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That's a good review.

I visited their Chaweng branch a short time after it opened. Ordered a steak and mushroom pie I think it was for about 350 Baht.

The meat was tough to say the least. Not inedible but certainly not what you wold expect at the price. Sauce was fine as were the mushrooms.

Chps as you say were poor. I wolfed down the peas.

350 Baht for a handful of chips and a portion of peas really....I left most of the meat...just got sick of chewing it....

Not been back. You're right about the service...they were running around in Chaweng as well. they should relax a bit....and learn how to cook AND taste their own food before serving it.

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It's a pity neither you nor your friend took note of my review on the previous page, and steered well clear of the parma and other substandard food there, and ordered the ribs instead. Obviously wouldn't have changed the service, or your overall experience though...

Edited by jamesbrock
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We both toyed with the idea of having the ribs, but I had just had some I made at home that were pretty okay, and my friend, I think, felt uncomfortable ordering something as expensive as that. The first thing he said when he opened the menu was: "Oh, I didn't realize it was this expensive..."

I won't be going back.

By the way, charging 110 baht for a Heineken when just across the street (and many other places close by) you can have the same thing for 60 baht, is pretty over the odds. And sitting at the Bondi bar, which faces away from the street, so everyone seems to sit side-saddle or backwards on uncomfortable perch stools, is not really a relaxing experience. But then you are paying for that "atmosphere" as it says in their logo, "Where locals meet."

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Hope questions are ok :)

Anyone know if there is some sort of restaurant on Koh Samui that serves "steak on a stone"?

It's a very hot stone that is brought to your table and then you can cook your own raw steak, usually beef tenderloin on it.

Will return in 2 months for 3 weeks and some days we want to try something else than Thaifood, and what is better than a good solid steak prepared by yourself,

so you get it cooked like you prefer :) We tried it out on a vacation to Madeira, but i wonder if anything like this is available on Samui.

Thanks.

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Hope questions are ok smile.png

Anyone know if there is some sort of restaurant on Koh Samui that serves "steak on a stone"?

It's a very hot stone that is brought to your table and then you can cook your own raw steak, usually beef tenderloin on it.

Will return in 2 months for 3 weeks and some days we want to try something else than Thaifood, and what is better than a good solid steak prepared by yourself,

so you get it cooked like you prefer smile.png We tried it out on a vacation to Madeira, but i wonder if anything like this is available on Samui.

Thanks.

There used to be a 'hot stone' restaurant between Maenam and Bophut. Driving from Bophut towards Maenam it is on the left hand side and is in the general area of the Maenam Post Office and 75 (the kitchen people). There are a couple of bars on the road-side - one is called Bamboo. There definitley used to be a sign there advertising 'hot stone' Restaurant, but I have not looked recently.

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Virt....just go to The Shack in Fisherman's Village. Best steaks on the island. No need for the palaver of cooking it yourself....almost always done to perfection.

agree 110%, and if they havent cooked it right, you can always send it back !

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Great thanks for the answers all.

We haven't been to fishermans village yet on our last two trips, so maybe thats where we should plan a night out.

i've heard they have a cozy walking street each friday night, so that would be a good excuse :)

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Virt....just go to The Shack in Fisherman's Village. Best steaks on the island. No need for the palaver of cooking it yourself....almost always done to perfection.

Agreed - definitley the best steak on the island. Probably one of the most expensive - but worth it. On a friday night - book a table. It is always busy there.

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I cook the best steak lol, I buy Australian Angus beef, grilled on The Rooo B'bque.

I cook the best steak lol, I buy Australian Angus beef, grilled on The Rooo B'bque.

Now that sounds like an invitation partytime2.gif

Yep get the charcoal burning Rooo! clap2.gif

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Reminds me of a meal I never in the end had at Alla Baia many moons ago...having been served the pizza I never ordered before the minestrone I did.

I was perhaps more hot headed in those days however! tongue.png

Excellent review by the way.

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Barrio Latino

Lamai Beach

It was the idea of getting some decent Mexican food in Lamai and not having to drive to Gringos Cantina in Chaweng that motivated us to try Barrio Latino.

We sat near the front where, lamentably, there was no sign of a fan to blow some of the humidity around, and took a look at the menu. A woman came and took our drink orders and I took the opportunity to order a starter of nachos (100 baht). The woman then went into a confounding monologue about if I ordered fajitas I could have the ingredients separate and could make it myself, or something. I asked her what she was talking about and I was immediately lost in the double-talk.

Anyway, soon after the drinks and chips arrived, another, younger lady – order pad in hand – was at our table. I ordered chicken enchiladas (280 baht) and was promptly asked if I would like chicken or beef. That should have been a “tell” for things to come, but I didn’t notice it at the time.

