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Pattaya Thai Grill
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
15 reviews for Pattaya Thai Grill
The food here was very very good. This is what we ordered:
I had the yellow curry with chicken. And like one reviewer down below described it, its sweet and spicey (depending on how spicey you like it). It has chicken, onions, and potatoes in it.
My husband had a whole red snapper that was very very good!! Spices and sauce that was used was just indescribably. It was good. It comes with onions and green bell peppers. You also get an option of putting pork around it.
Overall our experience was very very good. But why only four stars then? The prices were very very and I mean very pricy for Thai food. Maybe it was because we went for dinner? I don't know, but still even for dinner, prices shouldn't be that high
The prices are the only thing thats holding us back from coming back here.
Fantastic. On a road trip from NYC to Daytona beach we stopped by on a Sunday. The whole family was there bit the restaurant was officially closed. When they saw the look of disappointment on our faces they cooked us some food to go. It was delicious!!!
Loved it!! This place has a great menu! The Hot Spice Stir Fry with Medium-Plus heat was AWESOME. I would recommend getting it with fried tofu if your veg. instead of the tofu it comes with (which is to soft). 4 stars because it is very very pricey. Its a must try in JAX.
Absolutely fantastic! We started out with a green papaya salad, which was amazing. Though it's on the menu as a meal, they will happily bring it to you an an app. The yellow curry was deliciously sweet and spicy. The waiter and chef were also so kind to make replacements of sugar with splenda.
And for dessert, my all time favorite, mango and sticky rice. The waiter even brought a complimentary fruit dish as a dessert replacement for my friend who cannot have refined or cane sugar.
Let me just say, it was just as good as in Thailand. Very authentic Thai with a friendly staff. Definitely will go back... can't wait!
Second trip was as good as the first. Maybe even better. Still worth a solid four star rating. We came in at the end of the early bird wave, and by 6:15 were all alone, although the tables started filling up as we finished. We sure hope people are taking advantage of this place, because we want to keep going back for a long time.
Cucumber salad, Tom Yum spicy sour soup with tofu, Padt Kee Mau with beef (spicy Padt Thai), and mango with sticky rice for dessert. We both agreed that all were delicious. Satisfying without being too heavy, and the flavors really hit the mark. Service was very good, like our first trip. Even saved some leftovers.
Vegetarians who like Tom Yum soup but can't/don't eat it because it usually contains fish sauce may appreciate that Pattaya Thai's version does not. The server told us they don't use fish sauce in most, if not all dishes. That must be why the flavors here just seem more pronounced than many other Thai places we've been.
I'd put the food here on par with Thep Phenom, one of the best Thai restaurants in San Francisco and still one of my favorites. Plus, there's a lot more elbow room and no wait time at Pattaya Thai. We will be returning regularly. Highly recommended (again).
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/18/2008
I usually try to wait for two visits before yelping, but sometimes the first time is the charm (like… Read more »
Great atmosphere, food is excellent, and service is good. Really can't go wrong here, either for lunch out or a date night. Always seems to be busy.
I give this place 2 stars using the "Jacksonville curve". If this restaurant were in a different city, I would give it 1 star.
We had the calamari appetizer. The coating was tasty, but the calamari itself was not quite fresh.
I had the Pattaya noodle soup. The broth was flavorful, the noodles from a box, and the seafood really did not taste fresh.
Husband had tofu with hot pepper sauce. Sauce tasted allright (not overly starchy), tofu was ok. Rice was not good quality.
Water was unfiltered.
EVERYTHING here was overpriced for Thai. And the food quality was spotty to poor.
A couple good points: the restaurant itself was nicely decorated and the service was good.
Would not eat here again, unless their prices came down signifigantely ($14 chicken entrees would cost $9 in NYC or DC), as I cannot justify spending 50% more money for 50% less quality.
The food is great. Padt Kee Mau with shrimp and Stir Fry with spicy peanut sauce-seems like we always get the same thing. So, I am glad I read the other reviews. I may try a curry dish. Our waitress was very mellow and attentive and the place was doing business, although from the outside, you would not know it. A nice wine selection, too. You gotta try this place if you like Thai.
