Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Dao Cafe Restaurant and GoGo Review

Paradise In The Suburbs.



There are a few instances in life where the guys in the suburbs of Pattaya have it better than those fellows who choose to spend their time solely between Sukhumvit and Beach Road. The Dao Cafe is one of those instances.

For those of you in the know, the Dao Cafe is the suburban French version of Pattaya's German-flavored Jade House in Jomtien Nivate... and quite a bit nicer. For those of you not in the know, Dao Cafe is...
(1) a restaurant
(2) a bar
(3) a pool
(4) a guest house / hotel
(5) a massage and spa facility
(6) a short-time gogo bar

To sum it all up, (1) the pizza at this place is among the best served in Pattaya... and about 100 baht less per pie than it's nearest competitor, (2) the bar serves beers for 50-60 baht and mixed drinks for 65-80 baht, (3) the pool is free to use if you are a customer and is one of the nicest pools you could hope to find in such a small space, (4) the guest house rooms are very very nice, (5) the spa offers a full range of services, and (6) the short-time gogo bar is filled with pretty girls who have a short-time bar fine price that is comparible to or less than Soi 6 prices.

Before you ask: I didn't make it to the GoGo bar... I just stuck my head in, looked around, and then came back home to read the review other people had posted. (Here is a restaurant review somebody else wrote. Here is another.)

First off, you have to find the place. You can either go up Soi Khao Noi (if you don't know where that is, give up now) until you get to Chatkaew Village, and turn left, and then drive up the hill until you see the place on your left, or you can drive up Soi Nerm Pleubwan, and just before you get to the gas station on your right, you drive down the soi there, back through the empty plaza, out the far side, and you see the place on your right. If you want better, you'll have to call the place (038-427-041) for directions.

The place is set up beautifully. The cafe and the gogo bar are together, but discretely separate: You have to walk back through an almost-hidden passageway to reach the bar; conversely you can walk around the outside of the restaurant, around the block to the dead-end street, and go in through the bar's own entrance.


As for the food, the pizza is fantastic... really fantastic. I had the Hawaiian pizza for 160 baht and it was piled high with toppings, and was perfect. (Pizzas range in price from 140 to 180 baht, and are about 16-18 inches in size.) Epril had a steak and fries for 200 baht which was unfortunately not very good... stick to the pizza. Sodas were 40 baht each.

Really though, the Dao bar is the perfect thing for the Pattaya suburbanite: A nice relaxing atmosphere sitting next to... or in... a wonderful pool, sipping drinks at half the price of the bars in the city, having a fantastic lunch, and then at one's leisure, moseying around the back to join the girls in the GoGo bar for some fun. What more do you need?

5 comments:

Paul said...

Ag well the cat is let out - we have been trying to keep this place secret from the tourists for years.

Yes, maybe the best bar etc in Pattaya.

BTW its an Air-Con BEER Bar not a Gogo and it's separate to the hotel and cafe. Bar users CANNOT use the pool - only hotel guests have that privilege.

Cheers

Jil Wrinkle said...

It's funny, because when I started writing this review, I said to myself, "This place is so nice and so special, I just know I'm going to get a comment chastising me for spoiling the secret.

My reasoning is this: Anybody who can find the Dao Cafe does not qualify as a tourist. Hey, even most Farang Westerners who live in Pattaya (West of Sukhumvit, that is) think that area East of Sukhimvit Road is some mysterious netherworld of unending housing developments and/or unnamed, twisting roads through featureless fields.

Sorry... thought it was a GoGo bar because it had a little stage with a chrome pole... but then by that definition, it would make The Buffalo Bar a GoGo bar as well, wouldn't it?

Damn... I can't go swimming without being a hotel guest? That sucks. I'll just get really drunk and fall in... that will be my excuse.

Anonymous said...

Jil Wrinkle really knows what he is talking about. Great restaurant.

Anonymous said...

is there a website for booking rooms?

Jil Wrinkle said...

No clue. Google it.