat has non stop entertainment on stage with singing and comedians so maybe that could be it as well.

[Briggsy]

I can throw chickens. I can do that. Gizza job.

[jaiyenyen]

The Royal Dragon resturant is just down the road from the BITEC Centre, and is still open

[siamesekitty]

Flying Chicken restaurant (Suan Aharn Kratorn/Kathorn)

99/1 Bangna-Trad Road, Bangna

(on Bang Na-Trad Highway, near the intersection with Sukhumvit Road, opposite the Royal Dragon restaurant & BITEC)

Tel: 0-2399-5202, 0-2399-3557

Only open for dinner

สวนอาหารกระท้อน (ไก่ลอยฟ้า)

ถ.นางนา-ตราด กม.1 (ตรงข้ามไบเทค)

โทร : 0-2399-5202 หรือ 0-2399-3557

(more pictures)

Bangkok Articles/Reviews

Style Over Substance, To the Extreme ... By Victoria Lyder

Whether you're talking about food, comedy, or childbirth, the old saying is true that it's all in the delivery. The restaurant world is chock-full of entrepreneurial ideas that emphasize the overall experience over the actual food--and why shouldn't they, given that people willing to spend money on a restaurant meal usually want a night out, not just a meal out, and that even professional reviewers have come to criticize ambience and atmosphere as heavily as flavor and freshness.

The result is an industry that has made as many advancements and half-baked experiments in its entertainment department as its menu, some might say in lieu of them. Witness the lousy cover bands whose cacophonous renditions of "Hotel California" help distract from the bad food at Brauhaus, or the insufferable faux-Irish folk singers that are supposed to make us forget that they're overcharging us at Delaney's. The Chao Praya is choked nightly with the traffic of hotel yachts that offer their diners passing views of, well, other hotels. Many small streetside restaurants feature karaoke machines, at full volume.

But the champion of style over substance has to be the Flying Chicken Restaurant on Bang-Na Trad, just south of the intersection of Sukhumvit road. A roomy outdoor cafe, the Flying Chicken features a wide, open seating pavilion, and like many cafe/restaurants of its kind, features a stage where young women in garishly colorful evening gowns take turn singing Thai love songs to the accompaniment of a synthesizer "band."

But the real attraction, the one which distinguishes this roadside al-fresco bistro from other like it, the one which puts it on the tourist map, is exactly what the name suggests: They fling chickens, high up in the air, while they're still on fire. To this end they have even developed their own spring-powered catapult, which has a metal dish on top where they place the fully-cooked whole chicken, just before dousing it in brandy and setting it alight.

But the best part, or rather the most improbable part of the spectacle is who catches it. Waiters here all ride unicycles--yes, you read that right--and so poised are still balanced enough to catch an airborne chicken on a plate, while it is on fire. Quite impressive. These chickens are then brought to your table, where the brandy quickly burns itself out, and a small flag id inserted into the upright bird. It's a bizarre sight, to watch your food being set ablaze, set in flight, and then impaled onto a spit for your consumption. It's almost as if the chicken has committed some heinous crime for which mere execution is insufficient punishment; the offender must be burned, tossed, and then displayed upright, still smoldering, as a warning to others. The flag just adds an air of officiousness to the proceedings.

It's probably no surprise that the chicken doesn't taste very good. After all, the chickens which are dropped (and there are surprisingly few) are whisked away to he kitchen, where they may or may not be recycled. The chickens are also not cooked to order and taste dry, as of they have been sitting under heat lamps too long. But really no one comes here for the food--in fact one would have to be quite foolish to walk into any restaurant called the Flying Chicken and expect anything less than a complete negligence of cuisine in favor of entertainment. It's worth trying out just once, if only to tell the story about a strange place that did such a thing. And in a world of increasingly bland food and increasingly bland food-related entertainment, the Flying Chicken certainly deserves points for originality. Plus it's much cheaper than any hotel yacht. Bring your camera.

[NguuMuu]

Here's the link to the royal dragon:

http://www.royal-dragon.com/aboutus.htm

Any idea on the pricing of this place?

I see a lunch time dim sum buffet for 189 baht and that's all...

Edited February 29, 2008 by NguuMuu

[permanent_disorder]

As for throwing chickens it may be a variation of that restaurant in Chiangmai where the cook stir fries swamp cabbage then throws it across the road for the waiter to catch on a plate.

i think that flying vegetable comes originally from phitsanulok and is one of the tourist attraction there.

know as 'phak bung fai daeng', most of the time listed as 'fried morning glory' in an english menue, called 'phak bung loy fah' when it gets throwing to the air.

i have to check out that throwing chicken restaurant in bangkok.

[gunnyd]

I don't think PETA would approve.

If they don't like KFC I can only imagine what they would think of tossing flaming chickens

Just to be clear I agree with PETA on one thing: I love animals, their delicious!!

[tw25rw]

As for throwing chickens it may be a variation of that restaurant in Chiangmai where the cook stir fries swamp cabbage then throws it across the road for the waiter to catch on a plate.

Hmmmm... stir fried swamp cabbage...

[Mossfinn]

I can throw chickens. I can do that. Gizza job.

Shake Hands...............

Moss

[zorro1]

Do I need reservations?

I had reservations but I went anyway

[fire and ice]

After years of wanting to see it for myself I finally got around to going there about 2 years ago, but I wish I hadn't. It was crap.

The flying chicken is launched about 2meters and is caught by a clown on a unicycle with a spike, it does not fly onto your plate from way across the room.

It is really a thing for very young kids to order as they do a clown act suitable for 3yo-8yo kids and it is rather embarrassing and annoying if you are an adult and only want to see to flying chicken.

PLEASE DO NOT GO TO SEE IT, IT IS QUITE PATHETIC.

Also I read someone showing a Lonely Planet link above, and now cannot help myself but rant about these pieces of trash (yes I know it was just a link to help find the location): Treat anything Lonely Planets say with a grain of salt, their researchers obviously rarely go anywhere that they write about and their terribly structured "guidebooks" are full of the blindly biased personal likes & dislikes of the writer (ie: they write "do not go xxxx beach because it is crowded", and then virtually no more info on the place, instead of writing "if you like crowded beaches then this place may be good for you”, then followed by lots of info on it for those who DO want to go, instead of almost no info at all just because the writer doesn’t like “crowded beaches" etc...).

[Skyline]

Sounds awful