Pupen Seafood Restaurant In Jomtien

[jiz]

About 5 years was my Pupens experience.  

I didn’t know there were that many flies in all of Thailand.  

Never seen anything like it before. Perhaps it was a seasonal thing or an unusually bad day for flies. 

Disgusting.  

 

 

[gusincebu]

A point worth mentioning. Do not tip when you pay your tab. Let the server bring you the change. Put the tip directly in their hand. That way they get the money, not the restaurant to be split up, maybe. Also, never include the tip on a credit card for the same reason.

While I often do that in the bar ..I tend not to in Restaurants..
My current regular friend works in a well known farang restaurant as a cashier ..day shift .
Apart from cashier duties ..she , makes coffee, makes desserts, shakes and fruit drinks, keeps Beer and Soda fridges refilled.. works her ass off ! Much harder than any of the service staff.
( And at the end of her shift , her money HAS to balance )

She has no direct customer contact .
Fortunately for her, her workplace has a split the tips policy ,where cook , dishwasher and cashier get included in the split up .
I'm sure they do miss out on the sleight of hand tips though ..for sure.

Pupen ..been once and enjoyed it.
It is worth the trip out there especially if with a group.


Sent from my Mi A2 Lite using Tapatalk

[ChiFlyer]

11 hours ago, gusincebu said:

While I often do that in the bar ..I tend not to in Restaurants..
.......
 

I am not perfect about this and play it a little by ear. If the sever was good, I do what I said and then put 40 in the packet they bring the bill in for the house staff. If the server was average or below, but the overall experience was pretty decent, I put the tip in the packet for the general staff.

 

[ChiFlyer]

14 hours ago, jiz said:

About 5 years was my Pupens experience.  

I didn’t know there were that many flies in all of Thailand.  

Never seen anything like it before. Perhaps it was a seasonal thing or an unusually bad day for flies. 

Disgusting. 

Sounds like a bad flies day. I have heard others say this, but during 12 visits I have never had this problem. I have noticed that in general flies can get worse about an hour before sunset. They tend to lighten up after that and a decent breeze helps a lot.

[ChiFlyer]

We stopped in at Pupen's on Sunday evening. In case anyone does not know it, this is a very popular Thai Seafood place. Not a lot of Farangs here. The food was as good as ever and no flies at all.

We like to get there a little before sundown in order to watch the sun go down over the Ocean. We had 4 people there (2 Thai ladies and 2 Farang guys). We went a little overboard with the amount of food we ordered and this brought the bill up to about 2500. A few pics.

Sundown view from across the street.

Some food pics.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by ChiFlyer

[davidge]

I went to Pupen tonight with a friend and his wife. His wife wanted seafood before they go back to Udon.

It was very busy indeed, perhaps to be expected on a Saturday night. It was very, very hot and there was a very bad Thai band playing loudly. In terms of comfort and atmosphere it was like sitting at a picnic table, in a sauna, whilst being subjected to CIA noise torture.

I wasn’t exactly sure how we were ordering. I guess I thought we’d all be sharing but in the event the wife ordered 2 plates of cockles and a plate of oysters for herself so my friend and I shared everything else. There was far too much food.

In keeping with my promise to myself to be slightly more adventurous, I ordered a crab dish as well as my usual fish dish. I’d never eaten crab before. I even tried one of the cockles. It immediately brought back memories of my childhood by the sea in Mumbles and the reason I stopped eating cockles about 50 years ago. It was just like eating a slimy piece of rubber washed down with a glass of sea water.

(we’d both helped ourselves to the crab before I remembered to take the photo)

The food came in dribs and drabs rather than all together but was all served hot (well, except the shellfish 🙂).

The cockles arrived first and then the rice and the fish. The sea bass in Soy sauce was absolutely excellent. We both really enjoyed it and polished it off. Meanwhile the oysters arrived. 

Just after finishing the fish, the crab arrived. It was fine, we both enjoyed it but I’m not jumping out of my seat to try crab again.

Quite a number of minutes after we’d finished the crab the mixed vegetables, which I’d ordered to go with the fish (that we ate half an hour previously!), arrived. Then a few minutes later the chicken cashew, which I hadn’t realised my friend’s wife had ordered for us, arrived. At this point it was sheer gluttony as I’d already eaten far too much. However, we managed to finish off all the veg and most of the chicken between us. We also shared 2 jugs of Heineken (about 2 pints each). 

Quite honestly, the fish with the vegetables and rice would have been plenty.

The bill for everything was around 2700 baht.

[ChiFlyer]

24 minutes ago, davidge said:

I went to Pupen tonight with a friend and his wife. His wife wanted seafood before they go back to Udon.

It was very busy indeed, perhaps to be expected on a Saturday night. It was very, very hot and there was a very bad Thai band playing loudly. In terms of comfort and atmosphere it was like sitting at a picnic table, in a sauna, whilst being subjected to CIA noise torture.

I wasn’t exactly sure how we were ordering. I guess I thought we’d all be sharing but in the event the wife ordered 2 plates of cockles and a plate of oysters for herself so my friend and I shared everything else. There was far too much food.

