Review: Manhattan Fish Market At Central World

[junkofdavid2]

Yesterday, I tried their "seafood platter" for 599 baht which came with a very large slab of fish fillet, 4 good-sized prawns with melted cheese on top, batter-fried oysters, crispy calamari, seafood garlic rice, 2 mushroom soups, 2 very large iced teas, and of course chips. It also came with Caesar salad.

The fish was excellent, the prawns were "okay", the batter-fried oysters were wonderful, the crispy calamari was quite good, the rice was quite good, the mushroom soup was very good, the chips and salad were "okay".

Service was not so good but "passable". Inattentive staff (despite seeming to have too many staff), and they were dressed untidily and looked dirty. One was even obviously coughing (H1N1? haha), but he wasn't the one serving me, thank god. Doesn't the management even care to keep him at home? I guess they have good kitchen management but very poor training and personnel management.

The type of food and interior design looks as if they're targeting farangs, tourists, and/or upper-classed Thais; but the staff looks very "low-classed" compared to the place, which may create a negative bias in the eyes of upper-classed Asians as a target market. The one selecting the staff probably doesn't know the difference in how the different Asian social classes look (a common phenomena among Farangs), and this might have significant negative impact on the restaurant sales with the target market of Thai upper-classed. The place had very few customers, I was even concerned that the seafood may not be fresh because of very few customers... but later found the food to be very good and quite fresh.

Hope it helps.

Great platter, looked something like this but not exactly:

Edited June 19, 2009 by junkofdavid2

[Curt1591]

One was even obviously coughing (H1N1? haha), but he wasn't the one serving me, thank god. Doesn't the management even care to keep him at home? I guess they have good kitchen management but very poor training and personnel management.

Good review. I have always thought about stopping in and may try it now.

I know the management of a retail outlet in Bangkok. One employee was coming down with a cough and asked to wear a mask (the best possible use for a mask). She wasn't allowed because it "might scare customers." The choice was to go home and lose money, or stay and possibly spread the joy!

[Ossies]

I wouldn't worry about the freshness of the fish. I am sure in that sort of place it has all come straight out of the freezer

[belidofan]

no wonder junkofdavid has JUNK in his name because that was exactly what we thought when we ate there a couple of months ago : JUNKFOOD, a "never again" experience. Try instead the excellent food preparations within the Tops area adjacant the wine shop.