Dao Café

Not fancy but fiercely French

The Dining Out team was told about a little French restaurant called Dao Café in Chatkaew Village Number 9 off Soi Khao Noi. Nothing flash, but good food and great value was the promise, so we decided to go along and see just what Dao Caf้é was all about.

Some directions first. Soi Khao Noi is around half way between Central Pattaya Road and South Pattaya Road, but on the left side of Sukhumvit Road outbound, past Nakornchai Air Bus station. There is a red Seven-11 on the corner (though there seems to be Seven-11’s on every corner these days!). Left into the soi (which is also signposted as Soi Boonsampan!), and past the (in) famous Formosa Massage, over the railway line and continue along until 1.2 km from Sukhumvit there is another Seven-11 where you turn left into Chatkaew Village Number 9 markets (but the sign is only in Thai). The road is dreadful, with holes so deep there is Peruvian music coming from some of them. You have been warned. Up to the top of the hill and Dao Caf้é comes into view on the left side. Park on the street.

You enter through a portal and inside is an L shaped swimming pool, with tables and chairs, also in an L shape around it. There is a sit-up bar along one side, and on our night, several Frenchmen in the pool. The tables and chairs are those heavy wooden Chinese style furniture, and a woven placemat is put down in front of you after your order. There is also salt and pepper, plus a pepper grinder, oregano dispenser and a bottle with olive oil. Serviceable cutlery completes the package.

The menu is not large and begins with drinks, with Chang beer at B. 45 and the Oh-So-French Pastis or Ricard at B. 60. House wine is B. 65 per glass. Various salads are between B. 55-110, while steaks range between B. 170-215 done in various French ways (such as blue cheese or red wine). Snacks, burgers and baguettes are also inexpensive at B. 55-85, followed by pizzas (B. 120-195) and then three pages of Thai favorites with everything under B. 80.

Madame decided on a seafood pizza, being told it was “medium sized”, while I decided that the top of the menu steak with blue cheese was mine.

If the Dao Café pizza that arrived on its wooden platter was “medium”, I would hate to try a “large”! It was well cooked, prepared on the spot, with lashings of cheese, plenty of prawns, tuna and squid. It received Madame’s approval, and the slice I tried was very flavorsome.

The steak came with a garden salad on the side, and a container with some good thick slices of fresh French bread. But the steak! This came on a large plate with a good sized steak covered with thick melted blue cheese, and the other half of the plate being French fries (even if the Belgians did invent them). The steak was ‘medium’ as requested and tender, and the blue cheese was not overpowering. The only disappointment was the fries, that were a little too soggy for my liking. However, the steak, cheese and salad made up for it. I used the bread to mop up the last of the cheese. Superb!

Dao Café was certainly not expensive (the most expensive item is only B. 215). It is certainly French, and the owner, a reasonably rotund gentleman (never trust a skinny French cook) admitted he could not speak English. Since my French is these days of the “plume de ma tante” fluency, we ended up smiling at each other and I left him repairing the light in the gentleman’s loo.

It was, as we had been told, nothing fancy, but it certainly provided some great food (other than the French fries) and the value was there. I would go back again, even if just for the steak with blue cheese. Well worth the trip.

Dao Café้, 18/382 Chatkaew Village 9, off Soi Khao Noi, Central Pattaya, telephone 038 427 041. On street parking. Open seven days from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m.