The Hit And Run Restaurant "review" Thread

[BruceMangosteen]

Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

3rd road, west side, not far down from North Pattaya Road

Just a report on a revisit to one of my favorite local restaurants.

This place has always been reliable for their dumping and noodle (hand pulled) options

My one visit there, about one year ago, produced noodle's that tasted more like the typical Thai version you find in food courts, forget the name, yasaton or something like that. Not anything like the hand pulled noodle mixes( vegetables and pork/chicken) you get in Phnom Penh and I assume, China. Are you fairly certain this is a Chinese dish you experienced? I also recall the dumplings being deep fried vs pan fried/cooked and not fresh, rather, an obviously heated up frozen product. Again, are you advising us/me things have either improved or I'm incorrect? Asking with the question have you enjoyed real Chinese food in Phnom Penh?

ps: Two bad experiences at the fairly new over priced Chinese joint at the top of Soi 6 on Second Road. In addition to barely eatable entrees, a can of soda pop was 50 Baht.

Edited January 9, 2016 by BruceMangosteen

[Jingthing]

Dude, enough with the silly "foodie" one-upmanship. I've been posting about Shanghai restaurant for years and not once have I suggested it offers the best/most authentic Chinese food in the world. This is Pattaya. A city with very poor Chinese food options except perhaps at high end hotel places which I won't pay for. Yes I've experienced much better in Singapore and San Francisco and other cities as well. But this is Pattaya. If you don't like their food, don't bloody eat there, but I think you have grossly trashed this place in an unfair way. For more grounded realistic people that like Chinese food and aren't willing to spend massively, they should definitely give Shanghai restaurant a try.

As far as the dumplings at Shanghai I've never ordered the fried ones and I'm not surprised about your report. I prefer steamed and boiled dumplings but yes I've had amazing pan fried ones over the years in other cities as well (not there).

To add, there was one period of time some years ago where I strongly suspected that Shanghai had a staff issue with doing hand pulled noodles and wasn't serving them. But I'm pretty sure they're doing that now. Last visit had their very popular dish of Chinese beef stew in soup with hand pulled noodles. Again, yes I've had much better hand pulled noodles in my life, but for their price in THIS city, their offer is MORE than acceptable and yes the beef stew there has a CHINESE flavor, not a THAI flavor. Definitely NOT the same as a THAI noodle dish. I suppose I should have mentioned their noodles may not have been 100 percent consistent over every day they've been open over these years.Whatever.

I've had worse luck OVERALL with Shanghai's non-noodle/dumpling menu, it seems to vary a lot depending on who's cooking at the time, but I've usually felt it was a reasonable attempt at Chinese food, and rarely felt ripped off. The one time I felt ripped off was their Sechuan beef hot pot soup which yes, tasted like a Thai chef was behind it who didn't know what the dish was supposed to be. I see they've lowered the price on that. Maybe it's better now. The fact their their Sechuan spicy chicken dish HAD improved was one clue to me that something MAY have changed in the kitchen. Things change all the time in such kitchens, so it's partly luck of the draw.

Edited January 9, 2016 by Jingthing

[KittenKong]

The Freelax was actually mentioned on page two of this thread several years ago: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/608166-the-hit-and-run-restaurant-review-thread/page-2#entry5974498 and it seems to have been around for nearly 10 years.

I cant spot it on Street View, though it must be somewhere near here: https://goo.gl/maps/nqzccsM2ZRD2

[opporna]

Here it is, where the "Cafe Joy's Corner" used to be:

https://www.google.co.th/maps/@12.9262145,100.8868907,3a,75y,162.9h,71.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sQXWFJp7Q0tXRIvGvch11Xg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DQXWFJp7Q0tXRIvGvch11Xg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D352.86823%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

Edited January 9, 2016 by opporna

[rws85]

Joys cafe is still there, we called in there for a few beers before our meal as I've known Joy since I was a kid, it is pretty much next door to it.

I'm not 100% sure if it is all French food but I think it is. Wasn't quite sure what some of the stuff on the menu was.

We had stuffed muscles, scallops cooked with a garlic cheese sauce and some patte for entrees. Mains we ordered two Osso Bucco's, one with mash the other with spaghetti. Some fried fish, which was big and tasty. Chicken coq au vin, which was ok, maybe a bit to creamy.. Can't remember what else.

Menu was big, food was cheap and enjoyed the meal. Couldn't ask much more.

Edited January 9, 2016 by rws85

[opporna]

I ate at Freelax today. It's a gem. I think we were the only non French people in the place, save the servers.

[Jingthing]

I ate at Freelax today. It's a gem. I think we were the only non French people in the place, save the servers.

Great, but I'm still not sure exactly where it is!

[opporna]

Freelax Restaurant on Google Maps Street View

The restaurant didn't exist when street view went through.