My friend had earlier said he would be happy to have some chilli con carne, and there it was on the menu at No. 48 (240 baht) – “Minced beef stew with spices, beans and chili, served with rice.”

My friend: “I’d like the chili con carne, but I don’t want rice. Do you have a small salad?”

Waitress: “You don’t want rice?”

My friend: “No. Do you have a small salad instead?”

Waitress: “No.”

My friend: “Do you have some garlic bread?”

Waitress: “No.”

A pause and the waitress added, “We have bruschettas,” and so he ordered those as well (120 baht).

We immediately discovered that the chips in the nachos were just going stale, but perhaps to soften them up, there was a lot of oil from the modest amount to cheese melted (mostly) on the top. There was some salsa mince, guacamole sauce and sour cream – each about a stingy tablespoon’s worth – as a side for dipping. The white sour cream had lumps in it, which I thought best not to investigate. A real chip dipper could have used all the dips in about six chips, so the dips really were more for show than anything else. The nachos were okay though and we were hungry and it’s pretty hard to foul up nachos, besides serving just-going stale chips and not enough dip.

The bruchettas came and there were four pieces, each easily fitting into your mouth whole with some room to spare, or maybe I just have a big mouth. The topping was basically the same salsa fixings as for the chip dip. They did not taste bad but in fact had little taste at all. They were so tiny and had such a small amount of tomato and chili mince on top that I tried to do a mental breakdown of how much of the 120 baht cost was actually on the table. But before I got started on that, my enchiladas arrived.

At first glance they seemed small as well; a couple of long thumb-sized flour rolls covered in sauce, and again, a less-than-tablespoonful of refried beans and lumpy sour cream, as well as a small cup of rice lightly seasoned to be off-white.

I poke a bit at the rice and tried a little of the “Tabasco”-flavored sauce (on the label is said something like, “Just one drop will do!” But it was really tame, by anyone’s standards) and wait for the chili my friend had ordered. A good five minutes go by and I am starting to get steamed. Not bringing the dishes for all the diners at the same time is a pet peeve of mine and here we go again.

Finally the waitress comes close by and I ask, “What about my friend’s chili?” Without skipping a beat she replies: “Oh, do you want to order chili con carne?” I immediately get this mental image of Homer throttling Bart, and look disparagingly over at my friend, who re-orders and then amazingly, the waitress asks, “Do you want rice?” It’s a Samui Groundhog Day moment.

So off she goes with the order, again. When the chili does arrive, about 10 minutes later, I notice my friend occasionally spitting out small pieces of white stuff about the size of large grains of rice. “Gristle,” he says. I try a bit of his chili and although it’s chili flavored, it has no kick at all and the meat is lightly laced with small, BB-sized gristle bits. “It’s kind of oily too,” he adds.

But we ate everything. The food wasn’t bad actually, just bland, like looking at a sun-faded photograph of flowers – still pretty, but with most of the vibrancy washed out.

I finally asked for the bill and the same space cadet waitress brings it and immediately starts to wander off, at which point I say, “Hey! Don’t go away,” as I look at the total (880 baht) and pull out a thousand note at the same time. Servers in Thailand have the vexing habit of giving you the check, and then disappearing into the bowels of the restaurant long after the time it takes you to look over the bill and pull out the money. Having to scout around for someone to give your money to puts a counterpoint on the meal and tweaks that latent desire to dine and dash.

As I was grousing about the waitress wanting to scurry away, a woman who had been lurking behind the bar the whole meal came up abruptly and said, “Is there a problem?” I could hear she wasn’t Thai, Indonesian maybe? I thought a second and just said, “Oh, you’ll be able to see the review online,” to which she blurted out with just a tad of aggression: “We can’t keep staff and we try to train them, sorry!” and then with the emphasis of a well-planted uppercut designed to cover her entire ass, “This is Thailand!”

It seemed a fitting end to the dinner theater comedy of errors. Blame it all on good ‘ol Thailand.

Barrio Latino is one of those “almost” restaurants. It has the fundamentals there, and the look, but the rest leaves you with the feeling that they only "almost" have it. So it’s that sort of sense that makes me think that I would “almost” go again, but not.

I have known the owner Eve (French) and his girlfriend who is not from Indonesia but Kazakhstan for quite some time. I shall print this out and make sure he sees it. I have eaten there more times than I can remember and never had a bad meal. He has always had staff problems since he opened some 2 1/2 years ago and Latino food is not something that most Thai chefs have any idea about. I'll see if I can get you a discount in the hope you do a follow up review.

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This was the second time for me to eat there. The first time didn't have the circus but the food was similarly pedestrian.

