Bud's Ice Cream Shops In Thailand, Including Chaeng Wattana

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Was out to Immigration the other day, and landed for lunch at the Central Chaeng Wattana Mall... Inside, I found a Bud's Ice Cream of San Francisco shop there.

In talking with the staff there, it sounded like they only have a few locations around, the one at CW, another in Pattaya, and a third location around BKK, I believe they said Mega Bangna...not sure on the 3rd one.

I never ate Bud's ice cream when living in the U.S., but I know it's a recognized product. And I didn't find much mention of their presence here elsewhere in the TV forum.

In doing a Google search, it seems that there's an Asian licensee for Thailand and a couple other countries, with that company producing the ice cream at a plant in BKK... So their Thailand product isn't imported.

American Food Co. Ltd.

http://www.afcthailand.com/icecream-01-01.htm

The GF and I tried several flavors of their ice cream that day...and it was OK to my taste... but not anything remarkable...at least for me.

At any rate, here's the look of the Central CW shop...

[rice555]

Hello All, from the SF Bay Area, the use to make it "on site"

like like McD's fries years ago.

I use the Bud's at The Mall Korat.

rice555

[saengsureeya]

I think that there are more Bud's's around.

Only in Pattaya I know 2 Bud's's: one in Mike's Shopping Mall (Beach Road entrance) and one in BigC North (Festival); ground floor.

I wouldn't be surprised if every major shopping mall has at least a Swensens or a Bud's.

[meatboy]

Hello All, from the SF Bay Area, the use to make it "on site"

like like McD's fries years ago.

I use the Bud's at The Mall Korat.

rice555

is it as good as svensens pass the stand every week but have never tried it.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I'd never tried Bud's before my recent visit to CW... But I've been eating Swensen's in Thailand for years.

With that disclaimer, I thought Swensen's has a richer taste...

I thought the Bud's was OK, but nothing that made me drop my spoon.

[mightyharriss]

I use Buds Ice creams here at the pub.... mostly in cocktails... The Orange Sherbet and Vanilla are good, some of the more inventive flavors not so much

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

It would be interesting to hear from someone who's actually had Bud's back in the States (the locally produced version) and also the locally produced version here in BKK.

Based on my sampling here, it's not really tasting like any kind of super premium ice cream a la Haagen Daz and similar ones. I don't have any way of judging whether that's the same or different from the U.S. produced product.

If I recall right, the individual Bud's scoops at Central CW were priced a bit less than Swensen's...and they had multi-scoop bowls on their menu that were priced a lot less than the single or double scoop prices. We shared a five-scoop bowl with five different flavors just to taste their range.

[Jingthing]

Ex-San Franciscan. Buds in San Francisco is considered middle level ice cream. It is not marketing as a luxury ice cream product. It is marketed as a serviceable one. Not the cheapest, not gourmet. An old friend of mine used to work there. He said most customers were in "munchies" mode. I realize internationally San Francisco has a reputation of having world class food, which of course it does, but in this case I think Buds is just milking that marketing in a rather misleading way. There is nothing wrong with a middle level food product of course as long as you are paying for a middle level product!

[Ulysses G.]

Jingthing is right. In San Francisco it is considered just a decent local ice cream. I was really surprised when they started exporting it as something special.

[meatboy]

did try the ice cream from chok-chai farm now that was better than anything else i have had,worth the extra.

[rice555]

Hello All, Bud's is made in LOS now, not imported and when

the original guy sold out it went south anyways.

The first time I had Bud's was mid 70's in Redwood City.

I had 1 scoop of butter brittle, sugar cone. Your mouth felt slick

from the cream. One scoop then is like 3 now, small portions.

Chok-Chai does have good ice-cream.

rice555

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Jingthing is right. In San Francisco it is considered just a decent local ice cream. I was really surprised when they started exporting it as something special.

Thanks for the feedback Jing and UG... I was born up there, but moved south by the time I was of ice cream eating age.

Based on your comments, I would agree fully. The ice cream we had at Bud's in CW was certainly mid-range acceptable, nothing much more.

The very odd part, in their online and shop marketing, is they're proudly proclaiming some supposed quote from Time magazine calling them "one of the world's best ice creams." Sure love to know who wrote that and in what context.

http://www.afcthailand.com/

BTW, I also do like Chok Chai ice cream here, especially their rum raisin. CC ice cream always seems to have a nice, clean taste...not slick.

[Jingthing]

Well Bud's dates back to the 1950's and it may have well been one of the best American ice creams during THAT era. We've come a long way baby and of course to Americans at the time (and some now) "the world" means the USA.

[nikkoid66]

I just eat one scoop at Buds Koh Chang!

AVOID! the lady give me half a scoop, and took my Almond topping with the hand in the box and put : 5 piece only!

The lady looked at me like: "here it is stupid farang, give your money".

I was so upset that she can ask me 55 baht for half a scoop of ice cream with 5 piece of almond on the top.

She was not, I was the bad guy of course. I told her that in SF they would certainly not accept that, she replied me "it's Thai way".

Translation, Thai like to <deleted> the farang money and you have to accept that. I decided to pay and leaved.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

[AyG]

Buds ice cream is also available in TOPS.

(The one time I tried it from there it was very ice-y, as if it had thawed and been refrozen, though.)

[LALes]

Used to live 5 blocks from the original Bud's at 24th & Castro in Noe Valley in the mid 70s. People used to line up in all weather

around the small shop on the corner. It used to be great back then. Long since sold to some conglomerate that took the quality

down a few pegs. Throw in that it is made in Thailand, and you have a very average ice cream, similar to Swenson's. Not bad

for Rocky Road or Vanilla, but certainly not up to Haagen Dasz standards. The price reflects that.

[Ulysses G.]

Swensons is better IMHO. To me, Buds in Thailand is not worth the price.

[Dannyboy6]

Used to live 5 blocks from the original Bud's at 24th & Castro in Noe Valley in the mid 70s. People used to line up in all weather

around the small shop on the corner. It used to be great back then. Long since sold to some conglomerate that took the quality

down a few pegs. Throw in that it is made in Thailand, and you have a very average ice cream, similar to Swenson's. Not bad

for Rocky Road or Vanilla, but certainly not up to Haagen Dasz standards. The price reflects that.

now everybody lines up for Bi-Rite Ice Cream or Mitchell's in The Mission ....

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[tonytigerbkk]

I've tried both Bud's and Swenson's and i prefer Ete ice cream.

[JayBee]

There is a new super premium ice cream coming to Central World very soon. Ice cream is imported from USA and has been voted the best in Boston and the best in New York City. This is the real deal. It's called Emack and Bolio's. Ice cream connoisseurs get ready!

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

[Ulysses G.]

My buddy just returned from USA and says that Ben and Jerry's is something like 80 baht a pint there, compared to 300 here. No wonder I won't buy the stuff in Thailand.

[Dannyboy6]

My buddy just returned from USA and says that Ben and Jerry's is something like 80 baht a pint there, compared to 300 here. No wonder I won't buy the stuff in Thailand.

It's more like 100baht on sale, in California , restaurant prices have certainly increased in the 6 years I've been here to at least double now...

[kuma]

Ha an old topic, just come across it as having cafe at Buds in Laem Sing of all places.

Wonder who owns the Thailand rights

[Ireland32]

There is one on the way to Trat, gas station visa runner stop