From New York Pizza, walk south and make your first left turn between Buffalo Bar and The Castle. Walk up about 50 meters. Voila'.

Google Maps Directions from NY Pizza House on 3rd Road

New York Pizza is on Third Road.

Edited January 12, 2016 by opporna

[Jingthing]

How about directions from 3rd road?

[Mojomor]

Buffalo bar is on 3rd road. Travel down the laneway beside it. Freelax is less than 100 metres.

[Jingthing]

Buffalo bar is on 3rd road. Travel down the laneway beside it. Freelax is less than 100 metres.

Thanks. So are they open daily, for lunch and dinner?

[opporna]

I ate there today, Tuesday, at about noon. I'm sure they do dinner to as I've heard people talk about eating dinner there. I did not ask their operating hours. Sorry. I will give myself a time out.

[opporna]

Note: I've heard that Freelax closes Sundays, indication they're open Mon. to Sat. lunch and dinner, but that's not definitive.

My next food tip--this is a good one if you like sausages. The place is called Best German BBQ Sausage-Deutscher Imbiss. It features *homemade* German sausages, including one of my favorites, currywurst, at very reasonable prices. For example, a large currywurst sausage with sauce and fries is 120 baht--you can get it in a box and eat it on the beach. The place itself is very small and usually packed with Germans.

It's on Beach Road just north of Central Road--maybe 10-20 meters. They've got a bunch of other specialties I don't know much about, but I'll slowly try. They've got a Facebook page--can I link to it?

[Jingthing]

Just posting this for fun.

It's about NYC not Pattaya.

But those of us who are very interested in the restaurant scene here, or anywhere, did you realize you were so "fashionable"?

When Did Young People Start Spending 25% of Their Paychecks on Pickled Lamb’s Tongues? Foodie-ism, as youth culture.

Lately, however, food has become a defining obsession among a wide swath of the young and urbane. It is not golf or opera. It’s more like indie rock. Just like the music of, say, Drag City bands on a nineties campus, food is now viewed as a legitimate option for a hobby, a topic of endless discussion, a playground for one-upmanship, and a measuring stick of cool. “It’s a badge of honor,” says Chang. “Bragging rights.” She says she disliked M.Wells, last year’s consensus “It” restaurant, partly because of “the fact that everybody loves it, and I just don’t want to believe the hype.” The quest for ever greater obscurity, a central principle of the movement, reaches a kind of event horizon in Chang’s friend James Casey, the publisher of an idiosyncratic annual food magazine calledSwallow. Lately, Casey has been championing the theory that mediocre food is better than good, the equivalent of a jaded indie kid extolling the virtues of Barry Manilow.

Food’s transformation from a fusty hobby to a youth-culture phenomenon has happened remarkably fast. The simultaneous rise of social networks and camera phones deserves part of the credit (eating, like sex, is among the most easily chronicled of pursuits), but none of this would have happened without the grassroots revolution in fine dining. “You can now eat just as quality food with a great environment without the fuss and the feeling of sitting at the grown-up table,” says Chang’s friend Amy, who is, incidentally, a cook at the very grown-up Jean Georges.

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/foodies-2012-4/

Edited January 14, 2016 by Jingthing

[Tony M]

This may not be the right place to post, but I see a new Lebanese restaurant opening in Jomtien soon. They are just setting up tables/chairs there today. The restaurant already has sign up - Anwars Lebanese Restaurant, and the logo looks to be the same as the Anwars in Pattaya.

The new place is situated at the Beach Road end of Soi 5 Jomtien, actually on the corner. It used to be a Russian pizza place, I think ? It's been empty for a few months.

The Anwars in Pattaya website has a menu with prices, and I don't expect the Jomtien branch will be any cheaper. It looks to be pricier than the majority of Lebanese places in South Pattaya, and certainly more expensive than my favourite Lebanese ( Beirut) in Bangkok. No opening date seen yet.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Tony M

[Jingthing]

Here's the site:

http://www.anwarlebanesepattaya.com/our-menu/

[balo]

We've been missing an Arabic restaurant in Jomtien. Looking forward to try the hummus and some nice lamb dish.

Edited January 18, 2016 by balo

[Jingthing]

We've been missing an Arabic restaurant in Jomtien. Looking forward to try the hummus and some nice lamb dish.

La Pomme has a few Mideast type dishes. But true no dedicated middle East places in Jomtien.

[Jingthing]

What will that new large restaurant being built near La Baguette Jomtien be?

[Jingthing]

What will that new large restaurant being built near La Baguette Jomtien be?

OK, I saw a sign up.

Something like The Wood Box or The Wooden Box, salads and cafe.

Sounds a bit odd, like the name for a discount coffin outlet.

Anyway, it looks to be a chain of some kind either Thai or international, but I can't find a link about it.

Is it a chain or a one off?