In keeping with my promise to myself to be slightly more adventurous, I ordered a crab dish as well as my usual fish dish. I’d never eaten crab before. I even tried one of the cockles. It immediately brought back memories of my childhood by the sea in Mumbles and the reason I stopped eating cockles about 50 years ago. It was just like eating a slimy piece of rubber washed down with a glass of sea water.

(we’d both helped ourselves to the crab before I remembered to take the photo)

The food came in dribs and drabs rather than all together but was all served hot (well, except the shellfish 🙂).

The cockles arrived first and then the rice and the fish. The sea bass in Soy sauce was absolutely excellent. We both really enjoyed it and polished it off. Meanwhile the oysters arrived. 

Just after finishing the fish, the crab arrived. It was fine, we both enjoyed it but I’m not jumping out of my seat to try crab again.

Quite a number of minutes after we’d finished the crab the mixed vegetables, which I’d ordered to go with the fish (that we ate half an hour previously!), arrived. Then a few minutes later the chicken cashew, which I hadn’t realised my friend’s wife had ordered for us, arrived. At this point it was sheer gluttony as I’d already eaten far too much. However, we managed to finish off all the veg and most of the chicken between us. We also shared 2 jugs of Heineken (about 2 pints each). 

Quite honestly, the fish with the vegetables and rice would have been plenty.

The bill for everything was around 2700 baht.

Since my last post in 2020 the Mrs and I have become disenchanted with Pupens. During and after Covid the quality of the food and also the service went South. We almost never go there now.

If you have a car available a couple of places with similar formats that we like better are:

• Aow Talay in Bang Saray
• Preecha's in Na Jomtien

I have posted about both of these places.

 

 

[simon1]

Preecha Seafood has the large selection of live seafood tanks, highly recommend for seafood lovers that enjoy Thai or Chinese style seafood preparation, 35 min off HWY. 3 drive from Central Pattaya, I don’t think Pupen , one can choose specific live seafood.

[ChiFlyer]

On 08/07/2023 at 22:52, davidge said:

I went to Pupen tonight with a friend and his wife. His wife wanted seafood before they go back to Udon.

It was very busy indeed, perhaps to be expected on a Saturday night. It was very, very hot and there was a very bad Thai band playing loudly. In terms of comfort and atmosphere it was like sitting at a picnic table, in a sauna, whilst being subjected to CIA noise torture.

I wasn’t exactly sure how we were ordering. I guess I thought we’d all be sharing but in the event the wife ordered 2 plates of cockles and a plate of oysters for herself so my friend and I shared everything else. There was far too much food.

In keeping with my promise to myself to be slightly more adventurous, I ordered a crab dish as well as my usual fish dish. I’d never eaten crab before. I even tried one of the cockles. It immediately brought back memories of my childhood by the sea in Mumbles and the reason I stopped eating cockles about 50 years ago. It was just like eating a slimy piece of rubber washed down with a glass of sea water.

(we’d both helped ourselves to the crab before I remembered to take the photo)

The food came in dribs and drabs rather than all together but was all served hot (well, except the shellfish 🙂).

The cockles arrived first and then the rice and the fish. The sea bass in Soy sauce was absolutely excellent. We both really enjoyed it and polished it off. Meanwhile the oysters arrived. 

Just after finishing the fish, the crab arrived. It was fine, we both enjoyed it but I’m not jumping out of my seat to try crab again.

Quite a number of minutes after we’d finished the crab the mixed vegetables, which I’d ordered to go with the fish (that we ate half an hour previously!), arrived. Then a few minutes later the chicken cashew, which I hadn’t realised my friend’s wife had ordered for us, arrived. At this point it was sheer gluttony as I’d already eaten far too much. However, we managed to finish off all the veg and most of the chicken between us. We also shared 2 jugs of Heineken (about 2 pints each). 

Quite honestly, the fish with the vegetables and rice would have been plenty.

The bill for everything was around 2700 baht.

A problem with places like Pupen's is it seems that one always ends up ordering too much food. I was surprised to read that your friend's wife was not thinking family style. That is our modus operandi, especially when treating Thai friends.

I usually order a fish dish as my main meal as well and share it with others. I like mine done in a sweet and sour sauce with pineapple. I prefer Grouper, but sometimes it is not available so I go with Baramundi (Sea Bass). Most of these places serve Kaou Phat Poo (fried rice with crab). I prefer to get my crab that way. It is also good diced in a curry IMO.

I like oysters, but I do not like the ones served at Pupen's. They serve very large chewy ones. I much prefer the smaller French style oysters that are served at Cafe des Amis (a much different kind of place for sure). I read that oysters can help get one's Viagra jump started.

A dish that I Iike at Pupen's is the open scallop shells topped with cheese and spinach. Don't order a bunch. They are filling.

[mmaaarrrkkk]

On 08/07/2023 at 23:52, davidge said:

I’d never eaten crab before.

What? 🤣

[mmaaarrrkkk]

On 09/07/2023 at 00:22, ChiFlyer said:

Since my last post in 2020 the Mrs and I have become disenchanted with Pupens. During and after Covid the quality of the food and also the service went South. We almost never go there now.

A victim of its own success? I didnt eat there till it got famous and thought it was ordinary ..... not bad but nothing special except for the beach view and the instagram crab.