Are Farang Restaurant Owners Thai Friendly?

[keestha]

For the last 15 years I have been running restaurants in Thailand, always in combination with a hotel. I always made it a point to have the menu in the restaurant also written in Thai, besides English and German.

It makes it easier for the staff, but also it makes it a lot easier and more pleasant for Thai customers, who are more often than not Thai ladies coming together with a farang.

It always pisses me off when I go and eat somewhere else with my Thai wife, and I have to help her out ordering because the menu is only written in English. (Of course she graduated from a top university like most Thai ladies who are together with a member of this board, but something like " suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese" can be a bit difficult.)

In your native country, how would you feel if in a restaurant they didn't bother to write the menu also in the national language?

[Ulysses G.]

It always pisses me off when I go and eat somewhere else with my Thai wife, and I have to help her out ordering because the menu is only written in English. (Of course she graduated from a top university like most Thai ladies who are together with a member of this board, but something like " suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese" can be a bit difficult.)

That's a good one!

[mizzi39]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

[mrtoad]

It always pisses me off when I go and eat somewhere else with my Thai wife, and I have to help her out ordering because the menu is only written in English. (Of course she graduated from a top university like most Thai ladies who are together with a member of this board, but something like " suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese" can be a bit difficult.)

That's a good one!

Classic

[So1DoG]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

I will ask my thai wife to translate later once she gets home from her workplace. The has just recently been employed as a Neuroscientist for a leading company in the field and its her second day so i better not phone her yet and disturb her.

[kingwillly]

cos they wont pay farang prices anyway.

[h90]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

You only need to translate "contains cheese not suitable for Thais".

I had "not suitable for Farangs" once on a menu and my wife ordered it.....I confirm it is not racist, it was really not suitable.

Some kind of fermented (fouling) fish.

[freitag1]

I would feel quite exotic and wouldn't mind as long as I'm with someone who can translate. But I don't mind anyway because my girlfriend speaks almost better English than I do (she is half Chinese of course)

[Ulysses G.]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

I will ask my thai wife to translate later once she gets home from her workplace. She has just recently been employed as a Neuroscientist for a leading company in the field and its her second day so i better not phone her yet and disturb her.

She just finished her second term as Miss Thailand yesterday, so she might be a little tired.

[So1DoG]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

I will ask my thai wife to translate later once she gets home from her workplace. She has just recently been employed as a Neuroscientist for a leading company in the field and its her second day so i better not phone her yet and disturb her.

She just finished her second term as Miss Thailand yesterday, so she might be a little tired.

Yeah right mate. As if?

[onnut]

" suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese" I would like to see a Thai order and eat that!

My menu is written in English only, but I do have a Thai menu written in Thai and English.

[JoeThePoster]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

I will ask my thai wife to translate later once she gets home from her workplace. She has just recently been employed as a Neuroscientist for a leading company in the field and its her second day so i better not phone her yet and disturb her.

She just finished her second term as Miss Thailand yesterday, so she might be a little tired.

Same with my TGF, she's just returned from a long overseas trip and is quite tired today after spending almost a whole day at the district office changing paperwork back to her maiden name.

Edited December 9, 2008 by JoeThePoster

[JoeThePoster]

And yes, couldn't you just have a separate menu showing photos with exhorbitant prices for the Thais?

Edited December 9, 2008 by JoeThePoster

[fredfromalaska]

if the tourist stay away we may see a large enrollment increase in thai universities. you know tending bar may be a thing of the past

[bkkjames]

if the tourist stay away we may see a large enrollment increase in thai universities. you know tending bar may be a thing of the past

wrong mate, they would just go back to planting rice. school is only for the priveledged.

[Maigo6]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

I will ask my thai wife to translate later once she gets home from her workplace. She has just recently been employed as a Neuroscientist for a leading company in the field and its her second day so i better not phone her yet and disturb her.

She just finished her second term as Miss Thailand yesterday, so she might be a little tired.

