Pre-Songkran calm. Booking pressure eased; sunset tables walked into.
The week before Songkran is one of the quietest of the year for Pattaya's better restaurants. Bookings free up, kitchens slow down, and the editors — predictably — try to capitalise on both.
The cellar was almost empty. The sommelier walked us through three glasses across two regions in under an hour. The kitchen sent up a small Wagyu carpaccio mid-flight that wasn't on the bill. The whole evening felt like the restaurant remembering why it built the cellar in the first place.
Read the review →A walk-in for a 60-day dry-aged ribeye. The grill was hot, the rest was respected. Pre-Songkran walk-in availability at Manhattans is the closest thing to a weekly unicorn.
Read the review →The clifftop terrace at 6:15. The kitchen was running a Northern-Thai weekly special. We ordered too much sticky rice and weren't sorry.
Read the review →The pasta ricotta was made that morning. The owner was on the floor. Cherry Tree continues to be an underrated entry in the directory's Italian segment — it should be ranked higher in the next iteration of The Definitive 50.
Read the review →The mutton biryani is the order. We ate slowly, drank chai, and read the newspaper. Pre-Songkran calm at its best.
Read the review →That was the week.
— The Editors