Dear Hillary,
We are coming over to Thailand for a holiday at Xmas and having three weeks in Pattaya and the last one in Phuket. Any ideas on restaurants we should try. We like the fine dining because it is so much cheaper than home (Melbourne, Australia).
Wayne and Marjory
Dear Wayne and Marjory,
I am delighted to see that Australians are coming over to Thailand because it is “so much cheaper”. Not just the dining out scene, my Petals, but almost everything else is cheaper too. People come to Thailand just to get their teeth fixed! Did you know that? And the ladies from Australia come for cosmetic surgery too. There are so many great places to eat that it is hard for me to start, but if you go to the Dining Out column in the Pattaya Mail you get a weekly restaurant review, and since you will be reading it on-line, you can work backwards (instead of upside-down) and read all of this year’s reviews. I suggest you make sure you try the Dusit Thani’s Saturday BBQ around the pool, the Amari Resort’s Mantra, the Hilton’s Flare and their Sunday Brunch, the Royal Cliff’s Grill Room and Wine Cellar, Casa Pascal, Mata Hari and Gian’s Italian restaurant. There are more but those are the ones that come straight to mind. Stepping down from the ‘fine dining’ bracket there are many other interesting restaurants in Pattaya, with Jameson’s Irish Pub’s weekly specials difficult to beat, Don Joe’s Italian restaurant on Walking Street, Pizza Pizza in the Avenue Shopping Center and the D2’s s.e.a. restaurant next door to that. As I said, read the reviews, Petals. Now I’m sorry I can’t help you about Phuket, as I don’t go there (why would I when I live in Pattaya?), but watch out for brains left at the airport!
