4 tourists pay THB8,840 for seafood meal

[Johnny S]

Conclusion: They cant Count and BKK restaurants are way too expensive for what you get (so is the hotels btw)

[Shiver]

Aside from the question mark over the numbers not adding up, everyone seems to think this is normal pricing. I compare it to what else could be done for their money. If they ate only once a day it's a quarter million baht per month!, so if they had mama noodles and an egg 3 times a day, after two months they could buy a new small car! (and wouldn't need a tuk tuk anymore).

[Bluespunk]

Sorry, but the bill adds up for me.

Note the 11th line down, just below 'towel' 40. That is service and tax 17%..

Items add up to 6830, for me, then add 10% service, then add a further 7% VAT to that total and it comes to 8040 THB.

So they paid approx 680 baht for service in the main list plus a further 800 baht 'tip' . That is the rip off, not the price of food which is in the right area for a tourist place.

Ah, got it, I saw that as 171 not 17%. Makes more sense now.

Cheers.

[Braddockrd]

Happens in Malaysia all the same. And even more on Singapore! The lesson is, don't order without knowing the price. And if you are acammed, don't pay!

[ToddinChonburi]

Many places in Thailand do not post there prices and yes I do leave.

[mathias67]

I have seen the same prices at the seafood restaurants on walking street in Pattaya.

Go to restaurants on Walking Street and you WILL get charges tourist prices. Plenty of seafood restaurants in Pattaya where the prices are Thai prices and the food as good and sometimes better. But as someone said did you not look at the prices on the menu where you had a choice, pay or leave.

I love seafood and there is a brilliant restaurant just beyond the end of Jomtien beach road. Go to the end of Jomtien beach road and turn left then right and about a couple hundred yards past Tarzan you turn down a sandy track and there is a resaurant on the quay where the boats come. Food great and prices much lower than Walking Street, fish fresh as you cjose from the live tank. When I was in the merchant navy on the old QE I always told new members of the crew NOT to eat on the seafront restaurants but go into the back street areas and if you saw a restaurant with lots of locals eating there it was a good bet you were getting genuine local food at local prices. Always worked for me and my friends

[ratcatcher]

Could be me, but those numbers don't add up to 8,800, even when the tip is included.

It's you and they do.

There are many of these expensive seafood restaurants dotted around Bangkok. Yes, they often take advantage of unsuspecting tourists but no, they are not always a total rip-off.

I have known Thais take people, myself included, to them as a way to thank, or to impress clients, it's a very Chinese/Asian mentality.

It's also true that from the taxi driver up, the very old attitude of equating farangs and tourists with money to burn lives and breathes still.

"It's you and they do." referring to the addition of the menu items?

No, I beg your pardon, but it isn't him (BP) or us, but apparently you if you agree with the total of the bill at B8840.

The rest of your post is true except " they often take advantage of unsuspecting tourists, but no, they are not a total rip-off. "

OK then let's settle for an annoying partial rip -off depending on one's ability to absorb the amount "ripped off and to eradicate the bad taste in one's mouth..

[Equalizer]

You all sound like you all knew everything their is to know about Thailand before you hit the runway on your first trip. In reality you are all probably ''one of those'' who poured your bottle of beer into the wooden check bin cup thinking ''what the hell did they put paper in my glass for DUHH''. They are not as dumb as you are suggesting, eating out in Thailand for the first time is alien to the norm anyway, however these people may have eaten at markets before and been charged accordingly. Seafood markets are usually competitive and reasonably priced so it would come as no shock to over look the norm. P.S all of you who say that 1800baht for snapper is the norm are crazy. Even on weight it would have to be the size of the bloody table.

[Vogele123]

It might be a bit higher priced than what many are used to but I would hardly call it a rip off!

If you buy a kilo of crab, dead, old and not that fresh from somewhere like Tesco it will cost you at least 300 Baht for those little bony spider like things, it isn't that fresh it isn't alive and then you have to cook it!

Then if you take a kilo of crab, by the time you get the meat out of it it is barely enough to feed 2 people, there must be less than 200 Grammes of meat out of the entire thing.

