Tripadvisor No1?

[Bitchslap]

Has anyone been to the current no1 restaurant in Pattaya?

 

Cafe des Amis

 

Haven't been but no11 yes....Taste of Thialand Soi13.....Love it

[RussB]

Yes, the Cafe des Amis is excellent. Good for a special occasion as it's quite expensive. I think the bill for 2 came to around 4500, but that included a bottle of wine which is always overpriced due to the high import taxes in Thailand.

Personally I thought it was good value as it was every bit as good as a high end restaurant in London.

[Christie]

Its not worth going out of your way for (which it is). If you did visit what did you think?

[Eddie9]

I'll tell you one thing about Café de Paris, (I went last night), the menu fails to state that prices are excluding VAT at 7%, which you learn when you get the bill. No great good faith between customer and restaurant then.

[ZeroCicero]

I've been there twice, its among the best restaurants I've been to. Cost me like three or four thousand bath last time though, but totally worth it. 

[Eddie9]

As you come in there's a corner bar. An attractive Thai woman was serving, in a halter-top little black dress, diamond earrings and piled-up hair, before three huge farangs at barstool and her laughter was like something played on the high keys of a piano by Gershwin. It's nice sometimes to dress up and this is certainly a place to do that, where diners are well-turned out and on their best behaviour. There's good linen on the table and well-trained staff.

 

But for me I don't like innovation in the kitchen unless there's real talent in it. Too many chefs are out of their depth putting their ideas on the classics and ruining them. My prawn & avocado was a misuse of both prawn and avocado; the duck breast a l'orange lacked sauce, as is often the way with these sorts of kitchen. Instead melting camembert was lumped with the potatoes - tasty but not commanding respect. The cheesecake was leaden and the base did not have an enjoyable texture. Low score on the food then, a dogs breakfast when you come down to it. The cheaper of the two house wines, both red and white, were superb and not bad value at BHT 180.

 

As luck would have it a worm-like bug landed on my plate. I was eating inside. Perhaps it dropped from the ceiling and it was wriggling trying to move but seemed to have got its head stuck to the enamel. I called over a waiter for assistance, a smart young Thai man with slicked back hair. He took one look and said, 'OH GOD.' I must say that OH GOD alone made Café des Amis worthwhile. I mean how many other Thai waiters in Pattaya would be capable of saying OH GOD.

[Christie]

Wellsa, great post and I totally understand what you are saying.... I agree with you on the food at Cafe De Amis. Lets face it - the setting is lovely, but I was never impressed with the food either. The staff are great, but then they are also great at Matahari and Casa Pascal and I am sure a few other places. It almost seems like people convince themselves the food is amazing just because they went to the trouble to visit this place off the beaten track and they were determined to have a good experience. Same phenomenon would apply to Au Bon Coin which also has people rave about what is basically not much more than basic home cooking served by grumpy disinterested staff in the middle of nowhere.

 

There is however, alot to be said for having the owner of the restaurant present to sort out issues and generally chat with customers. I personally think Cafe De Amis is a very good restaurant, but its definitely not as amazing as the Tripadvisor reviews would suggest. I went there (Cafe De Amis) for the last time on my last trip. Having said that, clearly I am in the minority and if all those people really enjoyed it that much - good on them.

[sneradog]

Looking objectively, the setting is very nice and the food is competent. Would it stand out in Manhattan or London?-no chance in hell! But in Pattaya, there really is no real gourmet/high end Western cuisine available, so in the sea of mediocrity it is one of the best. Ultimately, it is the largest fish in a small pond, and if you are coming from a large Western city on vacation it will not bowl you over, but compared to other restaurant in Pattaya only, it is one of the better ones.

[Eddie9]

By the way, anyone with BHT 1,000 in their pocket on their way to Buondi da Noong, or BHT 4,000 in their pocket on their way to Café des Amis, might like to walk a few yards down soi 11 from Thappaya and make a preprandial inspection of an interesting building. This is an Arabic Palace of some sort, on five floors in tan brick with a garden, the whole compound enclosed in a wall fifteen-foot high in places, with rooms enough inside for a harem of a hundred. There are three entrances. The most interesting is on soi 11, where there’s a gate with the name El Medina. The wall has a mosaic of camels walking through the desert. Two seven-foot high plaster casts of desert warriors with swords unsheathed and shemaghs wound around their heads covering all but their eyes, convey a distinct air of unfriendliness. Down the soi a step further is a barn door into the wall marked Cyber Research Centre, fitted with a sliding observation hatch – beloved of movies and the only one I ever saw was at the door of a loathsome provincial brothel in the Algarve. If I’m not mistaken if you were to knock on this door, you would also be observed through one-way glass from a cabin on the opposite side of the lane. On the opposite side of the complex, in the next soi, there’s another door, marked Baan Ananda Sutra 391/91, the postal address I suppose, and on the balcony above two more of those fierce warriers stand. Altogether one of Pattaya’s most curious spots and perhaps somebody reading this knows something more. I never saw any activitity here (I stayed in the hotel next door some years ago). The exterior of the Palace is in A1 condition, all but the Thai flag, flying high, which is rather bleached by the sun and worn by the wind.