Beachfront restaurant Pattaya is aptly named Surf & Turf & is rated number 100 out of 1187 restaurants in Pattaya. For far better food photographs than in this post just check out THIS LINK for my previous Surf & Turf photo blog.
Location
On the beach next door to the Long Beach Garden Hotel.
Beachfront restaurant Pattaya
A fairly ordinary front entrance.
Air conditioned inside section
It’s much nicer inside which you can clearly see.
Catering for the smokers
The further away from me the better. 🙂
Inside in the aircon.
Especially during the day the front area beside the beach is the most popular part of the restaurant.
Another outdoor area
There is quite a number of different sections in this popular Beachfront restaurant Pattaya.
This is the beachside section
No aircon but they have plenty of fans & there is usually a beautiful breeze coming off the ocean.
An unusual dish
My friend ordered snapper, as you can see the portion was rather small & there was a skewer of beef with it.
Here is the seared tuna
Rather delicious.
Chicken Satay
The peanut sauce was excellent.
Oysters from France
Delicious, rather expensive here, around B500 or $24 AUD for 6, double what I pay at El Mercado in Bangkok.
My 2 Australian friends
Ian Fraser-Smith & David Robertson from the Gold Coast in Australia are regular visitors to Pattaya. They were both impressed with the food at the Surf & Turf.
For far better food photographs than in this post please check out THIS LINK for my previous Surf & Turf photo blog.
Thanks for visiting my Beachfront restaurant Pattaya photo blog, Surf & Turf has good food in a great seaside location.
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Pattaya coffee shop review from my perspective. These are the venues where I choose to spend my time and money. 🙂
The photo above is the Coffee Club at Markland on Beach Rd, this in fact was opening day on 31-8-2018. It closed permanently 2 years later.
Coffee Club Eggs Benedict.
Good quality food & coffee but far too expensive. For instance the equivalent of a Starbucks tall latte is B146 or $6.97 AUD, at Starbucks you pay B115 or $5.50 AUD. Even though they have a branch in my condo building I generally walk 200 meters to the Holiday Inn where I only pay B113.
The staff here are very friendly & the food & coffee is excellent. The large coffee is B150 which is what you would expect for a 5 star hotel. However as I’m a member of the Hi Club I get a 25% discount which brings the cost down to B113.
Bon Cafe import coffee machines from many countries around the world for including Italy, Switzerland, Spain, the United States of America, and other countries to satisfy their various types of customers.
Around 5 days a week I am at Central Marina or the Bay in Beach Road. The lovely girls put a candle in my croissant for my birthday. 🙂
My Starbucks breakfast of choice
Accompanied by a tall latte of course. Starbucks sell 4 BILLION cups annually. Which (divided by 365 days) means that roughly 10,958,904 cups sold daily between ALL Starbucks locations. So we are talking about 388 cups of espresso and/or coffee drinks daily on average per store globally.
This is Boonthavorn
Surprisingly they have the best value coffee in Pattaya. They are on Sukhumvit Rd,see the map below.
Just inside the front entrance on the left.
Top quality coffee for only B30, or $1.40 AUD.
The Bay center on Beach Road
Good value coffee in a pleasant atmosphere.
Location
Many thanks for visiting my Pattaya coffee shop review photo blog.
Starbucks Pattaya every morning is a perfect start to my day. Not just the excellent coffee, the friendly smiling staff always put me in a positive mood. Above is the branch at The Bay on Beach Road Pattaya between Soi 5 & Soi 6.
The Bay Beach Road
Let’s go to Starbucks & stare at our phones. 🙂
Opening day at the Bay
September 22 2015.
My breakfast of choice.
Ham & cheese croissant with a tall latte. B240 or $7.8 USD
There are two Starbucks at Central Festival
That makes 4 within 10 minutes walk from my condo.
Inside Central Festival branch
Quite an attractive fit out.
A birthday candle for me. 🙂
As I mentioned earlier the smiles on girls are a really nice start for the day.
Sometimes they run out of croissants.
So I settle for a sandwich. 🙂
Starbucks Pattaya every morning
Every 12 coffee is free if you have a Starbucks card so I often take one home for later. Also they often have a two for one offer.
Almond croissant
A nice alternative to the ham & cheese.
Mr Donuts
Starbucks change B115 for a latte, here at Mr Donuts I paid B93 for what you see.
Xmas day 2021
Two of the lovely girls who look after me every day. 🙂
Thanks for visiting my Starbucks Pattaya every morning photo blog.