I don't think it is a scam, just possibly at the higher end of the price scale, and as many posters have said, we don't know the quantities (weight) they ordered, nor do we know if they were shown the menu pricing first, if not then tough luck!

Seafood is expensive in many places, I can remember been taken out for a company meal where they ordered that raw lobster on ice, (along with snake blood, snake and snake bile) that lobster cost over 200 USD and it was disgusting.

[piercingpusher]

I think ANYONE who willingly pays those prices in Thailand, no matter what the bloody seafood is, is a fool or has way too much more money than sense, unlike most of us who live here for various reasons one of which is that we can afford to live here rather than rip off UK and particularly as pensioners.

This is one huge rip off indeed. The most I have ever paid for a meal for 4 of us, yes including sea foods and drinks too, is about 1800 Baht and that I cringe at here in Thailand. Normally for a really good very filling meal here just for me with a beer at a nice air con local restaurant or UK pub style bar, costs me around 300 to 400 Baht. Mostly that is also for more expensive farang food too, as I am not a lover of a lot of Thai food because I cannot personally ever eat garlic or onion in food (maybe I am a vampire !!). Thai food without those two for me horrid ingredients can be very nice and I especially do at times enjoy hot food, or "Pet" as they call it here. I for though love most good English food like fIsh'n'chips (Cod or Haddock best),full roast sunday dinner, nice sirloin or fillet steak with Baked Potato and veggies, Toad in the Hole, English sausage and mash. All the food I love and was brought up on as a kid and young adult .

Sad to hear that you cannot afford a really good restaurant..

I have eaten far more expensive food than this, both in Bangkok and in other big cities!

[impulse]

I've had a few business dinners at the big seafood place on Suk Soi 24 (or is it Soi 22?) and I'd be surprised if 4 of us could get out of there for less than 8,000 baht.

So that bill doesn't surprise me at all.

I wouldn't choose the place and I'll never go there on my dime. The food's good, but prices are ridiculous (in local terms, not absolute terms) and it's not that good.

Edited May 18, 2015 by impulse

[tingtongfarang]

Happy i dont eat seafood.

[wooloomooloo]

Ah, got it, I saw that as 171 not 17%. Makes more sense now.

Cheers.

Humble pie is 200 baht with service charge and VAT as an addition.

[lostoday]

I've had a few business dinners at the big seafood place on Suk Soi 24 (or is it Soi 22?) and I'd be surprised if 4 of us could get out of there for less than 8,000 baht.

So that bill doesn't surprise me at all.

I wouldn't choose the place and I'll never go there on my dime. The food's good, but prices are ridiculous (in local terms, not absolute terms) and it's not that good.

I know reading the thread is not mandatory but check the reviews. http://www.tripadvis...et-Bangkok.html

[Guest]

this is such a non topic.

How much did the menu say it would cost?? didnt bother to check then tough. Same as getting in tuk tuk and not setting a price.

Is it a scam - yes, when you have a job interview and discuss your salary, do you honestly say what you think you are worth to the company, or the absolute MAX you think they will pay.

And besides - they never complained about the food, seafood is expensive and if it was decent there is a seafood restaurant here in Phuket I go to that has prices that match this. Better location than BKK i suspect, but it is not WAY over the top.

And if you get taken to place because your taxi driver suggests it - you get what you deserve.

There is a thing called the internet - do some research.

I've been to this restaurant and the prices are marked up to give the impression they are reasonable. The crab for instance would be marked as 300 baht, what they do not tell you this is per 100gm. We lived close to Nam Ma Phim beach in Rayong and that meal would be less than 2000 baht in a restaurant.

As for Phuket prices, if you live there or go on holiday there then you deserve to be ripped off every day. Fish is not expensive.

No, really? SEA food is cheaper in Rayong, on the SEA side?

In Rayong, verses a capital city with 12,000,000 people ...

Go figure? Right?

And since you DO live in Thailand, please do not play stupid and pretend that it is not the custom everywhere to quote high end seafood by the weight, no the piece.

Sea food is cheaper on the sea shore ... thank you for that insight.

[kannot]

Experiencing Thainess, its all part of the campaign to show the world how generous and welcoming Thais are to tourists.

