Restaurant Menus

[pdimond]

My Thai Partner and I enjoy eating out a great deal, and visit many restaurants in the city. One thing that we have both noticed is that many foreign food restaurants do not even bother to make a Thai language menu.

My girlfriend is bothered by this a great deal. She is fluent in both English and French (lived abroad), so has zero difficulty comprehending any menu. The issue for her is a respect one. She is of the opinion that a restaurant doing business in Thailand should at lest make the effort to create a menu in the Thai language- a point that I agree with. I would feel quite upset if I went to a Chinese restaurant at home and was told that no English menu was created.

She has begun to speak to the managers in English and explain why she will not be returning again, even though the food was superb, and there are certain excellent restaurants that we do not patronise anymore for this reason.

How do you feel on the subject? Has your partner ever mentioned it, or even been made to feel embarassed because they could not understand the menu?

Also, does anyone notice that when dining in some restaurants, your Thai companions will automatically be given the shitty menu of ten 'token' Thai dishes.. This is another thing that pisses her off... Why in the hel_l would she go to an English pub to eat a crappy 80 baht dish of gaprow gai?

[Jingthing]

I agree with your girlfriend. However, I would never go so far as avoiding a good restaurant though due to the lack of a menu in my language. I came upon this same issue quite often in Chinese restaurtants in the US. Some of these places didn't even welcome non-Chinese and made that clear. Others were welcoming, but provided a dumbed down American menu of Americanized Chinese food. Often these are the best Chinese restaurants in town. So what I did was get some help from Chinese people, learn enough about the food to order off the menu, and best of all POINT at dishes on other tables of food that looked good. It always offended me that these restaurants did not bother to provide a translated menu in the language of the home country they were doing business in, English, but to avoid these places would have been a loss for me, so all I did was suggest to them that they translate their menu. No restaurant ever did take my suggestion. They didn't need the non-Chinese trade badly enough. The reality was actually, that the non-Chinese interested in their more sophisticated dishes were not so great in numbers. No excuse though. It is a respect thing.

Edited December 19, 2006 by Jingthing

[pdimond]

words words words..... No excuse though. It is a respect thing.

Hmm.. I would suggest that the Chinese community does not always enjoy the best reputation in some parts of America, just as Farangs do not always have the best image in some parts of Thailand... Perhaps this has something to do with the attitude dispayed in the restaurant culture.

Personally, I believe that there is little reason not to have a translated menu.. Excellent translation is quite cheap, and the cost of doing the same menu in two versions at the printer's is neglible when you consider the great cost of creating a new menu. For me, it rings of a "Whites Only" attitude. No manager, when questioned, has ever been able to give a good answer at all, nor have they said much of any answer.... except for a sorry and the occaison offer of discount (which is even more insulting!).

[Jingthing]

Yes, of course I totally agree, there is no excuse. But I still think if you really like the restaurant you should just bite the bullet and eat there anyway. It doesn't make any difference to these places if you go or don't go. Life isn't always fair, in Thailand or the west.

[PhilHarries]

I agree that it is disrespectful and downright rude but unfortunately many places, not only restaurants, operate along these lines. Maybe these businesses target the farang tourist trade and consider any Thai customers as a bonus. If that's the way they want to operate that's their choice and they sink or swim according to market forces. But are the management of these places Thai or farang?

Sometimes it is a status thing. When I was in Japan once we passed a shop advertising "Wedding Cakes" with the rest of the advert in Japanese. I asked a colleague why? Oh it's seen as a sign of high quality and class to have English language on the shop signs.

Also, does anyone notice that when dining in some restaurants, your Thai companions will automatically be given the shitty menu of ten 'token' Thai dishes.. This is another thing that pisses her off... Why in the hel_l would she go to an English pub to eat a crappy 80 baht dish of gaprow gai?

The same as in a Thai restaurant we'll get the shiny farang tourist Thai food menu while our partner gets the full monty. Many times my missus has got dishes that I didn't see on my version of the menu. "Ah, you only have farang menu" she'd tell me so I'd always ask her what's on the full menu.

Again if you go into an English pub in Thailand they are catering predominantly for the farangs and the Thai food, as you say, is only a token effort. Maybe it's would be better to agree before going out, Thai or farang food? Then go to a Thai restaurant for Thai food and farang for whatever they serve up.