Final feast Mantra Pattaya Sunday brunch with friends, I have so many memories of great moments in the last 12 years at this wonderful restaurant. This photo blog features many of the long lunches dating back to 2007.
We are going to miss the fabulous food.
Alaskan crab & oysters from France have always been my favourite at the Mantra Sunday brunch. Having said that I must admit the quality has been going down slightly in the last 2 or 3 years. I apologize for this criticism just their standards were always so high I guess they were hard to maintain.
The seafood section.
I would always ask to be seated near the seafood & sushi. 🙂
Final feast Mantra Pattaya, lets not forget the cold Sake. 🙂
Included in the price of the buffet, so I would always take full advantage of this special.
My friend from Sydney Roland Bonnici.
Roland loves dining out & the Mantra was his favourite Pattaya restaurant. This visit was a week before it closed on February 10 2019.
From the Chinese kitchen.
Pork Belly, roast pork & duck, delicious.
A favourite dish
From the Chinese wok the beef & onion creation just melts in your mouth.
Wonderful decor
The Mantra featured 7 different kitchens.
Lets look at previous years, 2007 Trevor & Nui.
Trevor hails from Western Australia & spends lots of time in Pattaya.
This was 2008.
Nick Partridge from the Gold Coast & his lovely lady Sharron have been Mantra fans since the beginning.
Big group in 2010
At the back is Trevor & his son Cameron + xxx, then myself, my brother Warren, Nok & Phil Avalon, & at the front we have Greg Johnston & Herbie Pastor.
Big birthday with lots of friends.
No better place to celebrate than the Mantra.
Beautiful Benjamas Sitthi
Ben now works at the Avani Hotel adjacent to Royal Gardens.
Before Ben there was Amy
Amy really knew how to make you feel welcome.
Another birthday in 2009.
I remember this one very well, my great Phil Thomson from Australia bought his 21 yo son Michael to Pattaya as part of his introduction to life in the fast lane. 🙂
March 2012.
Another super Sunday.
February 2010
On the left is my brother Warren & Bill Austin & Joan Baptiste from Wiltshire in England.
Xmas with Yaowaluck Bumrungthum aka Kartoon
For Xmas day lunch the Mantra was always our choice.
How could we forget Pothole aka John Martin.
We call him Pothole Bin Ladin the mouse of Markland. A flashback to Potholes birthday, aka John David Martin, at the Mantra in 2013 when love was sweet.
Allan & Vicki Chiswick from Sydney.
Laem Chabang Their cruise ship spent 24 hours at Laem Chabang so they hightailed to the Mantra. 🙂
Putting on the Ritz
Finally here are some of the glamorous Mantra girls putting on the Ritz.
Check out three previous Mantra photo blogs here. Number one,
& link number 2,
Many thanks for visiting my Final feast Mantra Pattaya photo blog.
Italian food Beach Rd Pattaya at Trattoria Pizzeria Toscana is a delightful experience. TripAdvisor obviously agree with a rating of 45 out of 1,111 Restaurants in Pattaya. Owner & chef Luca Marchetti is originally from Pracchiola, a tiny village in the mountains to the north of Tuscany.
Flashback to 2006
The original restaurant was on the block where the Holiday Inn is now situated.
Here’s to old times in 2006
The restaurant was much smaller & more intimate, in fact I preferred the atmosphere to the current location which seats over 700 people.
Pizza with parma ham.
Definitely one of my favourites.
Fettuccine is absolutely delicious.
Of course they serve every kind of pasta & pizza imaginable.
Memories of 2012
Dinner & red wine with Irina from Ukraine.
Take your pick
It all looks so good, Toscana’s menu is huge.
There are several sections of the restaurant
This is my preferred area to dine.
What a fearsome sight this is.
The big fellow Luca with a knife in his hand should be avoided at all cost. 🙂
Lots of stock in the cold room.
Luca operates his own organic and sustainable farm not far from Pattaya where he grows his own vegetables, rears free-range chickens, rabbits, ducks, pigeons, guinea fowl, wild boar, goats, sheep, pigs and cows. No processed food, no growth hormones, no chemicals, no problem. 🙂
Another pizza
Notice the anchovies on the side, delicious.
The boys from Oz in 2014
Lenny, yours truly & my brother Warren. Sadly we lost Lenny early 2016 after losing a battle with cancer, RIP.
Seafood anyone?
Toscana has recently opened a new seafood section in the front garden.
Lots of wine, mainly ITALIAN.
