Review of Betelnut restaurant in Ko Samui

Betelnut restaurant review in Ko Samui
--------------------------------------

Be afraid, be very afraid of this restaurant.

I wanted to share my terrible exprience of this small restaurant in Ko
Samui island in Thailand as quite many travel guide books have
recommended it. Couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to Betelnut
restaurant in Chaweng beach for a dinner, since we had read a very good
review of this restaurant. Betelnut is claimed to be almost a gourmet
level restaurant with a very good service, excellet food and very high
prices. We had totally different experience, except the high prices of
course.

Service was quite crude, especially when you compare it to thai
restaurants, which typically have very good service. Betelnut however
is not a thai restaurant, it's owned by a foreigner and it claims to
serve California style thai food. The prices are very high, you can
easily eat one week in good thai restaurants with same amount that you
have to pay in Betelnut. Food is decent, nothing special, definitely
nothing to do with gourmet. For example Poppies restaurant in Ko Samui
has much better price-quality-service level.

Well, what was so terrible in this restaurant that I need to write this
review? It's the owner. We were having a romantic dinner and trying to
enjoy the decent food and wine and just suddenly the overweight owner
sits down to our table. He says nothing just sits there and is sweating
like no one else, basically he smelled very bad, because of the sweat.
Then my wife trys to start a conservation and asks if he is the owner
and now he starts talking about how he has travelled all over the
world, lived in Istanbul and made food in different countries. He keeps
talking about how great guy he is allthough we didn't even ask him to
sit down to our table. Finally he leaves and goes to the next table and
start showing his tattoos and telling stories to next guests. This goes
on for the whole dinner, this bad smelling and sweating owner goes
through every table and just sits down or tells "wonderful" stories
about his "great" adventures. Most amazing is that the owner is from
California where people typically have good basic manners, at least in
this price range restaurants.

Best part was when we were leaving the restaurant and owner came to
shake our hands. He quietly said me: "Don't come here anymore, you are
not welcome in this restaurant. You are too cold." The owner probably
didn't like us, since we didn't want to listen his "amazing" stories
and smell the sweat. For me it's fine if he wants to choose his
customers, but if the prices are so high, service so bad, food only
decent and the smell unbelievable, he could be a little more polite.

I have never been so unsatisfied to any restaurant than Betelnut. My
advice to all of you is to stay far away from this restaurant as it
might ruin your romantic evening. I will never go anywhere near to
Betelnut and also warned our hotels (Central Samui Beach Resort and Le
Royal Meridien) about Betelnut.

Johan Forsberg

You must be refering to this place:

http://www.siamdiningguide.com/betelnut.html

According to the review, the chef and owner is a Californian and used
to be head chef at Poppies, apparently the same one you said was "For
example Poppies restaurant in Ko Samui has much better
price-quality-service level."

Can this guy be so good in one place and so bad in another even by your
own account?

You must be refering to this place:

http://www.siamdiningguide.com/betelnut.html

Since this guy apparently used to be head chef at Poppies, I wonder if
others have the same opinion of him that you do.

"Johan" wrote in message
ps.com...
Betelnut restaurant review in Ko Samui
--------------------------------------

Be afraid, be very afraid of this restaurant.



SNIP

I can only agree with the review.
We had a similar experience but not as bad by the sounds of it.

The owner/chef also saw fit the criticise our choice of food & drink from
the menu
rudely pointing out what a bad choice combination we had made.

We were staying in Poppies at the time and because of this had to suffer
tableside
discussions on how much Poppies had gone downhill since he left and general
'bad mouthing' of the Poppies management and staff.
Despite my pointing out that we found all the Poppies staff to be
delightful.

The guy was not capable of taking a hint and had to be told that we wanted
to enjoy our
meal without a forced discussion, which went down like a lead balloon of
course.

I believe the chef should be described as a pompous boor who believes his
own hype

....and the food was not _that_ great either, I've eaten better at many
places.

Still that's our view and I'm sure others have different experiences.
He manages to stay in business so must be doing something right, it was just
not for us I'm afraid.

"Johan" wrote in message
ps.com...
Betelnut restaurant review in Ko Samui
--------------------------------------

Be afraid, be very afraid of this restaurant.



SNIP

I can only agree with the review.
We had a similar experience but not as bad by the sounds of it.

The owner/chef also saw fit the criticise our choice of food & drink from
the menu
rudely pointing out what a bad choice combination we had made.

We were staying in Poppies at the time and because of this had to suffer
tableside
discussions on how much Poppies had gone downhill since he left and general
'bad mouthing' of the Poppies management and staff.
Despite my pointing out that we found all the Poppies staff to be
delightful.

The guy was not capable of taking a hint and had to be told that we wanted
to enjoy our
meal without a forced discussion, which went down like a lead balloon of
course.

I believe the chef should be described as a pompous boor who believes his
own hype

....and the food was not _that_ great either, I've eaten better at many
places.

Still that's our view and I'm sure others have different experiences.
He manages to stay in business so must be doing something right, it was just
not for us I'm afraid.

It would be interesting to hear the restaurant owners version of this.




"Johan" wrote in message
ps.com...
Betelnut restaurant review in Ko Samui
--------------------------------------

Be afraid, be very afraid of this restaurant.

I wanted to share my terrible exprience of this small restaurant in Ko
Samui island in Thailand as quite many travel guide books have
recommended it. Couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to Betelnut
restaurant in Chaweng beach for a dinner, since we had read a very good
review of this restaurant. Betelnut is claimed to be almost a gourmet
level restaurant with a very good service, excellet food and very high
prices. We had totally different experience, except the high prices of
course.

Service was quite crude, especially when you compare it to thai
restaurants, which typically have very good service. Betelnut however
is not a thai restaurant, it's owned by a foreigner and it claims to
serve California style thai food. The prices are very high, you can
easily eat one week in good thai restaurants with same amount that you
have to pay in Betelnut. Food is decent, nothing special, definitely
nothing to do with gourmet. For example Poppies restaurant in Ko Samui
has much better price-quality-service level.

Well, what was so terrible in this restaurant that I need to write this
review? It's the owner. We were having a romantic dinner and trying to
enjoy the decent food and wine and just suddenly the overweight owner
sits down to our table. He says nothing just sits there and is sweating
like no one else, basically he smelled very bad, because of the sweat.
Then my wife trys to start a conservation and asks if he is the owner
and now he starts talking about how he has travelled all over the
world, lived in Istanbul and made food in different countries. He keeps
talking about how great guy he is allthough we didn't even ask him to
sit down to our table. Finally he leaves and goes to the next table and
start showing his tattoos and telling stories to next guests. This goes
on for the whole dinner, this bad smelling and sweating owner goes
through every table and just sits down or tells "wonderful" stories
about his "great" adventures. Most amazing is that the owner is from
California where people typically have good basic manners, at least in
this price range restaurants.

Best part was when we were leaving the restaurant and owner came to
shake our hands. He quietly said me: "Don't come here anymore, you are
not welcome in this restaurant. You are too cold." The owner probably
didn't like us, since we didn't want to listen his "amazing" stories
and smell the sweat. For me it's fine if he wants to choose his
customers, but if the prices are so high, service so bad, food only
decent and the smell unbelievable, he could be a little more polite.

I have never been so unsatisfied to any restaurant than Betelnut. My
advice to all of you is to stay far away from this restaurant as it
might ruin your romantic evening. I will never go anywhere near to
Betelnut and also warned our hotels (Central Samui Beach Resort and Le
Royal Meridien) about Betelnut.

Johan Forsberg