I'm obsessed. I know. I feel bad for the waitstaff at Pattaya. I'll make this short. Still think this is the best thai in jax. Yellow chicken curry very very good. duck soup very very bad. thai iced tea good.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/26/2009
i think this might be the best thai in jacksonville. tom yum coconut soup was really tasty. very… Read more »
This is an okay Thai place. It was empty at 11:30, but filled up quickly. The service was decent. I had the Roast Pepper Beef which had nice flavorings, however, the rice was kind of mushy (I prefer mine on the sticky/clumpy side). I ordered medium+ spice and I would say the kitchen got it right. My hot green tea tasted a bit soapy on the first cup...?
We had several appetizers including crab rangoon - very good, rice rolls - not much more than lettuce inside a rice wrap without much flavor and a soup that was packing a lot of heat.
Overall, I enjoyed it, but won't hurry back.
Ever since I discovered how much I love yellow curry with onions, potatoes and shrimp, I've been craving it. The last time I had this was well over 5 years ago, so to say I was desperate is an understatement. Confidence wasn't high I'd find this dish anywhere in Jacksonville, but to my dismay and delight, I did. I also discovered via Yelp that we have several Thai food restaurants to choose from here. Not as many as in Northern Ca, but plenty by southern standards and tastes. The first place I had this was Thai Stick Restaurant in Millbrae, CA, and I had it again last night,
WOW, and in J-ville, this city has promise after all.
I sat at the U shaped bar and made friends with the delightful Janice, one of the wait staff. She was informative about wine and menu selection, and we even talked about her long term ambitions of teaching English in Japan or going after her MBA. I inquired about the Australian Riesling and she gave me a taste before I ordered a full glass, $7. It was spot on with hints of pear and a tart finish. That's when I discovered they have my dish. She explained their different curry's, red, green, panang, yellow and and a new one to me, Matsa-mon. All are cooked with coco-nut milk and come with a variety of vegetables and meats. You really can have it your way here.
I opted for the dish I described above and with the exception of it not being spicy hot enough, it was perfect, especially with my second glass of wine. I simply sprinkled a few chili flakes on and it was dressed to kill.
The menu is vast and fun and I can't wait to try something new next time. But too, I'm curious about some of the other Thai places here. Oh what a dilemma?
I was definitely surprised when I walked in.
The parking lot was nearly empty and an Indian couple sat outside looking a bit unhappy.
But inside was another world. Pattaya is beautiful. It's definitely different than Thai restaurants I'm used to. It's modern and sedate. There are no 1001 Golden Buddha statues around with faded posters of Thailand hanging on the wall. It's quiet and sleek. No tiny Thai women rushing from table to table to check on you.
The food is pretty dang good. I was surprised at first glance at the menu. It was like 6 pages. Most Thai restaurants have like 20 pages and pictures of each item. Not here. Pattaya chooses to focus on the good and the highlights of Thailand. Things like curries, noodles, and soups. They do have some specialty items like whole fish thrown in the mix. The appetizer section does have a bit of an identity crisis, some items seem decidedly un-Thai like the fried tofu. I do love though that items can be made spicier if you want them too.
So here's why they lost a star:
1. Bad water. I'm serious. If I'm going to have a glass of water I don't expect Perrier or San Pelligrino. But taste your tap. This water was seriously off to the point where I thought I was going to get sick if I drank it.
2. If I order something hot, there should be some spice to it. I could see the flakes of chili in my curry but there was no heat. I was sad. I love some sweat on my forehead when I eat Thai.
Everything with this restaurant seemed pretty routine until it was time for the check. The waitress delivered the check with the dessert and said the traditional "I'll take this when you're ready". As I began to enjoy my dessert, the waitress came back less than a minute later to pick up the check, but I had not gotten around to placing my debit card with the check since I was still eating. Again she said "Take your time" Not less than a minute after that a different waiter came to the table and said, "Can you pay? The waitress needs to leave" I then had to stop eating my dessert and attend to the check. I could not believe how rude this was! This restaurant needs to improve their customer service immensely if they want to charge $15-$25 per entree. My entree was also not prepared as ordered. I asked for medium spice and got no spice at all. The waitress then offered to bring me some chile spice from the kitchen which I then had to stir into my meal. Ridiculous!! Just go to Thai Palace instead. Their prices are much more affordable and the staff is attentive and pleasant.