Mine is pretty tired after finishing her shift at Baby a Go-Go! Then again she say's it's all worth it as she earns roughly 100,000 Baht a month at work and 5 different punters are sending her money that puts her on about 250,000 Baht a Month, not bad really. Pays for my Fortuner, plus the Mia Noi's condo.

Her friend has a BA from CM Uni and earns 10,000 Baht a month in MK Suki!

She wanted to end it all and go onto further education so I could tell everyone here on this forum that my GF has a Degree, but I told her that I won't live with her if she can't keep me in the lifestyle I've become accustomed too.

[bkkjames]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

I will ask my thai wife to translate later once she gets home from her workplace. She has just recently been employed as a Neuroscientist for a leading company in the field and its her second day so i better not phone her yet and disturb her.

She just finished her second term as Miss Thailand yesterday, so she might be a little tired.

Mine is pretty tired after finishing her shift at Baby a Go-Go! Then again she say's it's all worth it as she earns roughly 100,000 Baht a month at work and 5 different punters are sending her money that puts her on about 250,000 Baht a Month, not bad really. Pays for my Fortuner, plus the Mia Noi's condo.

Her friend has a BA from CM Uni and earns 10,000 Baht a month in MK Suki!

She wanted to end it all and go onto further education so I could tell everyone here on this forum that my GF has a Degree, but I told her that I won't live with her if she can't keep me in the lifestyle I've become accustomed too.

and now we all know where the term mang da originated from.

[MKAsok]

quote: suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese"

Could someone translate this into Thai for me?

อันตราย ไม่ใช่ส้มตำ

[Jingthing]

In your native country, how would you feel if in a restaurant they didn't bother to write the menu also in the national language?

I feel unwelcome. This happens a lot in Chinese restaurants in the US. The more interesting dishes are sometimes written in Chinese characters only. I have even come across Chinese restaurants in the US with no English menu whatsoever. it is also presumptuous, you couldn't possibly be interested in these more "authentic" farang/Chinese/whatever dishes.

I think it is VERY RUDE, here or anywhere, to present a menu and not have a complete version in the language of the country of the location of the restaurant.

I wouldn't go so far as the politically correct Canadian solution where they have strict laws about this (eveything must be French/English) but rude is rude and disrespectful is disrespectful.

Edited December 9, 2008 by Jingthing

[bkkjames]

In your native country, how would you feel if in a restaurant they didn't bother to write the menu also in the national language?

I feel unwelcome. This happens a lot in Chinese restaurants in the US. The more interesting dishes are sometimes written in Chinese characters only. I have even come across Chinese restaurants in the US with no English menu whatsoever. it is also presumptuous, you couldn't possibly be interested in these more "authentic" farang/Chinese/whatever dishes.

I think it is VERY RUDE, here or anywhere, to present a menu and not have a complete version in the language of the country of the location of the restaurant.

I wouldn't go so far as the politically correct Canadian solution where they have strict laws about this (eveything must be French/English) but rude is rude and disrespectful is disrespectful.

Sorry, the Canadian solution as you state above is in fact not true. Nowhere is French and English used together outside of federal agencies / documents. Quebec is the exception.

I have never seen a menu in western Canada in French - Chinese is more likely.

[h90]

And yes, couldn't you just have a separate menu showing photos with exhorbitant prices for the Thais?

I agree there should be prices x times higher like the usual double pricing in Thailand.

Maybe write the Farang price in Roman Numbers so the Thais can't read it.

[thithi]

Khao pad Ga-prao Gai Kai Dao 1 tee!!!!!

[Mobi]

I once went to German restaurant in Pattaya where the menu was only in German. I didn't feel too welcome

Then I went to Japanese restaurant in Sri Racha where the menu was only in Japanese .Very difficult to order, but the food was excellent.

Then there was an Italian restaurant where the farang owner spoke fluent Thai, and would move from table to table telling Thai GF'//wives about the food. It would have been much easier to have printed Thai on the menu.

