Fah Pattaya

South Pattaya Road
(junction with Walking Street)

Quality: 7
Quantity: 8
Value: 7
Atmosphere: 8


ORDERING Thai food is easy enough, as long as you have a native sitting opposite.

If you don’t, then the difference between ‘khao pat kung’ and ‘nam dok moo’ can be a tad tricky to decipher. Thankfully, the guys at Fah Pattaya know that our linguistic excellence may not extend too much beyond asking for a couple of beers. With that in mind, they have provided a photo album-full of food, accompanied by the English name for it.

With ordering made easy, the only taxing part of the experience is deciding what to go for. More than 90 dishes are on offer, including nearly all the most traditional of Thai foods and only a spattering of foreign dishes (and why on earth would you come here and ask for chicken and chips?)

We went for roast duck with rice (50 baht), a noodle soup with duck (50 baht) and pork satay (90 baht). The seafood looked good, but was relatively expensive, given that this is a simple, open-fronted street restaurant.

The duck was tender and not drowned in the thick sauce that it sometimes shares a plate with. The soup was excellent and flavoursome, while the dozen satay sticks soon disappeared. The satay sauce tasted a little burnt, but the thin cucumber slices in a clear chilli sauce redeemed the dish.

Fah Pattaya’s decorations are big, but not overly bold. A giant English-language menu takes up one wall, while blown-up photos of the owners’ trips around the globe take up other space.

One interesting feature is a photo of Pattaya circa 1950, all fields and open spaces, and a second photo alongside of it from 1996, all high-rise condos and tourists. Fah Pattaya’s success has obviously come due to the subject matter in the latter picture. It gives an authentic flavour of Thai food in an accessible manner; although charging 30 baht for a bottle of 7 baht water isn’t something most Thais would stand for….