[Jingthing]

eatigo.com in Pattaya.

http://eatigo.com/home/th/en/pattaya/

Anyone noticethat the PARTICIPATION of local restaurants is VERY WEAK compared to Bangkok?

Obviously we don't have the number of restaurants that Bangkok has, relatively speaking, I had hoped the participation would have expanded greatly by now.

But it hasn't.

What's wrong?

Edited January 22, 2016 by Jingthing

[digbeth]

eatigo.com in Pattaya.

http://eatigo.com/home/th/en/pattaya/

Anyone noticethat the PARTICIPATION of local restaurants is VERY WEAK compared to Bangkok?

Obviously we don't have the number of restaurants that Bangkok has, relatively speaking, I had hoped the participation would have expanded greatly by now.

But it hasn't.

What's wrong?

It's up to the app/service company to go around and get restaurant to join up.... hotels apps like agoda or discount coupons deals company has their local rep that go around hotels and restaurant to ask them to join...

otherwise most restaurateur wouldn't even know that the app/service exist. Some discount service just disappear overnight, even the big one like groupon... I remembered a while back that restaurateur were complaining that the discount service were bringing in wrong kinds of clientele and some that oversold their coupon and can't deliver.... look like the bubble has burst for online restaurant review/discovery/discount service...

even the premier thai review site/app wongnai.com Pattaya's coverage is only a few restaurant

If eatigo really brings in customers, I'm sure the restaurateur's word of mouth would pass on quickly....

but for now

From the restaurant's point of view, you'd probably only need to care about tripadvisor and you'll be fine... anything else, unless the sales people from the company beat down their door to offer the service... why should they care there are myriad of deals to sort through like the ones from credit card companies and mobile phones companies... the good restaurant that you'd care about are probably not savvy enough to offer these... those that do seem to only be hip/modern thai restaurants that caters more to the middle class/ bangkok clientele

[Jingthing]

Yeah I did know that eatigo has a sales force. I'd like to see that sales force be MORE FORCEFUL in Pattaya!

[KittenKong]

eatigo.com in Pattaya.

http://eatigo.com/home/th/en/pattaya/

Anyone noticethat the PARTICIPATION of local restaurants is VERY WEAK compared to Bangkok?

Obviously we don't have the number of restaurants that Bangkok has, relatively speaking, I had hoped the participation would have expanded greatly by now.

But it hasn't.

What's wrong?

Yes, massively more participation in Bangkok with several more places being added every week. In Pattaya it seems that more leave each week than arrive (Saras has gone, for example, which is a shame).

I suspect that it is just an indication that more Bangkok restaurants are having to compete harder for fewer clients than places do here. Or maybe prices here are already lower here than they are there, and so there is less margin for discounting?

Many of the Bangkok restaurants are very good and, if it was easier to travel around Bangkok, for two pins I would go and live there and become extremely fat for little cost.

Edited January 22, 2016 by KittenKong

[Jingthing]

Oh. Saras has left. Bummer!

[KittenKong]

What will that new large restaurant being built near La Baguette Jomtien be?

OK, I saw a sign up.

Something like The Wood Box or The Wooden Box, salads and cafe.

Sounds a bit odd, like the name for a discount coffin outlet.

Anyway, it looks to be a chain of some kind either Thai or international, but I can't find a link about it.

Is it a chain or a one off?

Maybe to do with this (now closed)?

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g317134-d5960070-r207794056-Wooden_Box-Songkhla_Songkhla_Province.html

or this?

https://walkinginthefootstepsofchangnoi.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/wood-box-khon-kaen-thailand/

[digbeth]

I haven't used eatigo... is it mostly chain restaurants and restaurants in hotels that managed to join? are there many sole proprietor run type restaurant where you might have the one expat chef/restaurateur managing the place that's typical of Pattaya restaurant scene?

[KittenKong]

Oh. Saras has left. Bummer!

And the Holiday Inn (not that they had much worth bothering with), and the place not far from Livv of which I cant remember the name.

Hopefully after high season the numbers will increase. I see that Pizza Pizza have already re-introduced their sub-100B pizza and a couple of other low-price specials, and they only discontinued them a month or so ago.

[Jingthing]

I haven't used eatigo... is it mostly chain restaurants and restaurants in hotels that managed to join? are there many sole proprietor run type restaurant where you might have the one expat chef/restaurateur managing the place that's typical of Pattaya restaurant scene?

Yes. For example Pastrami and Rye and El Greco.

[KittenKong]

I haven't used eatigo... is it mostly chain restaurants and restaurants in hotels that managed to join? are there many sole proprietor run type restaurant where you might have the one expat chef/restaurateur managing the place that's typical of Pattaya restaurant scene?

No, there's all sorts on Eatigo. Certainly the big hotel/chain names have an obvious presence on the Bangkok pages, but there are other places too, as there are on the Pattaya pages.