Quite a few wines available y the glass.
A very friendly waitress in 2014.
As you can see I’m not a person who misses a photo opportunity. 🙂
Dinner with friends January 2019
From the left we have May, Alex, Hamish & Gary.
Hamish’s favourite
Beef carpaccio tasted as good as it looked.
May chose the Baby Clams aka Pippies.
This is the same dish she had on New Years Eve.
Quail for dinner December 2021
Quite tasty but very fiddly to eat.
Thanks for visiting my Italian food Beach Rd Pattaya photo blog.
Coffee with Luca
February 6th I met Luca for coffee during my morning walk.
Pattaya Seafood Festival 2018 was a noisy affair as usual. There is a bandstand on the beach which blasts very ordinary music until the early hours of the morning. My condo is on the 20th floor 400 meters away & the sound hits me full blast even with the door closed. 🙂
Beach Road Pattaya
One of the bigger kitchens along Beach Road.
Prawns, crab & shell fish
A good variety & freshly cooked.
Big variety of meat including crocodile. 🙂
I’m surprised there is no snake or buffalo. 🙂
Pattaya Seafood Festival 2018
One of the many stalls lined along Beach Road.
Here is my favourite shot
A typical spontaneous Thai smile, no wonder we love living here.
Time for a mango shake
Another huge benefit of living in Thailand, the mangoes are wonderful.
OK, I’m confused…..
I have no idea what these bamboo tubes are for.
Busy ladies here on Beach Road
The festival runs for 5 nights and really draws the crowds.
This is the view from Horizons the amazing rooftop bar. A great five star hotel located opposte the beach & above the Central Festival shopping mall. Just book through THIS LINK for an excellent room rate.
Shakariki 432 Japanese restaurants which are so authentic you will think you are in Osaka. There are several branches in Bangkok & one in Pattaya, the Asoke branch is ranked by TripAdvisor # 866 of 10,352 restaurants in Bangkok.
Pattaya branch
I prefer to sit upstairs.
Location
Opposite the Mike Hotel in 2nd road, +66 33 036 369.
Now for the food
On my first visit in 2017 I ordered two of my favourite dishes, salmon caviar & Unagi or Japanese eel.
Shakariki 432 great Japanese restaurants
Hard to fault the food at this noisy authentic Japanese restaurant.
How good is this?
Is it any wonder this is now one of my favourite restaurants along with Genki in Soi 4North Pattaya.
Is there a better beer than Asahi?
I don’t think so, the Belgium beers are great but my pick is Asahi. 🙂
Fabulous colour combination
And what a taste, perfect.
Salmon Caviar washed down with Asahi.
As good as it gets. Plus they have a special on liquor, all you can drink in 90 minutes for B299.
Home delivery is a great idea.
The restaurant is two floors, upstairs is better.
Shakariki 432 great Japanese restaurants
Dinner with friends February 21 2018. Hamish, Jonathon & Anne.
How good do these oysters look? Photo credit Nick & Sharon. 🙂
Absolutely mouth watering.
Have I convinced you?
Just trust me & try out this great little hole in the wall & you will feel like you have been transported to Osaka. In fact follow THE LINK for one of my Osaka photo blogs.
Meanwhile thanks for visiting my Shakariki 432 Japanese restaurants photo blog. I will be back in Japan in May 2018, here is my agenda.
Avenue Pattaya Restaurants Supermarket & a cinema complex are just some of the facilities at the 2nd Rd shopping complex. The Robin Hood tavern which is part of the Retox group run by Simon Peatfield is also here on the 2nd floor.
Villa Market
An excellent supermarket with lots of imported products including Australian beef. I do however prefer to shop at Big C Extra in Pattaya Klang for my meat.
Villa Market butcher
Having said that, there is certainly a great choice of quality meat products here.
Rib Eye grass fed Aussie beef
A very good price at B306 or $12 AUD, very good flavour but a little tough, overall good value for the price.
Coffee shop inside Villa Market.
Enjoy a coffee while you shop, quite a good liquor section here as well.
Excellent liquor store however I noticed today it was not open till 5 pm.
Very good range from around the world
I’m a great fan of their restaurants in Bangkok & Samui, sadly they seem reluctant to come to Pattaya.
24 hour fitness
Not to sure who is going to turn up at 4 am. 🙂
Avenue Pattaya Restaurants Supermarket
There certainly are many Starbucks in Pattaya which suits me fine.
The latest restaurant to open,
Recently opened & on my list to try soon.
