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Siam Man

Thai Restaurant Rant

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I have gone to several Thai Restaurants in America, Australia, and N.Z. since my travels to LOS and the menu is nothing like I have found in Thailand. While most of them seem to have asians working at them, very few have spoken Thai. Tonight I went to one and the whole menu was in English. So many deep fried items. Vegatables I never see in Thailand. I did manage to find one of my favorite Thai dishes as an appertizer at one Thai Resteruant in Florida.

 

Its always over priced as well compared to other Restaurants. WTF? Rice, veggies, curry, small amounts of seafood. give me a break. It really takes away when I have to pay $8 for an appetiser that cost me 40 to 60 baht in LOS. $20 bucks for an entry. Its really turned me off the whole experience. However when you in a group with women in it, they love it.

 

Do other BM's find this same deal in your home country when it comes to Thai joints?

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I guess that I'm lucky. There are several great Thai places in the SF Bay area. Of course some not so great.

My local favorite is run by an all Thai staff. The food and service are top notch! The selection is not as great as in LOS of course. It must be difficult to get some things out of season here.

 

Funny story... I went to lunch with some friends to my thai spot. My favorite waitress, Meow, knows that I go to Thailand, as often as I can. My friend's wife thought that she had a crush on me because when I introduced them, Meow said, "we know him here, We love him. He my favorite butterfly". She followed it up with a little wink to me.

I tried to explain that the term is not a compliment, but I didn't try too hard. I don't want them to know too much. :P

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I have to agree SM as back home it's not the same,I went to my favorite Thai restaurant here when I returned fromm LOS and ordered khao pad gai, it was very bland and it gave me the "shits" :blink: .I haven't been back since,better to cook my own and I'm not a chef by any means. :)

 

I can't wait to get back to Khosan Rd and have a big plate of pad thai for 75 baht as this was probably the best food i ate while on holiday :) .

 

I guess nothing compares to the real deal. :lol:

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I guess that I'm lucky. There are several great Thai places in the SF Bay area.

 

The SF Bay Area (as well as Los Angeles) has some of the best Thai restaurants on the planet outside Thailand.

 

Both areas also have several Thai wats, and some of the wats also have Thai food courts.

 

If you're not doing anything on a Sunday afternoon, check out the Thai wat in Fremont. They have a nice little food court there; it's a great place to hang out. Keep your eyes open for a few LBs that frequent the wat, but getting to know them can be slow going.

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There are at the most 20 thai resteraunts in my city....most are genuine,but a few are thai/vietnamese or thai/chinese.....some really good authentic thai food,but they are more expensive than chinese resteraunts,and not as popular.

The best thai food ive ever eaten outside Thailand was in Berlin...also great thai food Imbiss(snack bars)

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Hannover has some good Thai restaurants also, but my experience is that a lot of Thai restaurants in Germany are run by Asians that can't speak Thai.

 

One exception is the Thai restaurant near Hannover's RLD. It's owned by a German guy and his Thai wife. I'd take a couple girls out from the Thai houses, and we'd all have a party. Considerably more expensive than Thailand, but the beer was better!

 

Good times!

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I have about 15 Thai restaurants in my town, and all are fully stocked with either farm fresh Thai students or bitten n twisted Thais who married for visa and are divorced who hit the bar and casino scene. Finding a happy medium in the middle can be tricky :D

 

As for food, two of my good friends own a few of these restaurants and I have often said to them that they are out-pricing themselves to attracting the mass market. They all said though that the most Thai ingredients are generally imported once a week into the UK and can be quite expensive. They said they can go for general ingredients to try and make it cheaper, but less authentic, but whilst business ticks over nicely, they don't want to take that gamble. The other thing that makes it pricey for the customer is the food prep time which keeps small food expensive.

 

They said the costs of good Thai cuisine shouldn't be compared to Indian/Chinese restaurant prices (the most popular in the UK for Asian food). They said many Indian dishes are derived for cheaply sourced dried spices and Chinese is terrible for its saturation of MGS as the 'accepted' taste of Chinese food. To balance out Thai food properly isn't cheap when most foods are imported.

 

As for the excessive fried food, one restaurant tried that here and they closed down within a year as the competition was too strong.

 

Whilst I don't disbelieve them, I still think they could reduce their prices by around 15-20% or so and still make a decent profit ! (but then again, Im not the one paying the ridiculous council business rates :D)

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no comment .................................. :lol:

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A big bonus is that her Uncle owns St Josephs English school in Koh Samui. Needless to say I was in like flint and she is sending him an email about any vacancies that are available.

 

Good lad !

Keep us posted. Fingers crossed for you pal

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I have about 15 Thai restaurants in my town, and all are fully stocked with either farm fresh Thai students or bitten n twisted Thais who married for visa and are divorced who hit the bar and casino scene. Finding a happy medium in the middle can be tricky :D

 

As for food, two of my good friends own a few of these restaurants and I have often said to them that they are out-pricing themselves to attracting the mass market. They all said though that the most Thai ingredients are generally imported once a week into the UK and can be quite expensive. They said they can go for general ingredients to try and make it cheaper, but less authentic, but whilst business ticks over nicely, they don't want to take that gamble. The other thing that makes it pricey for the customer is the food prep time which keeps small food expensive.

 

They said the costs of good Thai cuisine shouldn't be compared to Indian/Chinese restaurant prices (the most popular in the UK for Asian food). They said many Indian dishes are derived for cheaply sourced dried spices and Chinese is terrible for its saturation of MGS as the 'accepted' taste of Chinese food. To balance out Thai food properly isn't cheap when most foods are imported.

 

As for the excessive fried food, one restaurant tried that here and they closed down within a year as the competition was too strong.

 

Whilst I don't disbelieve them, I still think they could reduce their prices by around 15-20% or so and still make a decent profit ! (but then again, Im not the one paying the ridiculous council business rates :D)

 

Nice post LULT, very informative and probably describes the situation in other western countries.

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If you come to Sydney try Campbell st in the city, it's where the Thai hang out.Good restaurants, competitively priced (by Australian standards) and yes, you can spot an lb in the crowd most nights.

Forget about Chat Thai unless you want to stand outside on the street for an hour waiting for a table.....

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