See how they make the 800bht tip mandatory, how much more Thainess can that be

surprised they didnt round the lot up to 9k as you know how tricky it is to use those calculators

[ratcatcher]

I think ANYONE who willingly pays those prices in Thailand, no matter what the bloody seafood is, is a fool or has way too much more money than sense, unlike most of us who live here for various reasons one of which is that we can afford to live here rather than rip off UK and particularly as pensioners.

This is one huge rip off indeed. The most I have ever paid for a meal for 4 of us, yes including sea foods and drinks too, is about 1800 Baht and that I cringe at here in Thailand. Normally for a really good very filling meal here just for me with a beer at a nice air con local restaurant or UK pub style bar, costs me around 300 to 400 Baht. Mostly that is also for more expensive farang food too, as I am not a lover of a lot of Thai food because I cannot personally ever eat garlic or onion in food (maybe I am a vampire !!). Thai food without those two for me horrid ingredients can be very nice and I especially do at times enjoy hot food, or "Pet" as they call it here. I for though love most good English food like fIsh'n'chips (Cod or Haddock best),full roast sunday dinner, nice sirloin or fillet steak with Baked Potato and veggies, Toad in the Hole, English sausage and mash. All the food I love and was brought up on as a kid and young adult .

Sad to hear that you cannot afford a really good restaurant..

I have eaten far more expensive food than this, both in Bangkok and in other big cities!

Congratulations, you are obviously considerably richer than rayw.

Rather like Harry Enfield i suspect.

[connda]

this is such a non topic.

How much did the menu say it would cost?? didnt bother to check then tough. Same as getting in tuk tuk and not setting a price.

Is it a scam - yes, when you have a job interview and discuss your salary, do you honestly say what you think you are worth to the company, or the absolute MAX you think they will pay.

And besides - they never complained about the food, seafood is expensive and if it was decent there is a seafood restaurant here in Phuket I go to that has prices that match this. Better location than BKK i suspect, but it is not WAY over the top.

And if you get taken to place because your taxi driver suggests it - you get what you deserve.

There is a thing called the internet - do some research.

Sorry, but I've been to restaurants in the US where those prices would not have been exceptional 10 years ago if not longer. And a 10% tip tacked on too. It would be 15% in the States. Caveat emptor.

This is another non-story. Somebody obviously has a bone to pick (perhaps a fish-bone) with the seafood restaurant industry. Don't like the prices? Do your homework before you eat at the restaurant. Silly nonsense imho.

[Tecumseh]

Nothing new here to see ... move along.

2,500 viewers disagree.

[Guest]

Experiencing Thainess, its all part of the campaign to show the world how generous and welcoming Thais are to tourists.

See how they make the 800bht tip mandatory, how much more Thainess can that be

surprised they didnt round the lot up to 9k as you know how tricky it is to use those calculators

Kannot - 3,521 of these ridiculous posts. Do you ever tire of the same sad and silly song?

I am so lucky that the few Farang I socialize with, really love Thailand, their wives, and the fantastic lives they have here.

The rest of my friends are Thai so resilience and optimism they have an abundance of. I am really blessed and being in Thailand has been the best part of my life.

You, on the other hand, remind me of a saying I came up with folks like you.

"Every silver lining ... needs a cloud .. thanks for stopping by."

You probly think I will close with "Don't let the dooe hit you on the arse."

No way, PLEASE STAY in a land you despise and suffer for it, stupid looks good on you !!!

[wooloomooloo]

Forget about the TripAdvisor reviews as there's no evidence that the customers slated the food, drinks or service.

They scoffed the lot and decided that they didn't like the bill. Tough titty.

Cheap Charlie's on their cheap vacations wander in to any old establishment and want something for nothing.

The Thais should be pushing back on their review and responding that the Malays/Chinese are giving their citizens a bad reputation.

[flyingdoc]

How can this possibly be newsworthy?

[Bluespunk]

Humble pie is 200 baht with service charge and VAT as an addition.

Yeah, you could gloat if you'd been able to point out where I went wrong, but you couldn't.

Maybe if you'd read my post and realised I wasn't arguing about the cost but rather the numbers you wouldn't have to rely on my response to some one else's more intelligent post to get your little victory dance.