Beerfest
Right next d0or to Firepork, it used to be located on 2nd Rd near Big C,
Pork Knuckle
Here is Nathan Corbert doing battle with the knuckle. Before he retired in 2013 Nathan was 11 times the Muay Thai world champion in 3 different weight divisions.
The Avenue is worth a visit
There are lots more shops including banks & real estate offices.
Robin Hood Tavern
Excellent food & service, including a very good Sunday roast, check out THIS LINK.
Thanks for visiting my Avenue Pattaya Restaurants Supermarket photo blog.
Pattaya Beach Road fast food at the newly developed Bay shopping complex. Popular at night for live music & cold beer. Starbucks is one of my regular beach haunts.
From my condo.
Taken from my condo at Markland in Soi 1, just a short walk to the Bay.
Right opposite the beach.
So glad they preserved this magnificent tree in front of the shops.
It’s finally finished.
The finished product sits between Soi 5 & Soi 6, you can clearly see the North Shore condo building in Soi 5.
Of course Soi 6 is the wildest street in Pattaya, at night it really goes mad. To see what I mean just follow THIS LINK.
First tennants
Starbucks & McDonald’s were the first, who would have guessed. 🙂 Now Boots chemist are there & soon a large Korean shop will open.
I’m a regular at Starbucks for breakfast, here you can see the lovely Starbucks girls presenting me with a croissant & candle on my birthday.
Beergarden
Nothings happens here through the day however it fires up when the sun goes down.
Here they come.
Customers start to arrive, plenty of cold beer here to keep everybody happy.
Pattaya Beach Road fast food
Reminds me a little of the “pop up” Yatai restaurants in Fukuoka.
This post highlights the interesting things I see on Beach Road every day, just follow THIS LINK.
Solo artist.
This guy was very good so I hung around for while to hear him play. It’s only a five minute walk home for me.
Maccas at the Bay
Great location opposite the beach.
New restaurant bar.
This will be a popular spot to watch the sunsets.
Chill at the Bay
Large outdoor area plus two floors inside.
Lets hope the blonde will be there. 🙂
Right now she is heading for Starbucks.
Coming soon
Now this will be a very welcome addition.
Very quiet during the Covid-19 crisis
Many Pattaya businesses are devastated now in February 2020.
It will take years to recover
At least Starbucks is still here, I am there most mornings.
Thanks for visiting my Pattaya Beach Road fast food photo blog.
Pattaya Life Absolutely Perfect place to live for a guy like me. Good friends & great restaurants, what more could I want? Plus a reasonably short plane ride to many outstanding locations. Above is the incredible view from my Markland apartment on the 20th floor.
We went to Chiang Mai for 4 days which was excellent then 8 days in Cambodiawhich was not so good. Reason being we all caught a dose of the flu which really took the shine off our holiday.
A terrific beach side restaurant with very good food.
Surf & Turf hamburger
Guaranteed to fix your appetite.
Geriatrics are us. 🙂
I think the combined ages were 272 years, from the right we have David Herd, Richard (Stingy) Blair, John Hunjadi & David Robertson who is even more Stingy than Stingy. 🙂
Bali Hai wharf.
This was supposed to be completed by October 2017, however given the fact that this is Thailand it will more likely be Xmas 2018.
And so this is Xmas….
Light show at the A-One hotel.
One last Mantra dinner on December 28
Hamish & I had a 20% discount voucher. 🙂
Fabulous food as usual.
Finally on the subject of food which is very dear to my hear.
Fresh prawns & Aussie lamb chops & cutlets from Big C.
Now you can understand why I make the following claim “Pattaya Life Absolutely Perfect.”
Newport peninsular Sydney is my personal photo history not part of my travel blog.
Newport peninsular Sydney
Newport peninsular Sydney was my home for three years from 1984 to 1987. After becoming engaged to a beautiful Melbourne lady Karen Smith, I purchased a timber home perched on a hill above the Royal Motor Yacht Club. The cost was $128k, and I sold it after our engagement fizzled out 4 years later for $360K. I guess it would be worth nearly 2 million dollars today.
Absolutely gorgeous.
As you can see Karen was a beautiful lady, it took me anther 10 years before I realised I was just not cut out for marriage or long term relationships. There is probably a multitude of reasons why, fear of commitment, too independent etc etc.
Dinner party at Herbert Avenue
We were very happy at Newport 80% of the time, I tried hard to settle down and enjoy life as a couple, every now and then however the “call of the wild” would interrupt our utopia.