I totally agree that it is rude for foreign owned/run restaurants not to include Thai on their menus.

I suspect that in some up market restaurants - especially in Bangkok - there is an element of snobbery in this lack of Thai. If you aren't sufficiently educated to understand the menu, then "we don't want your custom and anyway, you probably can't afford our prices."

[sassienie]

For the last 15 years I have been running restaurants in Thailand, always in combination with a hotel. I always made it a point to have the menu in the restaurant also written in Thai, besides English and German.

It makes it easier for the staff, but also it makes it a lot easier and more pleasant for Thai customers, who are more often than not Thai ladies coming together with a farang.

It always pisses me off when I go and eat somewhere else with my Thai wife, and I have to help her out ordering because the menu is only written in English. (Of course she graduated from a top university like most Thai ladies who are together with a member of this board, but something like " suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese" can be a bit difficult.)

In your native country, how would you feel if in a restaurant they didn't bother to write the menu also in the national language?

OF COURSE.

How positively absurd to think anything else.

And for people of your breeding, surely it would be better etiquette to print menus in French.

Edited December 9, 2008 by sassienie

[Jingthing]

I once went to German restaurant in Pattaya where the menu was only in German. I didn't feel too welcome

I agree. That is fairly common here among various nationalities here and it pisses me off. It is also stupid. Do they seriously think only Germans might want to eat German food?

Edited December 9, 2008 by Jingthing

[mrtoad]

And yes, couldn't you just have a separate menu showing photos with exhorbitant prices for the Thais?

I agree there should be prices x times higher like the usual double pricing in Thailand.

Maybe write the Farang price in Roman Numbers so the Thais can't read it.

An excellent idea, quite a few Thai resteraunts try that old trick, where the Menu in English is twice the price of the menu in Thai.

[keestha]

I once went to German restaurant in Pattaya where the menu was only in German. I didn't feel too welcome

Then I went to Japanese restaurant in Sri Racha where the menu was only in Japanese .Very difficult to order, but the food was excellent.

Have had similar experiences. Once I went to a restaurant in Phuket that only had a menu in Danish. Because I speak Dutch and German, which belong to the same language group as Danish, I could decipher most of the menu after some thinking.

On another occasion, I walked down the beach in Koh Samui early in the morning, looking for a cup of coffee. Settled down at the first place that looked like it was open, and ordered a coffee in Thai when the waiter came to take my order. The guy asked me in English what I wanted, but I kept speaking Thai to him, thinking: " arrogant a-hole, refusing to speak Thai with me". But soon it became clear to me that the place was run and staffed by Japanese people, who didn't even speak enough Thai to understand somebody ordering a cup of coffee.

[kiakaha]

And yes, couldn't you just have a separate menu showing photos with exhorbitant prices for the Thais?

I agree there should be prices x times higher like the usual double pricing in Thailand.

Maybe write the Farang price in Roman Numbers so the Thais can't read it.

farang price ? like, just a price for people of caucasian appearance ?

i've never met a thai who can't decipher the decimal digits 0-9.

moron.

[popmybubble]

And yes, couldn't you just have a separate menu showing photos with exhorbitant prices for the Thais?

I agree there should be prices x times higher like the usual double pricing in Thailand.

Maybe write the Farang price in Roman Numbers so the Thais can't read it.

farang price ? like, just a price for people of caucasian appearance ?

i've never met a thai who can't decipher the decimal digits 0-9.

moron.

I thought he meant Roman Numerals like I, II, III, IV, V etc...

[mrtoad]

And yes, couldn't you just have a separate menu showing photos with exhorbitant prices for the Thais?

I agree there should be prices x times higher like the usual double pricing in Thailand.

Maybe write the Farang price in Roman Numbers so the Thais can't read it.

farang price ? like, just a price for people of caucasian appearance ?

i've never met a thai who can't decipher the decimal digits 0-9.

moron.

I think there is an element of tounge in cheek about what he said.