Sad.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Bluespunk

[Guest]

Too many HiSo crab guzzling posters here with too much time on their hands and too much money in their pocket.

You forgot the champagne and a dazzling Thai girl to spend that candlelight dinner with.

Oh, FairyNuff, you are beautiful when you are jealous!

In your honor, tonight I will have an extra helping of crab, and if it OK, make it a surf and turf with New Zealand lamb. A bottle of the bubbly to start, and after dinner, a nice Armagnac with a # 5 Monte Cristo.

Then off to a nice rooftop to listen to jazz, before Miss Thailand (sorry to say, third runner up) and I retire for the evening.

Do stop by the cigar club some time old boy !

[Bluespunk]

Forget about the TripAdvisor reviews as there's no evidence that the customers slated the food, drinks or service.

They scoffed the lot and decided that they didn't like the bill. Tough titty.

Cheap Charlie's on their cheap vacations wander in to any old establishment and want something for nothing.

The Thais should be pushing back on their review and responding that the Malays/Chinese are giving their citizens a bad reputation.

True not all queried the food quality but some did.

The most common complaint I read though was the manipulative way the true cost was disguised.

As I say, doesn't seem to be too much to me, but there are ways to do business and ways not to.

[NickJ]

You could spend 1000 b for one large crab in Hua Hin At the rip-off waterfront seafood places .......

[MJKT2014]

Having been in Thailand for 35 years, the only time my Thai family pays a tip is when there is no service charge included. If there's service charge we collect all the change. In this case the 10% service charge was applied and then 7% tax applied to the service charged total (but they just list it as 17% all in). It costs more applying the 10% before the 7% which is what they did and the total of 8039THB is correct. Then they added 801THB tip and not 800THB as listed. That said in my 35 years I have never seen a tip demanded or specified by amount especially after a service charge has been applied. In others countries I have been I am usually allowed to decide what the tip is!

The whole story here is not news however as it is simply some clueless foreigners getting taken fro a ride by Tuk-Tuk and having to pay for the Tuk-Tuks service in an underhand manner by the restaurant to the tune of 801THB tip. For that the restaurant gets nil points for customer service from me and is off our list of places to dine.

[CindyB]

this is such a non topic.

How much did the menu say it would cost?? didnt bother to check then tough. Same as getting in tuk tuk and not setting a price.

Is it a scam - yes, when you have a job interview and discuss your salary, do you honestly say what you think you are worth to the company, or the absolute MAX you think they will pay.

And besides - they never complained about the food, seafood is expensive and if it was decent there is a seafood restaurant here in Phuket I go to that has prices that match this. Better location than BKK i suspect, but it is not WAY over the top.

And if you get taken to place because your taxi driver suggests it - you get what you deserve.

There is a thing called the internet - do some research.

I'm in Phuket, not BKK, but here most seafood is priced per 100 grams, not kilogram. I know nothing of this restaurant or its menu. HOWEVER, Westerners are accustomed to paying per kilogram or pound, not per 100 grams. The shrimp at my local restaurant states the price as 300 baht. If you didn't realize that's for 100 grams, you may be finding yourself paying 100 USD for a kilogram of shrimp. I believe it's just a ploy to get big money from foreigners, sad to say.

[wooloomooloo]

Humble pie is 200 baht with service charge and VAT as an addition.

Yeah, you could gloat if you'd been able to point out where I went wrong, but you couldn't.

Maybe if you'd read my post and realised I wasn't arguing about the cost but rather the numbers you wouldn't have to rely on my response to some one else's more intelligent post to get your little victory dance.

Sad.

I told you to look at #1 item on the bill and work your way through and repeated it at least twice but wasn't going to do your math for you. I'm not arguing with you as I already spotted your error.

I did mention the service and VAT charge but you didn't listen.

So, you are saying that I'm your maths teacher now? Notwithstanding your general argumentative attitude on this forum. Get a grip.

Edited May 18, 2015 by wooloomooloo

[Boatfreak]

Seems like everybody find it normal that they add their own tip as they were satisfied with their own service. Yes the prices might be same as London and I assume the toilets were as clean as in London too and the service as efficient.....