Restaurant comparisons in Udon Thani

Fortunately, Charly's life is full of pleasant surprises (unfortunately sometimes also less pleasant ones). Until a few years ago, he would never have dared to predict that he would spend the rest of his life in Thailand. However, he has now been living in Thailand for a while. Close by in recent years Udon Thani. Today some restaurant comparisons.

---

Restaurant comparisons in Udon Thani

When Toey and I go to Udon, we can usually be found somewhere within the square kilometer from Central Plaza to UD night market on the one hand and between Prajak Road and Wattana Nuwong Road on the other. A very small, also very centrally located area in Udon. Of course there are also trips to, for example, Nong Prajak Park and recently, through my corridor to Thai lessons, to Srisuk Road.

Over the years we have eaten in many restaurants. We eat out twice a week on average, so we have seen a whole series of restaurants by now. Of course we have not eaten in all the restaurants in Udon. Restaurants are already selected in advance on location and whether or not Western cuisine (in addition to Thai cuisine) is available. I have mostly limited myself to the restaurants in Central Plaza and its immediate surroundings, the square kilometer indicated above. Partly due to the fact that I am not so agile anymore and try to avoid long walks. When judging a restaurant, what matters to me is the quality of the food, certainly not the quantity, and whether the restaurant serves real wine. I'm not a beer drinker, especially when eating. I only drink beer when I'm really thirsty. With dinner I like to enjoy a nice glass of wine, and of course a nice meal.

After several years here in Udon I have selected a few restaurants where I eat very regularly. The quality of the food at the selected restaurants varies considerably. I did not rate the Thai food. I used the following criteria when assessing the restaurants:

• Quality of food
• The options on the menu
• Real wine available. Yes No
• So-called white wine available, so kind of surrogate. Yes No
• Price in relation to the quality of the food and other facilities such as air conditioning, terrace, parking, friendliness of the staff.
• Service (speed and friendliness of service staff, waiting time for drinks and food.
• Additional comments

Based on the above criteria, I assessed seven restaurants and also gave them a final grade. There are of course many more restaurants in Udon, but I have not visited all of them regularly. There are also restaurants that I have visited but often only once or twice. The fact that I haven't visited those restaurants more often has probably everything to do with the experience I had that one or second time.

For clarity: the rating is my personal experience. So many people, so many flavors. I like a good glass of wine, others will prefer an ice cold beer. One likes fast food, the other likes a pizza from Italian cuisine, another prefers refined food and another prefers to eat only Thai food. And of course this also depends on your budget.

So again, in this story I give my personal preferences and experiences.

The selected restaurants are:

1. Sizzler at Central Plaza
2. Laem Chareon Seafood at Central Plaza
3. Pannarai hotel in soi sampan
4. daSofia in soi sampan
5. Irish Clock, soi sampan
6. Kavinburi hotel, prajak road
7. Good Corner, Prajak Road

 

1. Sizzler in Udon is part of a restaurant chain. You can find a Sizzler branch in most cities. In Udon you will find Sizzler on the fourth floor of the Central Plaza shopping center. Parking is easy in the adjacent parking garage, from where you can walk straight into the shopping center. Sizzler has air conditioning.

You will find practically the same offer in all Sizzler restaurants, including the buffet. Purchasing is done centrally and the dishes in a Sizzler restaurant are prepared according to a centrally issued recipe. Despite this common recipe and the standard quality of the ingredients purchased, the quality of the dishes to be prepared naturally also depends on the skills of the local chefs. In Udon we are apparently lucky with the chefs present. I've eaten there countless times, and so far not a single miss. Always high quality food.

The fairly unique thing about Sizzler is the buffet. It is eagerly used. There are even people who come exclusively for the buffet. These people pay about 180 baht for the buffet. People who also choose a main course do not pay anything for the buffet. Sizzler has an extensive menu with a wide choice of different meat and fish dishes, starters, children's menus and special offers. In Thailand, a well-cooked steak is not that easy. Sizzler manages to do that, with a lot of slogans too.

The drinks menu offers a wide range of soft drinks. The choice for an alcoholic snack is limited to a brand of beer, red and white wine, both by the glass and by the whole bottle. This is real wine. Per glass 240 baht and per bottle 1.200 baht. Based on quality, menu versatility, pricing, staff service, presence of real wine, location and air con, Sizzler is my number 1 restaurant in Udon.

