(New?) Chinese Restaurant In Pattaya: Ting-Tai-Fu Off 3Rd Road North

[Jingthing]

Just went for lunch, closed for renovation.

What is it with these noodle shops???.

OMG, you're kidding?

I thought it was a new restaurant. Renovation already?

Do you know for how long?

Hilariously, I was fixing to head out there today now that I know where it is!

BTW, I would not characterize their menu as simply a noodle restaurant. Yes having hand pulled noodles is a great feature and if I'm not mistaken unique in Pattaya. However, a place that has Lion's Head, Sechuan ma po tofu, Shanghai wine chicken, Sechuan shredded cold potato, Xialongpao, etc. is much more than a noodle restaurant.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Jingthing

[ChangFai]

OMG, you're kidding?

I thought it was a new restaurant. Renovation already?

Do you know for how long?

I am pretty sure it took the place of a Moo Grataa style buffet restaurant.

[kkpat]

You are of course correct JT, they did have more than noodles,

It is not a large place though.

The sign on the door is in Thai and that's all it said

according to my wife.

It didn't' look like there was any work going on,

so who knows.

[Jingthing]

Mysterious.

OK, can I ask people who happen to be in that area to keep an eye on that place and report when they appear to be open again?

Purely a selfish request. I really want to go there and don't want to schlep out there to be disappointed. But I reckon others may be interested as well.

[Jingthing]

OK.

Still chasing this monkey.

The 033 phone number from this website in the picture:

http://www.akgthaila.../?id=restaurant

rings to the restaurant. Well, I think so anyway. The man I answered confirmed it was a Chinese restaurant in Pattaya.

However, he seemed to have said it was CLOSED now. But couldn't communicate about when it might open.

Anyone else want to try being a food sleuth on this?

Edited January 21, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

OK.

Still chasing this monkey.

The 033 phone number from this website in the picture:

http://www.akgthaila.../?id=restaurant

rings to the restaurant. Well, I think so anyway. The man I answered confirmed it was a Chinese restaurant in Pattaya.

However, he seemed to have said it was CLOSED now. But couldn't communicate about when it might open.

Anyone else want to try being a food sleuth on this?

OK, I went by there last night (Sunday) and it is not operating yet. There seems to be people who are more or less LIVING in the restaurant and watching television though. Weird? Yes, I do think so. I saw SOME renovation materials on the floor, but it didn't seem to be anything major. I have called the 033 phone number in the link shown above during nighttime expected dinner hours, talked to some people who sounded like they said they are a Chinese restaurant on 3rd road, Pattaya, and open EVERYDAY, 7 days a week. Lost in translation. It's a very nice looking SMALL restaurant (too small I think) and I have every confidence they will be opening again. But I don't know WHEN!

Don't worry, the long trek for me wasn't a total loss for culinary adventurers. I will post about that later on the Hit & Run review thread.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

As promised, some 3rd Road Chinese culinary news added here:

http://www.thaivisa....50#entry6065109

I want to ask a favor now. If you happen to frequent the 3rd Road area (near North road) and you speak Thai or are with a Thai speaker, can you talk to the people who seem to be living and working in the currently not open Ting-Tai-<deleted> and ask them WHEN it will reopen?

Better yet, if you happen to notice that it HAS reopened, please say.

Edited January 29, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jimmyd]

I looked for it but couldn't even find it.

[ChangFai]

I looked for it but couldn't even find it.

Dont look for it, just look for the Sichuan sign.

[Jingthing]

I looked for it but couldn't even find it.

Dont look for it, just look for the Sichuan sign.

This restaurant is really very easy to find!

It's on 3rd road, a little bit south of Pattaya North Road, on the west side of 3rd road.

Map here:

https://maps.google....000cbece5&msa=0

It's described on map as:

Ting-Tai-Fung - North Pattaya

Updated Jan 15

Ting-Tai-Fung

Chinese restaurant.

Fresh hand made noodles.

It's so easy to find, such good offerings at attractive prices, and so few tables that I really think it's going to be hard to get a table there during peak hours, especially dinner, when it does open again.

Edited January 30, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

My latest "information" from a somewhat more convincing phone call to a number which claims to be this restaurant is that they will reopen in about a week.

Do not take this to the bank.

[Jingthing]

My latest "information" from a somewhat more convincing phone call to a number which claims to be this restaurant is that they will reopen in about a week.

Do not take this to the bank.

OK. Reporting back about a week later. They sound still not open. All I could get on the phone was: when open? Not sure. Oy vey!

I still get the feeling they WILL reopen again sometime and I also get the feeling there are always people perhaps even "living" at the restaurant. This is weirdness.

