Ta Hai Brings Authentic Chinese Food to Jomtien (Chaiyapruek)

[khunjamesjohnson]

Noodle Pulling Demo

[thairastawoman]

This place is good and do not charge for bringing your own wine...

[Jingthing]

It really pleases me that more people are "discovering" this new restaurant and are enjoying the place. The Chinese food scene in town just keeps getting better and better. No, it's not Bangkok, Singapore, Shanghai, or Hong Kong and it never will be ... but at least now the options are growing. I don't really count luxury hotel Chinese restaurants. To me Chinese food should be available everywhere at down to earth prices just like Thai food.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

OMG! If so it was only open for about a month.

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[balo]

Noooo , just read the entire thread and now this bad news ? As a Jomtien resident I was planning to eat here every week .

[Jingthing]

I got the hint they were disappointed in the volume of the business. If I had known something like this was up I would have posted sooner if it may have helped. Who ever heard of a place like this with a full menu quitting so soon? Shocking. Yet another hard lesson if you like a local restaurant eat there now!

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Edited October 1, 2014 by Jingthing

[SurfRider]

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Might be best to double check and make sure he's referring to the right place. I ate there yesterday, mid-afternoon and everything appeared normal - had three customers at an off hour.

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[SurfRider]

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They must not have had much experience running a restaurant. Open during slow season in an out of the way location with little or no promotion and without enough perseverance to survive for at least 6 months - they were flirting with failure.

I agree that the Rompho area would have likely produced a much different result. I've seen places surviving there with seemingly VERY few customers.
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[Jingthing]

Truth in posting ... the nice English speaking waitress let slip something about the ownership and what seemed like the beginning of a small hint that something was up. I immediately responded ... are you are saying this place is closing? She backed off and communication ended. I should have known!

Still hoping this is a bad dream (the closing) but I reckon not.

Actually there was another recent case of a full menu restaurant opening and closing almost instantly. It was called (ironically) PARADISE. It was an Indian restaurant in a bad location. I figured with the location and optimistic name the menu must be something special. I looked at it. Not special so never even tried it. It was open and closed in a blink.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

Hey, just a crazy thought ...

Any budding restaurateurs here who want to open a Chinese restaurant in a better location in Jomtien?

Maybe the CHEFS are available now!

I would promise to eat there 2 or 3 times a week so that's a start, as long as same food and prices!

Edited October 1, 2014 by Jingthing

[thairastawoman]

So ridiculous if they really close, I can't believe it !

Any restaurant could survive with good marketing and advertising, but try to explain this to local Thai...

[khunjamesjohnson]

There is a shophouses for rent just a few door down from The Continental.

That would be a good place. No?

[Awohalitsiktoli]

So ridiculous if they really close, I can't believe it !

Any restaurant could survive with good marketing and advertising, but try to explain this to local Thai...

I went there this afternoon and tried to talk with one of the workers. Yes, the place is closed now. Why? I did not get an answer. They were busy stacking up tables when I went there. Some signs are still out front. I expect it will be an empty shell soon.

[Jingthing]

So sad. I really don't get it. New business. Good product. Good prices. People were starting to discover it. It seems insane to invest in a new place and give up so fast.

Of course I personally feel burned for bothering to post so much detailed information about this place. Of course I thought it was worthy. But if they weren't even going to bother staying open, apparently not.

Note to mods: You might as well close this thread. It's a dead restaurant

Edited October 2, 2014 by Jingthing

[mexxx]

seen this happen in udon thani a few times. same theme everytime. proprietors dont agree to the amount being demanded to stay open so have to close pronto or the enforcers come a knockin.

[Beardog]

Too bad I wanted to check this place out today:(

It has to be one of the 2 hardest business to get established & keep running. Bars & Restaurants really require the luck of everything on the planet to have it work out.

[khunjamesjohnson]

Very strange to close up so quickly.

I know most new business get hassled critter by the music police.

They have ruined many business.

Could this be the case here.

[Jingthing]

There was no music being played so that wasn't it.

The "hint" I referred to before was something about the owner also being the owner of the location ... so that might rule out high rent as well.