There was a farang there, behind the bar, who came out once to "greet" a group of customers and my friend and I, independently, had the word, "slimy" on our minds. Frumby clothes, a sort of ingenuous style....not the dress or demeanor of a person who even remotely looked serious. Mind you, this was not just me; my friend thought the same thing. Whoever the chick is, I thought later, "If you have such a hard time getting good staff, why are you perched behind the bar doing sweet FA? If you really cared, you'd be serving and taking orders instead of just hovering behind the bar. I can remember days past when I was working in a full menu restaurant as the manager when we had staff problem and doing everything myself from washing dishes to taking orders (the waitresses would not let me bus tables, that was "beneath" me they said).

The fact is, and probably the point is, the food was "almost" and yes, we are in Thailand. If the food was kick-butt I'd go back, but it was like someone, Thai?, who was trying to make some alien dishes they couldn't. I wonder very deeply how the "training" was done. Did they have "dry runs"? Have the servers bring out empty dishes and face likely questions, and run the drill three of so times? Or did they just give them a brief? I don't think the real problem was language, it was training, or lack thereof, and the kind of 80 IQ you usually find here. I have a friend who taught a pet water monitor to shit in the bathroom -- it took two years to learn, but it did. Learning to work as a wait -staff ought to take considerably less time, you recon?

And really. Stale chips? Lumpy micro -tiny dips? What's the thinking on that? That's not staff, that's just laziness.

Why would I want to get a discount on a return visit to a place that server bland, unsatisfying meals?

You can print this out too.

Without honest customer feelback you are running blind. There is no defence for stale chips but blandness can be looked at for sure. It's a matter of finding a balance for just how real the food should be for the tourists. I'll give Sala Thai as an example, always packed, costs a bomb but there is not a chance I would go there and eat dumbed down Thai food because I can just walk to the market and eat the real deal stuff. Where am I going to go to eat real Mexican for example? I would also agree that providing the same size 'dips' for a starter as they do for a main meal makes no sense. I shall certainly pass all this on because most of the points you have made a certainly valid.

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Had lunch in Cafe Uno in Chewang today. (Near walkinfg street on the beach road - towards the south end.

Very pleasant atmosphere. Open, airy and clean. (Just opened apparently.)

I had the greek salad in a baguette - very fresh ingredients and tasty. Well done. Her indoors had the steak and onion baguette really yummie she said. Very tender steak. Not cheap - but it is Chewang. (180 baht each). Excellent service, good value for money. All in all well done. We do not usually like to eat in Chewang, but we will be back to this one.

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Had lunch in Cafe Uno in Chewang today. (Near walkinfg street on the beach road - towards the south end.

Very pleasant atmosphere. Open, airy and clean. (Just opened apparently.)

I had the greek salad in a baguette - very fresh ingredients and tasty. Well done. Her indoors had the steak and onion baguette really yummie she said. Very tender steak. Not cheap - but it is Chewang. (180 baht each). Excellent service, good value for money. All in all well done. We do not usually like to eat in Chewang, but we will be back to this one.

I think there is another one in Bangrak where The Picnic Basket used to be.

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This was the second time for me to eat there. The first time didn't have the circus but the food was similarly pedestrian.

There was a farang there, behind the bar, who came out once to "greet" a group of customers and my friend and I, independently, had the word, "slimy" on our minds. Frumby clothes, a sort of ingenuous style....not the dress or demeanor of a person who even remotely looked serious. Mind you, this was not just me; my friend thought the same thing. Whoever the chick is, I thought later, "If you have such a hard time getting good staff, why are you perched behind the bar doing sweet FA? If you really cared, you'd be serving and taking orders instead of just hovering behind the bar. I can remember days past when I was working in a full menu restaurant as the manager when we had staff problem and doing everything myself from washing dishes to taking orders (the waitresses would not let me bus tables, that was "beneath" me they said).

The fact is, and probably the point is, the food was "almost" and yes, we are in Thailand. If the food was kick-butt I'd go back, but it was like someone, Thai?, who was trying to make some alien dishes they couldn't. I wonder very deeply how the "training" was done. Did they have "dry runs"? Have the servers bring out empty dishes and face likely questions, and run the drill three of so times? Or did they just give them a brief? I don't think the real problem was language, it was training, or lack thereof, and the kind of 80 IQ you usually find here. I have a friend who taught a pet water monitor to shit in the bathroom -- it took two years to learn, but it did. Learning to work as a wait -staff ought to take considerably less time, you recon?

And really. Stale chips? Lumpy micro -tiny dips? What's the thinking on that? That's not staff, that's just laziness.