This is the best Thai food restaurant in Jacksonville! Maybe I shouldn't go so far out on a limb because I almost always get the same thing, but it's always a perfect meal - Crab Rangoon, Pad Siew w/Chicken, Mangos w/sticky rice (if you're lucky enough that they're in season). They are really great at adjusting the spice level to just the way you want it here.
I've been eating at Pattaya Thai semi-regularly for the past 15 years. One nefarious night a few years ago, I was nursing a craving for curry and I convinced my girlfriend to drive across town to the restaurant. When we got there, we were greeted with an empty space and one handwritten sign on the window reading, "We've moved from this location." Moved where? Who the hell knew?
About a year later, I was driving down Baymeadows Rd and spotted, out of the corner of my eye, a sign for the soon-to-be-opened Pattaya Thai Grill. I was so excited, I almost rear-ended the car in front of me (which, for those of you who know Baymeadows, is a common occurrence).
Now, let me tell you something - I'm Asian and, although I don't normally support anything that perpetuates stereotypes, I have to admit that I like my ethnic restaurants to be a little chintzy. I'll explain - in every Filipino kitchen, you'll find three things: 1) a painting of the Last Supper, 2) a 12-month calendar (picked up free from a Catholic church or the local Forex shipper) depicting either Biblical scenes or statues of the Virgin Mary and 3) a giant wooden spoon and fork wall hanging. So, when I go to a Filipino restaurant and I see one of those three things, I know that the food will be authentic. And if all three things are at the restaurant I'll start getting paranoid that one of the "aunties" knows my mother and will call her as soon as I leave to let her know that I need to lose some weight and get a haircut.
Filipino chintz and Thai chintz are a little different, but it's the same concept. The old Pattaya Thai location on Atlantic Blvd was pretty chintzy with walls covered in sequined gold elephants, stupa ornaments on most flat surfaces and a picture of the King and Queen of Thailand greeting you at the front door. The new Baymeadows location is done up in "oriental chic" with lots of reds and oranges and tasteful recessed lighting. They now have an open kitchen surrounded by a bar -- how stressful is that for the chef? To be heckled by drunks while trying to stir-fry -- and plasma televisions. I'm thinking that, during the year or so that the restaurant was in hiatus, its reputation of being the best Thai place in Jax was taken over by more uppity places like Lemongrass and Pom's Thai Bistro, so it felt the need to keep up with the Joneses.
But lack of personality aside, the food at Pattaya is still great. The calamari and satay appetizers are what I remember. The calamari being coated with this uber-thick batter that falls off the squid as you're trying to eat it and the satay tasting about as interesting as meat on a stick should. However, both are served with sauces (calamari with sweet chili sauce and satay with peanut sauce) that I would gladly drink from a glass. My favorite entrees are the green curry with little round Thai eggplants that remind me of gooseberries and the beef salad that's bi-polar in a cold-yet-spicy kind of way. And the Tom Kha Gai soup (coconut milk, chicken, mushrooms, galanga, kaffir lime leaves, and lemongrass) still rocks my world. The only complaint I have about that soup is that it only comes in two sizes - elf bowl and bathtub. In the summer, when the mangoes are in season, you've got to try the mango with sticky rice dessert. I don't know where the restaurant gets these other-worldly mangoes but they're smooth as silk and taste like honey.
Since the food is still fabulous, I'm sure that Pattaya will do well in their new digs. But I really do miss the toucan toothpick dispenser.
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3/29/08 Update: I ate at Pattaya Thai last night. I think they've pared down the menu a bit -- definately since they've opened up the new location and possibly a little more since the last I'd been there. I had the green curry, of course, since I'm a creature of habit. My girlfriend had the shrimp Thai fried rice which has been fast-tracked into my list of favorite foods. And we tried a new appetizer "Golden Squares". It's squares of deep fried tofu which is not exciting in and of itself BUT it comes with two dipping sauces -- the aforementioned sweet chili and peanut sauces. Oh... my... god.
Some corrections that I need to make: There IS a picture of the King and Queen of Thailand in the foyer (I didn't remember them being there the last time) and the toothpick dispenser holds an honored place on the hostess podium. By the way, the little label on it states that it's a woodpecker which would make sense - it being a toothpick dispenser and all - but's that's one f-ed up looking woodpecker. And Rudy (the owner of the old location) asked about my mother which is I guess as close as I'll get to the complaining Filipino auntie, so I'm moving it up to 5 stars.
P.S. Mangoes are now in season.