The mystery to me isn't so much restaurants closing ... restaurants often fail ... rather the SPEED of the closure. It's not nothing to open a restaurant and they clearly were getting some customers. So there was hope. That doesn't necessarily mean they were making a profit in the first month. That's a very unrealistic expectation for any new business.

[besth]

I ate there a few days ago and really enjoyed it. I liked the food and thought the

prices were good.

Went there again today and was very surprised that they are already out of business.

Staff (male, not the cute waitress) was still there but explained that they won't be opening again.

I tried to ask if the cooks were part of the business (as in partners or family) or just employees and

they might be opening or working in a different location soon, but did not get an answer. It would be nice

if that was the case. Sadly only had the chance to try it once, but by far the best Chinese food I've had

in Pattaya.

[Jingthing]

Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed by this. Did they have a potential gold mine keeping open? OK, probably not, but I think they had the potential of a viable business.

[besth]

Another thing I would like to say, maybe a bit off topic, is that the location was not so bad

for residents.

Difficult to find and away from the tourist walk ins probably yes, but if they had stayed for

a bit longer it was quite convenient. Not far from Baht bus routes for those who favor them

and very easy to park either there or by the beach.

As said in my previous message, if anyone can find out if the chefs open or go to work to

any other restaurant in town, it would be nice to know.

[Jingthing]

An option for similar food at a similar price point is already Shanghai Restaurant, on 3rd road, near North Pattaya Road.

I didn't say this before but in my opinion the hand pulled noodles at Shanghai are somewhat better than Ta Hai's were.

Particularly the stewed beef with hand pulled noodles in soup.

Ta Hai's noodles seemed too "mushy" to me.

But Shanghai is far from perfect. In fact had a Kung Pao chicken there last night and it was unacceptably greasy.

So generally I think the Sechuan style dishes were better at defunct Ta Hai than the alive Shanghai.

It was dish by dish. The vegetable filled buns at Shanghai are way too sweet, the ones at Ta Hai were appropriately not sweet.

Well, that little "competition" is over now!

It is strange indeed to "review" a dead restaurant's food.

Shanghai's obvious success is proof that this kind of food at a similar price point can definitely work in this area. They have the advantage of a bigger location which works if you're filling the seats, which they are. Still that's another reason I remain shocked that Ta Hai closed so quickly. Surely the owner knew about Shanghai, similar food and prices, and clearly doing very well ... in a far away part of town so not really direct competition geographically ... why give up so fast!?!

I agree Ta Hai's location had benefits ... being close to beach road and baht bus access of course.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Jingthing

[Beardog]

Maybe the owner crunched the numbers & just decided to cut his losses. Years ago I got & refurbished a building on KhoaTalo

on the dark side Good location but after we opened 5 other shops sprung up in a 2 block area. we saw a loss coming & closed immediately. All the beauty salons in the are soon after either close or got used to making 5000 baht a month after expenses. So even when everything in Pattaya- (I would consider BKK way different other than both being cities) You need like Tomster says not only all the above mentioned but you need to be the luckiest Farang or Non Farang to make it up here.

But you can be sure the owner saw un-fortold losses & not much returns to pay for the investment.

Who knows if he hunk on for a while with TV folks he may have turned the tide. But from what I know about the restaurant biz . The 1st year do not expect profit , year 2 maybe a bit & the 3rd year you start showing good returns on the investment. All in all this is a loss to Pattaya as real Chinese or Mexican is at a huge premium here. BKK no problem plenty of masses to sell to.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Beardog

[Jingthing]

Bottom line ... my guess is this closing was based on something not to do with long term profit potential (because it was clearly there) but more of a specific PERSONAL reason. Of course, "free country" he can do what he likes, but this is a real culinary loss for people in Jomtien.

[Jingthing]

SHANGHAI RESTAURANT (3rd Road) the restaurant this thread is about (name was changed to Shanghai) now has a NEW MENU.

It is basically a compilation of their original menu with the new side card menu, and overall a lot fewer dishes.

But I think most of the best ones are still there so no worries.

Also they have highlighted the suggested dishes with a label: CHEF RECOMMENDS.

I mostly agree with those labels.

Recently went there and it was packed so there were service issues ... maybe better to go when they are less busy.

Anyway, good for them ... they seem to be succeeding.