Edited February 13, 2013 by Jingthing

[SurfRider]

.

I had a friend call the Ting Tai <deleted> restaurant - they told her "Restaurant Is open now - time 11:00 Am to 10:00Pm"

.

[Jingthing]

.

I had a friend call the Ting Tai <deleted> restaurant - they told her "Restaurant Is open now - time 11:00 Am to 10:00Pm"

.

Thank you! I was about to call them again but I think they might have blocked my phone number ...

[Jingthing]

OK. Happy happy joy joy!

I managed to FINALLY try this place and can now comment about my impression about it.

Right now am not going to get into specific dishes but will make some grand generalized statements.

For my taste, this place is BY FAR the best "everyday prices" Chinese restaurant in the greater Pattaya area.

Anyone who thinks there is any other such Chinese place that can compete with this place on that criteria, please name it. Some might name the Shark Fin place near Royal Garden or God forbid, the Canton House at Central. You're welcome to your opinion but I don't think those places come close.

Of course I'm not including "Western" Chinese places like China Garden and Chow Box. If you want that kind of food, you are already going to those places.

I am not saying it is the "best" Chinese place in town overall when including high end hotel places. I don't even review those places; my main interest is reasonably priced places that aren't only for special occasions.

I am not including PAO in this "competition" mainly because of a limited range of menu choices and also the well known not open very often situation. (For some specific similar dishes, Pao's food might indeed be better, do enjoy PAO!)

The reasons:

Wonderfully, extremely varied menu (emphasis on SHANGHAI style) with enough choices to keep you experimenting for many, many visits

Some choices will be familair to many but there will also likely be some new to you dishes

Fair prices

Delicious food

As a former San Franciscan (one of the world's best cities for Chinese food) I can say with confidence that the food at Ting Taifu would be good enough to make it there. It would not be in the top 100 Chinese places in town, but it wouldn't be in the bottom 100 Chinese places either. I wouldn't have driven far to go there in SF, but would have been thrilled to have a place like that on my block.

Here in Pattaya, yes, I am saying this is the BEST general overall option for Chinese food in town. It is not perfect and I can already tell some dishes are better than others but we are REALLY LUCKY that this place opened in Pattaya.

This is NOT the place to go if you're expecting UK style or USA style Chinese food. They have "real" Chinese food compromised somewhat by being in Thailand, but I wouldn't call it Chinese Thai.

They are open everyday. As it is clear they are very popular (I went at an odd hour and they were half full!), I would avoid peak dinner hours if you want a table.

Expect to pay 300 to 400 baht per person for sampling a variety of dishes. You could spend much less for a one dish "snack" and of course you could spend much more if you want to rush sampling the large menu.

Edited March 6, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

OK, I'm going to go into some detail about the food now. Again, my bold general conclusions were made based on a combination of my one meal, viewing the food on other tables, and perusing the extensive and exciting MENU. It is possible over many visits my opinion may change, but I really don't think so, there is just so very little real competition in town for decent robust menu Chinese restaurants at everyday prices.

Shanghai chicken pieces in Chinese rice wine, 110 baht

A reasonable portion of cold chicken pieces, including a leg piece, all edible, little gristle, no wings

A very generous pool of delicious wine to slurp up

Flavor good

This dish is RECOMMENDED

A VERY DELICIOUS XO style dipping sauce and a VERY DELICIOUS herbal style clear soup was served with my meal (included). The XO sauce probably went with the Shanghai chicken and the soup broth probably came with the hand pulled noodles.

Ma Po Tofu 110 baht

Asked for it very spicy and asked for them to include Sechuan peppers.

This is the classic Sechuan tofu with a spicy pork mince sauce dish.

The tofu was happily not that disgusting Thai yellow tofu but real tofu, the pork mince sauce was OK and very red, but it was not only not super spicy as requested, there were no Sechuan peppers, and for my palate the dish was actually too bland. That's OK, it's not really a Sechuan restaurant.

I have had this dish two other places in town, the Shark Fin place near Royal Garden and a Chinese place on North road.

The dish was really very poor at those two places. At this place, the dish was just OK. I would NOT order the dish again there.

Portion: smallish

This dish NOT recommended. (It's really hard to get great ma po tofu in Thailand!)

Hand pulled noodles, plain 40 baht

This restaurant features hand pulled wheat noodles so I had to try them. There is a man in front making them so it's for real. The noodles were VERY THIN. They were pleasant and served with some cooked Chinese vegetables as well. A small portion but plenty to enjoy for 40 baht. They weren't the best hand pulled noodles I've ever had, but they were decent. These hand pulled noodles are featured in a number of more elaborate menu items such as with stewed beef, and I will try some of those later.