Why would I want to get a discount on a return visit to a place that server bland, unsatisfying meals?

You can print this out too.

I couldn't care less if the staff is bad trained at all. Just say the number on the menu and repeat it, that's all. But I do care if food is bad. And so are most people I know on this island.....

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Had lunch in Cafe Uno in Chewang today. (Near walkinfg street on the beach road - towards the south end.

Very pleasant atmosphere. Open, airy and clean. (Just opened apparently.)

I had the greek salad in a baguette - very fresh ingredients and tasty. Well done. Her indoors had the steak and onion baguette really yummie she said. Very tender steak. Not cheap - but it is Chewang. (180 baht each). Excellent service, good value for money. All in all well done. We do not usually like to eat in Chewang, but we will be back to this one.

I think there is another one in Bangrak where The Picnic Basket used to be.

Now closed and for sale. Seems that Bangrak is getting smaller? whistling.gif

The Admiral Lord Nelson is also up for sale.

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Just say the number on the menu and repeat it, that's all.

Your're a funny guy. Of course we said the number when we ordered, but for a review, that's too much detail.

So yes, that doesn't work either.

I'd laugh if it were truly funny. Poor value for money never leaves me smiling however.

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I'm after Dutch style herrings in onion, in the UK they are often called rollmop or Bismark herrings. A member said in the general section that they are often available at Villa supermarkets. Is there a Villa supermarket on the island? Or, has anybody come across them as of late? I gave up looking a couple of years back because all I could find were the Swedish kind which are sweet. I have tried the canned ones from Tesco which the local cat liked.

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I'm after Dutch style herrings in onion, in the UK they are often called rollmop or Bismark herrings. A member said in the general section that they are often available at Villa supermarkets. Is there a Villa supermarket on the island? Or, has anybody come across them as of late? I gave up looking a couple of years back because all I could find were the Swedish kind which are sweet. I have tried the canned ones from Tesco which the local cat liked.

Try Colibri or the place on the way to Lamai.

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I'm after Dutch style herrings in onion, in the UK they are often called rollmop or Bismark herrings. A member said in the general section that they are often available at Villa supermarkets. Is there a Villa supermarket on the island? Or, has anybody come across them as of late? I gave up looking a couple of years back because all I could find were the Swedish kind which are sweet. I have tried the canned ones from Tesco which the local cat liked.

Try Colibri or the place on the way to Lamai.

Thank you. Where is Colibri and what do you mean by 'or the place on the way to Lamai?'

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I'm after Dutch style herrings in onion, in the UK they are often called rollmop or Bismark herrings. A member said in the general section that they are often available at Villa supermarkets. Is there a Villa supermarket on the island? Or, has anybody come across them as of late? I gave up looking a couple of years back because all I could find were the Swedish kind which are sweet. I have tried the canned ones from Tesco which the local cat liked.

Try Colibri or the place on the way to Lamai.

Thank you. Where is Colibri and what do you mean by 'or the place on the way to Lamai?'

Soi Colibri is South end of Chaweng. The other place is opposite Buddy resort....

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Had lunch in Cafe Uno in Chewang today. (Near walkinfg street on the beach road - towards the south end.

Very pleasant atmosphere. Open, airy and clean. (Just opened apparently.)

I had the greek salad in a baguette - very fresh ingredients and tasty. Well done. Her indoors had the steak and onion baguette really yummie she said. Very tender steak. Not cheap - but it is Chewang. (180 baht each). Excellent service, good value for money. All in all well done. We do not usually like to eat in Chewang, but we will be back to this one.

I think there is another one in Bangrak where The Picnic Basket used to be.

Correct and up for sale.

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I'm after Dutch style herrings in onion, in the UK they are often called rollmop or Bismark herrings. A member said in the general section that they are often available at Villa supermarkets. Is there a Villa supermarket on the island? Or, has anybody come across them as of late? I gave up looking a couple of years back because all I could find were the Swedish kind which are sweet. I have tried the canned ones from Tesco which the local cat liked.

You have the herring at Tesco.

Villa is located at Buddy's complex in Lamai.

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I'm after Dutch style herrings in onion, in the UK they are often called rollmop or Bismark herrings. A member said in the general section that they are often available at Villa supermarkets. Is there a Villa supermarket on the island? Or, has anybody come across them as of late? I gave up looking a couple of years back because all I could find were the Swedish kind which are sweet. I have tried the canned ones from Tesco which the local cat liked.

You have the herring at Tesco.

Villa is located at Buddy's complex in Lamai.

I've only seen the tinned ones at Tesco which I gave to the local moggie after one taste. Cheers for the heads up re. Villa. I'm disabled but could certainly walk there.

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