Having read this generally positive but uncommitted review for Patong Seafood, we decided to go and try this establishment out as it "is the place to go for a feast after a day of suntanning at the beach". Unfortunately, we were fully disappointment with sub-par food, expensive prices and average service. Like the review mentioned, the menu is comprehensive, offering everything from pseudo-western fare such as pizza, burgers and chips, to more traditional thai dishes like Tom Yum, curries and seafood. Each type of sea product does come in various ways of preparation and for the premium items, they are proudly paraded at the front of the restaurant on ice. These premium items include phuket lobster, tiger prawns, large prawns, mantis prawns and crabs. For the lobsters, they cost around 190+ Thai Baht/100g, while the tiger prawns will set you back around 200+ Thai Baht/100g. There are other non-premium items such as the above mentioned grilled snapper with salt which have a fixed price of 230 Thai Baht, but the difference of the quality between these premium and non-premium items is obvious.
For our meal, we ordered a grilled tiger prawn (400 grams worth which turns out to be about 3 prawns), Tom Yum Goong, grilled chicken wrapped in pandan leave, snapper grilled with salt, and a pineapple fried rice.
Firstly, the tiger prawns was the chefs recommendation on the very first page of the menu, however at that price, we expected better quality from a restaurant, who boasts to be "best in seafood since 1979". There is no denying that they were big prawns. However, they were dry, tough and lack any sort of taste whatsoever. Size is not a replacement for culinary prowess. The thai sweet sauce only barely managed to rescue it from it dry and tasteless averageness.
We decided to go for the grilled snapper as a second option for our "seafood feast." Once again, we were thoroughly disappointed with 2 small pieces of fish measuring 4x4cm in size each, served with a half portion side of second rate unseasoned crinkly fries. The lack of freshness of the fish was evident from the extreme "fishiness" that we all seem to smell and taste from frozen fish that we have left in our freezer after about a week. I hardly doubt that the snapper fillet was from a fish that was from the front stands of the restaurant. How could this have been recommended or even mentioned by the above food blog?
The Tom Yum was uninspired and average, something that could be found in any old Thai restaurant in any part of the world. It seemed diluted and dumbed down to suit the taste of tourists with no authenticity which certainly seems to be the whole mantra of the the restaurants philosophy. The chicken in pandan leaves tastes ok, but was soaking in oil to the point where after having one piece it was enough to make you feel full. Lastly, the pineapple fried rice lacked pineapples, taste and any sort of character whatsoever and that is saying a lot for a dish that is served in a half pineapple!
The waiters seemed uninterested, not particularly friendly, and basically left you to look through the menu on your own. They were not interested in telling you what is the specials of the day, no recommendations to offer. When they saw us sitting down with our backpacks, they did not offer another chair or a place for us to set down our gear and things. It was only after they saw us trying to move a chair from another table to set our things down that they offered us a small side table to place our stuff.
So in summary, if you are looking for over-priced, sub-par "feast" then this would be the place to go on Patong Beach. I can't imagine a better place to waste more money or calories.
On our own, we managed to find another restaurant just further down the road called "Savoey Seafood" that was much better, in terms of taste and quality but also being around the same touristy area of Patong Beach, price would be about the same but at least you would not be wasting your calories!