BTW, yes the (non hand pulled but handmade) noodles at PAO are better.

Trying any hand pulled noodle dish is recommended.

Rice is 20 baht.

Bottled water not sold.

They are upselling on the beverages.
Tea is by the pot and charged.

No tax or service charge added.

Some great looking dishes on other tables: spicy Sechuan shrimp in the shell, Xialangpao Shanghai soup inside dumplings.

The menu was so big I am just scratching the surface.

I would like people as they try this place to post here and talk about the dishes that they ordered.

Edited March 6, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jimmyd]

The name is Shanghai restaurant, no? If so, I ate there the other day. Had spicy ribs, 140 baht for a few pieces. Not very good value, i'm afraid, but fairly tasty. Had won ton. Taste ok, but the noodles were falling off the filling. Surprised me. 80 baht for a small portion (8 won tons)? Had one more dish, not sure what it was called but it was vegetables and meat stir fried. Pretty nice. Had a bottle of water too, so think you're wrong there.

The bill said 310 baht, but had some other number under. Didn't look carefully. Gave 500, got 160 change. Didn't bother to check why. Wasn't very full (there were two of us).

I'd go back I guess, but not too often.

[Jingthing]

Yes the sign says Shanghai restaurant in English indicating Shanghai style food but the actual name is Ting-Tai-<deleted> like the place in Bangkok. There is a lot of Chinese writing. That is, unless they broke off from the Bangkok place but I don'[t think so because the menu is the same. I suppose it is is possible they did rebrand, but I doubt that matters much to local people either way.

It is a good point that the name to look for is SHANGHAI restaurant on the sign.

Again, what place in the Pattaya at those moderate prices for CHINESE food has such a wide ranging menu and acceptably decent food? I would love to hear about such a place in town but I don't think it exists. I am not saying every dish is going to be great there. I am talking about we are in Pattaya and the options for CHINESE food are very limited.

It is also clear to me that with such a big and varied menu, some items are going to be better than others, so far confirmed by two reviews. But that means there are probably going to be at least a number of items that are going to please Chinese food appreciators, which can be found over time by repeated tastings.

As far as value being good or bad. Compared to what CHINESE restaurant in town with a comparably sophisticated menu are the prices there bad value? I don't think it is really fair to compare to Thai restaurants. There are thousands of those here and no rare cooking skills needed.

At this place, two people spending 150 baht each are not going to get very full there unless very light eaters. I did explain you need to expect to spend 300 to 400 baht to have a reasonably portioned meal ordering MULTIPLE dishes for MULTIPLE tastes.

Thanks for the info about bottled water being available. It wasn't on the menu and I did ask for it and apparently wasn't understood. I was happy with the delicious pot of hot tea though.

As far as bill disputes, I suggest reviewing bills anywhere to make sure the addition was correct. My bill there was accurate.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jimmyd]

I agree with pretty much everything you say--it's a good choice for people who wish to spend some money for decent food. I personally won't go often because I can get wonderful Thai food for a quarter the price, but I understand if others would go more often.

A couple things--to have falling-apart, mediocre won ton at a Chinese noodle restaurant is quite bad to me. Hopefully it was just a mistake.

I wish I could remember the third dish we had--it was quite nice and fairly reasonably priced.

Here's my tip for your thread: The German (Austrian?) sausage place is just two doors down from Shanghai restaurant towards South Pattaya Road , so next time you go be sure to pick up a kilo of sauerkraut for a hundred baht. Great value (less than half the price of Foodland or others). Sausages are nice too--the Pusta sausage is the spiciest and best to me. 300 a kilo, 160 a half kilo, but they have others. They have some other interesting specialist stuff too.

Every Pattaya foodie should know about, in my opinion.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Jimmyd

[Jingthing]

I'm not a huge wonton fan and find there are many more interesting things to try on their menu but it will be interesting to learn over time if their won tons are generally defective or not.

Also, I would not describe this place as a Chinese "noodle" restaurant. That's less than it is. Yes they feature hand pulled noodles, the only place in town doing that, but they have a large, robust, menu with many non-noodle or dumpling offerings. It is a full menu Chinese restaurant which doesn't mean they have every Chinese dish in the world, of course.

Strictly for NOODLES, I would go to PAO ... when they are open.

I realize I have gone out on a limb with my bold assertion:

For my taste, this place is BY FAR the best "everyday prices" Chinese restaurant in the greater Pattaya area.