Wolf Wottke (with the beard) had been my best friend for a number of years, I left him renting my Drummoyne apartment for a year or so until I got fed up chasing the rent. Consequently I sold it which in hindsight was probably a mistake.
Lots of birds & wildlife
These beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets would visit every day for their snack on the balcony.
Life was very good
I had all the toys, a beautiful Mercedes Sports, a cabin cruiser moored at the yacht club, a liquor store in Sydenham which I was in the process of selling and a good sales job with Canon Australia.
Lion Island
This great photo (excuse the quality) was taken on Lion Island in the Hawksbury River, from left to right we have Graham La Roche aka “Biff”, his girlfriend at the time Mona,Ross Ansell from Melbourne and Karen Smith & I.
Me Tarzan
Ross doing his Tarzan impersonation on Lion Island.
31 Herbert Avenue Newport
About 25 years later around 2012 I paid a visit to Herbert Avenue to see if things had changed. Apart from the colour scheme and far less vegetation nothing much had changed.
Another day on Pittwater
My good friend Tony Murphy and his beautiful wife Inge join Karen & I on my 26 foot cabin cruiser. After 29 years I caught up with Inge in Melbourne in 2014.
My back veranda overlooked Bayview
Here is my good friend Paul Slaughter with two gorgeous girls, on the left is Trish and on the right an old girlfriend of mine Shirley.
Big Tim Bristow, dinner at Herbert Avenue.
Tim Bristow was a friend of mine dating back from the time we met in 1971 when he was on my tail to give me a hiding, but that’s another story just follow THIS LINK. In the 70s just the name Tim Bristow struck fear into the heart of all those who knew him, an enforcer with a reputation of being one of the most brutal street fighters in Australia. Put simply he was legend, a bouncer at the Newport Arms hotel, would be contenders for his crown would travel from all over Sydney to try their luck, many came and all of them were sent packing battered and bruised.
Sydenham Cellars
I sold my liquor store in late 1984 which took the pressure off me. I had been working with Canon for a few months and travelling to Sydenham (a one hour drive each way) at weekends to work in the liquor store. Meanwhile I dug a wine cellar underneath my Newport home and stored a huge amount of wine that I took home from the shop.
Unwins Bridge Road
That’s Madison my beautiful 4 year old German Shepherd who used to diligently guard the store overnight.
Brian Millard on Newport peninsular Sydney
Brian was a boat broker at Newport and a regular drinker at the Newport Arms hotel. He lived just up the road at Bungan Beach before moving to Noosa where I believe he still resides.
Richard on the left and Rob Carnahan
Two very nice guys who were customers of mine when I was with Canon. Their office was opposites the Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay so more often than not we would meet in the pub.
A bunch of my nephews & nieces come to visit.
Amazing seeing these old photos, all of these cute kids now have children of their own.
Sue and John Heatherington
A lovely couple who lived in the next street from us, John also worked at Canon in the computer division.
Malaysia 1985
John & Sue, Karen & I went on a Canon conference to Penang, here we are driving from Penang to Singapore via Kuala Lumpur.
Singapore Xmas 1985
Here we are in Singapore, notice the cigarette. I smoke on and off for most of my life until 2003. Usually 2 or 3 years then I would quit for a similar time before returning to the grip of the nicotine.
Newport peninsular Sydney with Phil Parkinson
Phil has lived most of his life on the Newport peninsular Sydney and I believe still does in 2016. He is the brother of my ex girlfriend Di Parkinson.
Melbourne Cup 1985
Karen & I at the cup with friends including another ex girlfriend Helen Burkewho is on the left of the photo. Helen has a vineyard at Dromana on the Mornington Peninsular, I spent a few day there in October 2014 drinking wine with her and her partner Jack.
Oscars Coolangatta 1985
I can’t remember the name of the beautiful dark haired princess, she was the girlfriend of my crazy chiropractor from North Sydney.
Newport peninsular Sydney
Prior to buying my cabin cruiser I had this little run-about, it was a lot of fun, do you like the name?
Another guy from my rogues gallery.
Danny Rose one of Adelaide’s true characters, we had a day of the water, you can see “Stamped Urgent” in the background.
Beautiful Karen Smith
Certainly my life on the Newport peninsular Sydney revolved around lots of good friends and my beautiful fiancee Karen. My thanks to her for being the most important part of my life for those great years.
Thanks also to you for visiting my Newport peninsular Sydney photo blog.
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