Where can you get good vegetarian food in Pattaya?

Since people are always asking me where they can get good vegetarian food in Pattaya, about once every two years I write a letter to a local newspaper providing the readers with such updated information. The most recently opened vegetarian restaurant in Pattaya is near the bus station. (Just turn right at the bus station and keep walking until you see a restaurant with the sign “Healthy and Vegetarian Cuisine”. It’s about a three minute walk). The food is good and reasonably priced. After leaving the restaurant keep walking towards 2nd Road until you reach the Raw Food Cafe at the Rasayana Retreat near the Fairtax Hotel. While the food is a little expensive for a vegetarian restaurant I frequently eat there because I believe raw plant food is the healthiest and they try to use organically grown food.

Probably the best known vegetarian restaurant in Pattaya is Five Star Restaurant near the intersection of South Pattaya Road and 3rd Road.

Many non-vegetarian restaurants also offer good vegetarian food. Sizzler located at Central Festival on Soi 9 Beach Road and the Royal Garden Plaza has a great salad bar, although vegetarians and vegans must read the labels in front of the different foods. At the same two locations you have Burger King which has a vegetable burger. But be warned the burgers are not vegan and they’ll smother the burger in mayonnaise unless you remember to tell them not to.

Also at Central Festival you have Lebanon restaurant which has such popular Mid-Eastern vegetarian dishes as falafel sandwiches and hummus.

Of course the many Indian restaurants in Pattaya are always a safe bet for vegetarians. Shahi Indian restaurant at Beach Road, Soi 4 has a buffet every afternoon and all the food except the chicken (which is easy to avoid) is vegetarian. Probably the most popular Indian restaurant is Ali Baba which was given a good review by this newspaper. The restaurant, which is located on Pattaya Klang Road opposite Nova Lodge Hotel, not only serves great vegetarian food but is surprisingly inexpensive for such a classy restaurant.

I also occasionally go to one of the many Subway restaurants here in Pattaya where I order a “just vegetables” sandwich on whole wheat bread. Vegans must tell them to hold the cheese.

So while Pattaya is not a vegetarian paradise there is no reason vegetarians and vegans can’t have a great time eating out in this town.

Eric Bahrt

And still more from “low refund for noisy condo”

Dear Editor,

A few weeks ago you published my letter under the headline: ‘No refund for noisy condo’. Up to yesterday it has had 4,184 reads online. I went back to the condo last week to settle with my landlady after she said she didn’t have a problem with my terminating my 12 month lease early. The final transaction was conducted last Tuesday when I received, through the letting agent, 75,000 baht. My original outlay last September was 180,000 baht for 1 year’s rent at 15,000 baht a month, + 15,000 baht security check.

As you may recall, I had noise pollution problems from the start which came to a head last December when I returned for my Xmas holiday, and left early at extra cost to myself. My landlady claimed that the noisy, vibrating ‘smoke ventilator’ had been fixed shortly after I left last December. When I came back on Feb 3rd, this didn’t seem to be the case; there was a slight improvement but the nuisance was still definitely there.

Since taking up my tenancy on Sept 1st, 2010, I’ve spent a total of 24 nights in the condo, at a cost to me of 120,000 baht, this works out at 5,000 baht a night, and at best the condo is only 3 star accommodation ... without the noise pollution nuisance. I’ve now no intention to ever return to Jomtien.

Philip Fletcher

Unscrupulous fitness club

Dear Editor;

I would like to bring your readers’ attention to what I consider to be certain unscrupulous business practices being carried out by some of the sales staff at a well known fitness club here in Pattaya, and very possibly at their other branches in Bangkok and beyond.

I was signed in as a member of this particular gym in March of 2009 with a lifetime membership and was led to believe that there would never be any additional fees to pay.

I am not a full time resident of Thailand, and only use this fitness club on my occasional visits to Pattaya. It was therefore something of a shock when I went to use the facilities there in January this year to be told that my membership had expired as I had not kept up with the annual subscription payments.

I was not aware of any additional payments and the sales staff assured me in 2009 that there would be no such requirement.

After discussion with the manager it was brought to my attention that the membership agreement has a “prepaid form” attached to it that I had not signed, but neither it nor its contents and conditions had ever been brought to my attention previously.

Having talked to other expats over here it seems that mine is not a solitary case and that many people have had the misfortune to undergo similar experiences with this company.

It seems to me that I, like many others, were lured into membership of this fitness club under false pretences and that the management there are either blissfully unaware of or happy to tolerate their sales staff offering bogus inducements and information to potential customers in order to get as many sign-ups as possible.

I don’t expect to get a refund of my membership fees, having been told by the company’s head office in Bangkok that “this is not possible”; however, I would like to draw this matter to the attention of the expat community here in Pattaya and ask them to beware of the high pressure sales tactics the staff at this establishment employs, and to exercise all caution before signing anything.

Respectfully Yours,
Name and address supplied

Where can you get good vegetarian food in Pattaya?

And still more from “low refund for noisy condo”

Unscrupulous fitness club