I am keeping my neck out on this until and unless someone can name ANOTHER Chinese (not Thai-Chinese) restaurant that deserves that description (that I agree with). I would be super thrilled to hear of a better place in this category but I'm not holding my breath.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

I am requesting that a mod change the title of this thread from

Ting-Tai-<deleted> to Shanghai

as whatever the real name is in Chinese, the ENGLISH name on the sign now says: SHANGHAI

Edited March 7, 2013 by Jingthing

[Rimmer]

The topic is really too old to change the title as its been indexed already, we can close the topic and you can start a new one though.

[Jingthing]

The topic is really too old to change the title as its been indexed already, we can close the topic and you can start a new one though.

Oh, I didn't realize. I don't think it needs to be closed. The new name has been noted here for anyone reading the thread. Also the directions are also now well documented here. If in doubt look for the man in the window making hand pulled noodles!

Edited March 7, 2013 by Jingthing

[balo]

Thanks, I will try it if I can find it, only been eating western style chinese before so its about time to try the real deal.

[Jingthing]

Thanks, I will try it if I can find it, only been eating western style chinese before so its about time to try the real deal.

I'd say the majority of dishes on their menu would not be at all challenging for someone used to westernized Chinese. Just different.

[Jimmyd]

The menu has quite a few pictures too, so it should be ok.

[Jingthing]

OK, as I expected, repeated visits and I still am quite happy with this place. It is DEFINITELY a keeper. I am getting a better idea and confirmation of their strengths and weaknesses, but overall I think the strengths overrule the weaknesses. It is clear to me their few Sechuan dishes are weaknesses but I don't know if that means ALL of their stir fries are weak. The only other Sechuan dish that I recall they have that I haven't tried yet is the Sechuan shrimp, but I don't expect it to be very good, but actually it looked good on another table, so who knows.

My latest visit, Monday night, peak dinner hours. Busy as expected but there were a few open tables the entire time I was there. So maybe it's OK to go peak hours on off peak nights but I would avoid peak dinner hours weekends.

The vast majority of eaters tonight were Chinese in appearance, whether Thai Chinese or not I can't say. When I went for a late lunch, they had a lot of Russians (they're everywhere, eh?).

The water situation. Sorry I was confused before.

You can get a bottle of water for 10 baht and a glass of Chrysanthemum water for 20 baht.
A bowl of steamed rice is only 10 baht.

Today's order:

Beef stew with ramen in broth (hand pulled noodles) 90 baht -- Highly Recommended

A reasonable portion of delicious authentic Chinese beef stew meat (fatty and gristly and flavorful) in a bowl of broth, a few green vegetables, and those wonderful hand pulled noodles. I enjoyed the noodles in this presentation MUCH MORE than the previous 40 baht order of just noodles.

Cold Seaweed salad 60 baht -- Recommended

Kind of like a Korean banchan kind of dish. Goes well with the food. Portion I think too small. Nice flavor, seasoned with sesame oil.

Vegetable Buns 50 baht -- Highly Recommended

These were like dim sum steamed wheat buns stuffed with some kind of spinach-like green, but I think not spinach. Fairly large size, there were two of them. I LOVED them!

Eggplant w/ Fish Flavored sauce 90 baht -- WEAK conditional recommendation

This is one of their few Sechuan dishes. The Chinese name is Yu Shiang Eggplant. It's a classic Chinese dish. It's served with minced pork. I could tell it was the same cooking concept as the dissapointing Ma Po Tofu of my last visit. I gave this a marginal recommendation because it was more OK at Yu Shiang than their Ma Po was as Ma Po and I know of nowhere else in town that does any version of Yu Shiang. (If you do, please advise.) Unlike the Ma Po, I might order this again, but not often at all, and suggest it pretty much only to expats who crave some version of a Yu Shiang dish specifically. To the general audience, no, can't really recommend as a great dish.

Smallish but adequate portion, not an issue as it wasn't something I needed more of!

(Note there is actually no FISH in fish flavored dishes and they don't even taste like fish, nor are they supposed to, go figure!)

This place has a popular MANGO pudding dessert and I reckon it must be good. Most tables were ordering. Mango pudding is a common sweet at Chinese Dim Sum restaurants. I am skipping desserts these days so I didn't try.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

OK, another update with some more specific dishes information.

Also some more general new information.

Latest experience, a slight letdown, but as with many places ... it depends what you order!

It is pretty clear to me there are MAJOR differences from the Bangkok restaurant this place began as. For example, some menu items missing (such as the much anticipated Lion's Head) and some menu items that aren't differently named looking much different (and frankly not as good) than the pictures and video from the Bangkok place.

