Flandria, a chip shop in Pattaya
Of course, you can order fries in any Dutch or Belgian restaurant in Pattaya as part of your meat or fish dish and the quality is generally good. But since a few months we have a real Belgian chip shop here.
It's Flandria, guesthouse/restaurant annex chip shop in Soi Buakhow on the corner of Soi 21. It was actually already there, in Soi LK Metro, but Patrick and his girlfriend Tum moved to this larger building in 2012.
The chip shop is the front part on the street side. Fries are baked in a real frying oven, which I have not seen elsewhere in Thailand. There is a sitting area where you can eat your cone of fries with mayo (70 Baht) while watching the busy traffic of Soi Buakhow. You can also, as we are used to, just stroll along the many shops, bars, etc.
Behind the chip shop is the restaurant, simple in design, with a choice of Western and Thai dishes. No real culinary delights, but the food comes with reasonable portions and tastes good. On a forum I read quite a bit of criticism about the quality, but that criticism was about 6 months ago and apparently something has improved, because I ate well.
Frikadellen, homemade croquettes, sandwiches, good breakfasts are available, but I opted for something different on my two recent visits. In Jan Dekker's recent story “Dutch food in Thailand” I already commented that I ate chicory with ham and cheese for the first time in years. It was served as a casserole, was tasty, but not prepared entirely according to "my" rules. It was more like chicory with ham in a cheese sauce. My idea is to wrap the blanched heads of chicory in thin slices of ham and cheese and then in the oven (without the mashed potatoes) preferably with a top grill, so that a nice crust is created. Anyway, the memory of the Netherlands was there and I enjoyed it. The second time I chose the Belgian meatballs in a chunky tomato sauce with fries. Great choice too, tasty balls and fries, good quality.
Flandria also has a number of rooms to rent out and there – according to the photos on their website flandriaguesthouse.com – simplicity is king. All rooms have been renovated and everything you need is available. The website doesn't show prices, but knowing Soi Buakhow the rooms won't be really expensive.
All in all, well recommended to go and have a look and eat!
I have tried the fries at Flandria a few times ((in October, November and also in December 2013) and the taste was good and the fries sauce fine!
Only the fries were super soggy and quite greasy. Now I'm not a fryer, but I think the temperature of the fat was too low. The first time the owner (man in the photo) baked the fries and the other times a Thai employee. There is still some room for improvement in my opinion.
Well, where have the chip shops in Belgium gone? I think back on it with fondness. A scandal that they have disappeared. A streetscape that simply belongs to Belgium. That weird little peeing statue in Brussels will remain. A mystery to me.
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70 bath for a fries? Those Thais can never afford that themselves, can they? Do they also get the 50% discount as it should be..
Yet it remains quite pricey for a fried potato. Then I prefer to eat Thai food, which is why I came here. And if you have lived in Thailand for a long time, it is not difficult to bake delicious fries yourself, is it?
What would a frikandel cost, 85 baht and specially 100 baht? That would be almost even more expensive than here in the Netherlands itself.
If you stay in Thailand for a longer period of time, you sometimes feel like eating something from the homeland. Pack of fries. You can also bake them at home, if you find a good deep fryer, and… the right potatoes! They are not cheap, and whether 70 baht is expensive: after drinking some beer, it tastes like this and if you drink beer, do you keep the purse strings?
He is Belgian and calls his fries "french" fries. See the restaurant section of his website…..
That's what pisses me off. They're not French fries at all. That was sent into the world because ignorant Americans got to know the Belgian fries during the liberation, but had no idea that they were in Belgium.
You have to educate the Thai correctly and pass on the correct information instead of confirming those fabrications.
Damn it shit!
I had dinner there in October and was very disappointed especially if you are used to Belgian chip shops. No for me French fries in Belgium and Thai food in Thailand
De gustibus et coloribus non disputandem est.
In French star restaurant Le Beaulieu @ Wireless Rd, Belgian fries (!) were recently served with the Japanese Wagyu steak. We were invited there with my Thai friend by Belgian friends at the beginning of December, along with a French and American couple. According to an explanation – in perfect French – by the Laotian maître d'hôtel, the fries were cut by hand, wrapped in a towel, pre-fried at 120° in peanut oil, aired and then baked to a beautiful dark golden yellow color at 160°. The oil would only be reused a few times. Our American dinner companion didn't like his fries, the French fries from Mac Donalds were better according to him. You can also fry fries crispy until they are almost chips, that's how my Thai friend likes it. Prefer the variant as described earlier, it can still be creamy and taste like fries.
But it may be said, Flandria fries do not taste equally good every time, there must be a logical or a Thai explanation for this?
Even the tom kha kai doesn't taste the same every time in Thailand...