Help Needed

[American Teacher-old]

I have a friend coming to Thailand next month. We very much enjoy going out to nice (high-quality) bars to have a few drinks and talk. If there is a nice view -- all the better. Plus, if we can order food/snacks there as well -- that would be ideal. I do not want any host/go-go bars -- and it doesn't have to be gay. I am not worried about price, I just want something nice. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris

and never mind the cost, try the bar on top of the State Tower in Bangkok.

http://www.thedomebkk.com/web/sirc_home.html

may i sujest Nidy's Nook

[lonelywombat]

American teacher you are in Pattaya so I assume you would like some suggestions here.

I enjoy the Royal Cliff but seem to go only to the Grill. I have often wondered if Pattaya Park Tower has a restaurant.

Brunos is great but no different to anywhere in the world, just good quality food in good surroundings

It would be easier if you indicate if it is Bangkok or Pattaya. Do you want to consider thai or just farang food. I accept the location might be more of interest than the food.

I have often wondered if Pattaya Park Tower has a restaurant.

It has a revolving restaurant--Buffet. Drinks? As I recall, may be wrong; only soft drinks--Maybe beer. Food was okay: appetizers & desert bar were best features but it has been a few years since I was there so?....Imagine a Sizzler with attitude--Opps: altitude!
Unless it has changed, you buy (Dinner) ticket before boarding the elevator and, last time I was there, Thai 300 baht, farang 600; so go hungry & eat twice as much as num = same-same.
For the best view--And that, I suppose, is only reason to go there--go before dark. After dark; it's like flying over a big parking lot.

It has a revolving restaurantPerhaps you are unaware of the well-known inverse relationship between the height of a revolving restaurant from the ground and the quality of the food?

[wowpow]

Edith, I have read that but in my experience "There is a relationship between the height of the tower and the height of the prices". I am thinking back to The Dome's gourmet festival last Autumn/Fall when the gala dinner price was a tad over Bt25,000.

In Bangkok I think you have to go for height at night and gwm4asian's Dome is spectacular and has the world's highest open air restaurant. The Banyan Tree has a similar though lower restaurant/bar. For daytime I don't know anywhere nicer than the Oriental's riverside restaurant - now blessedly cooler in the afternoons when the new Peninsula Hotel acts as a parasol.

Pattaya seems very short on quality bars though has an excess of beer bars. Something like the Sunset Bar on Myconos would be lovely - soft sofas, good selection of cocktails and wine, muted classical music and a window over the sea to watch the sun go down. It was a must 'apres plage' (is it still going?) In Pattaya I don't know of anything like that. I suppose that the nearest I know of is Rabbit Resort on Dongtan Beach.The Jazz Pit at PIC Kitchen, Soi 5, has quite a few fans. La Ronde at the Royal Cliff Royal wing is lovely for a light lunch and a bottle of wine - it is set in the centre of the swimming pool overlooking the beach. The Sheraton has a bar onto the beach but with little charm

In Pattaya
Cabbages & Condoms has beatiful seaview tables, often very good food (if you order Thai food), and lovely gardens.

In Bangkok
Try Zanzibar on Sukhumvit Soi 11 for cocktails -- they usually have live jazz at 7 pm

Eat me on Silom soi Convent, sub-soi Pipat (BKK taxi drivers know Soi Pipat, although your Isaan variety will not) is a great place for drinks then dinner then lots of drinks afterwards, as the owner loves his wine and drinks himself

Agailico on Sukhumvit 51 is a cafe set in beautiful gardens -- nice for a brunch or afternoon snack. Their hours are only 10 am until 6 pm, and reservations are recommended.

Also for coffee -- Cafe le Notre on Langsuan -- le Notre is the orignal chocolate making family from Versailles -- think barely sweetened dark chocolate squares and Opera pastries...

For other ideas, you might try www.chicasia.com (http://www.chicasia.com) or the Bangkok Metro magazine

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[American Teacher-old]

Thanks everyone. Some great suggestions!

-Chris

[dab69]

Glad to see you back.

Sorry, but seems I rarely eat when in Thailand.
Can't eat and then go out and drink later,
so you can guess what wins out.

Edith, I have read that but in my experience "There is a relationship between the hight of the tower and the hight of the prices". I am thinking back to The Dome's gourmet festival last Autumn/Fall when the gala dinner price was a tad over Bt25,000.

Sorry, TeaPee, that's what I get for trying to be tactful. Okay, it's more like a revolving--think white formica tops-- cafeteria: "A Sizzler with altitude."
While we were revolving on that big, round...shaft...I had a day-dream. No, not that one!
I imagined them speeding the damn thing up!...Centrifugal force...flying queens, noses flattened against the glass when their open mouths stuck them there like toilet-plungers....all caught in a massive food-fight-tornado...coming loose...zooming off, like a flying-saucer...landing in the water at Jomtien--And the headline in the next Pattaya Maul:

Space Aliens land at Beach!
Look just like Farang!
We always DID think They From Other Planet!

It was a slow night and I have a weeeee evil streak, what can I say....
(But I have fun!)

Oh, for those younger days when I thought Vat69 was sex in a hot tub--And when I heard hundreds of people had died over Peter Pan at an Iriquois Theatre; I thought was a wash basin for a cleansing rite on the reservation.