Also there were two things which I tried to order which were no haves, so maybe their actual menu isn't quite as wide as I originally thought. The dishes were potatoes in spicy sauce which I assume to be a Sechuan dish and clear broth with fennel and a big chunk of unknown meat.

Anyway, this being Pattaya, the place is still good ... for Pattaya.

Also, some much more POSITIVE news, for the hand pulled noodles, which are called RAMEN on the English menu, you CAN specify the size. I assume small (thin), medium, or large (most thick). Previously I have gotten their default, the thin. This time I asked for big thick ones (in Thai) and did get much thicker noodles, although I would probably call them medium, no complaints. I have liked both sizes so don't really have a strong preference but it's good that there is a choice, and in decent authentic Chinese places that offer hand pulled noodles it is normal to offer a size choice. This option to ask for a different size is NOT noted on the English menu, and the waitresses don't ask when you order, so there was some surprise when I did request a different size.

Dishes detail:

Fresh soybeans 150 baht -- UNRATED

There are some SERIOUS menu issues with this dish so I can't even rate it as the dish I got is so different than the dish I thought I ordered. On the menu the English says Fresh Soybeans and shows a dish with cubed vegetables and some fresh green soybeans. The menu picture possibly also shows cubed firm tofu but I am not certain. The large picture on the wall, same dish, shows a very different dish. Almost entirely fresh green soybeans and cubed firm tofu. I really wanted the dish on the wall. Turns out what I got was NEITHER the dish from the picture on the wall or the picture on the menu. Also, most amazingly, no fresh green soybeans at all, not a one! It also had meat in it which surprised me and would surprise vegetarians even more. You would be justified to send a dish like that back but this being Thailand, that's not usually a good idea, so I accepted the dish for what it was as a learning experience. So based on menu issues, the dish was a total fail.

However the dish itself was OK.

It was like a Chinese succotash plate, small cubes of carrot, pickled something, firm tofu, and corn along with some interesting diced Chinese ham flavored subtly with some kind of oil. It was presented on lettuce, a small portion. It reminded me a little bit of a well known Hong Kong dish, diced chicken in lettuce cups which is a GREAT dish. This dish, not great, questionable value, but I ate it and enjoyed it the one time. I wouldn't order that again for 150 baht. I wouldn't be surprised if the cubed carrots and corn were from a frozen bag, but I don't know.

Pork chops with ramen in broth (hand pulled noodles) 80 baht -- NOT Recommended

First off, the meat was pork RIBS not pork chops but I wasn't very surprised about that because there is a pictured menu item called pork chops but you can see from the picture that it is ribs. The problem with this soup was that the ribs had some kind of STRONG Chinese BBQ sauce on them and they flavored the soup with that flavor. I didn't like that flavor. I also didn't like the ribs compared to the Chinese BEEF stew version of the soup noodles I had before, which wasn't messed up by BBQ flavor. Maybe you'd like this BBQ taste, but because I very much didn't, I can't recommend.

Spinach w fungus 100 (120?) baht - Recommended

A fair portion of simply stir fried spinach with Chinese dark fungus. There is a menu card on the tables featuring this dish clearly marked 100 baht. I ordered the dish from there, pointing at it. ALSO, on the menu as I found out later when discussing the bill, there is a similar spinach stir fry with garlic and no fungus for 120 baht. They charged me 120 baht. I contested it and they insisted it was same same, but clearly it wasn't same same as my dish had fungus and not topped with visible garlic. From their POV, the price on the card on the table might be a mistake, but this kind of thing is definitely annoying and I do hope they get their act together on details like that. I did only pay 100 baht but would expect the exact same "drama" the next time, yes even if you confirm the price on ordering, I know someone will suggest that, but I doubt that would always help.

The dish itself competently cooked, Chinese flavor, fresh veg, not Thai flavor.

Chances are the spinach like veg I mentioned in the steamed veg. buns was indeed spinach.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Jingthing

[Jimmyd]

This restaurant is closed again apparently. I had noticed a couple times they weren't open, and then a friend told me his neighbor works there and it has been closed (due to staffing issues?).

Not 100% sure, but that's the info I have.

[Jingthing]

This restaurant is closed again apparently. I had noticed a couple times they weren't open, and then a friend told me his neighbor works there and it has been closed (due to staffing issues?).

Not 100% sure, but that's the info I have.

Wow. Thanks for the update.

I'm not completely surprised after the last visit (the dish that lacked it's main featured ingredient).

I hope they can get their act together.

If not, oh well, good Chinese food in Pattaya outside the hiso hotels, not easy.