2. The Laem Chareon Seafood This restaurant is right next to Sizzler. My comments about parking and location therefore also apply to Laem. Laem, as the full name suggests, is completely focused on fish in combination with noodles. Fish and noodles are therefore the specialties of the house. And it must be said, they do it superbly. Shrimp, crab, lobster, squid, you will find it here in all kinds of forms. These dishes are served with all kinds of noodle variations.

This specialization is also their weak point. Because you know, if you're hungry for fish, there's no better restaurant than Laem. But sometimes you don't know what food you're craving, and then a non-specialized restaurant is often preferable. Nevertheless, all dishes at Laem are of excellent quality. Downside for me is that Laem doesn't serve real wine, but a surrogate. I can imagine that too. The demand for white or red wine will not be great. Most Thais drink water, a soft drink and sometimes beer when they eat out. The average final bill is at a slightly higher level than at Sizzler or even much higher if more expensive types of fish, such as lobster, are chosen. For me, Laem ranks number 4 among my favorite restaurants.

3. The Pannarai Hotel.

The Pannarai hotel is located in the nicest street of Udon, soi sampan (or as the local Thai say here: soi farang). Parking is no problem. There is always a place available, sometimes there are even a lot of places available. By the way, that's not your problem. You park your car in front of the entrance of the hotel and one of the staff will park your car somewhere on the grounds.

The restaurant within the Pannarai hotel had a bad reputation with me for a while. Since the end of last year, 2018, a few things have changed in the Pannarai. A new management and a completely different kitchen staff. What a relief. There is now also a separate entrance for people who want to enter the restaurant from soi sampan. The restaurant even got its own name, but that name just doesn't come to mind right now. The restaurant now delivers excellent food. Good in taste.

The Pannarai Hotel

The menu is more or less the same as before and offers plenty of options. The difference is that there is now a kitchen brigade that knows how to flavor those dishes. My favorite dishes: the salmon salad as a starter and the fried chicken fillet on a spaghetti base as a main course. Sometimes I want to follow that up with a banana split ice cream. Unfortunately, that kite does not always fly because there are not always bananas! The drink menu is very extensive. Whiskeys and various liqueurs are also on the list. Of course, that does not mean that all those drinks are indeed in stock. So always inform first.

I once experienced, in the early days, that I drank campari there. After the second glass I wanted a third glass of Campari, you know that in hotels these kinds of drinks are served as if they were nose drops. Unfortunately, a third glass of campari was not possible because the campari was gone.

Anyway, that drinks menu is normally not my starting point for me. That is a good glass of red or white wine. And let the Pannarai excel precisely in that. For Thai standards they have a good choice of bottles of real red and white wine. The price per bottle is between 1.300 and 1.600 baht. For some time now, if you order a glass of wine, you will receive a glass with a surrogate wine.

That was better organized in my early days at the Pannarai. Then you also got real wine served by the glass. Not anymore, so I feel obliged to buy a bottle of wine. The wait staff and service is always excellent. The price level of the dishes is very acceptable. This restaurant is now number three for me.

4. DaSofia restaurant

This restaurant is also located in the nicest street of Udon. A big plus is the open, raised terrace with seating for at least 30 people. If it is too hot outside, daSofia also has a spacious indoor area, which is air-conditioned. Certainly not an unnecessary luxury this year, because it was exceptionally warm from the end of February. The restaurant is run by Tsum, assisted by her husband Manfredo. Manfredo is of Swiss/Italian descent. It will therefore come as no surprise that the restaurant is mainly aimed at Italian cuisine.

Parking is less easy. Because we are loyal visitors and guests at the Pannarai hotel, we can always park our car there. For other visitors, you have to be lucky to find a free parking space in soi sampan. An alternative is to park your car in the free parking spaces opposite the Centara hotel. Then cross through the back exit/entrance of the Little Havana beer bar complex onto soi sampan. That's a five minute walk at most.

daSofia's map offers many variations. People from miles around come to daSofia for the excellent pizzas. My favourite: pizza number 11. The Cordon Bleu also enjoys a large number of followers. Secret in all dishes: many authentic ingredients are imported from Italy. The menu therefore contains many pizzas, pasta in the form of all kinds of spaghetti, ham/cheese schnitzel (Cordon Bleu) with delicious cheese, regular schnitzels and an extensive cheese menu. So you can also take a piece of cheese here as a starter. daSofia has about eight types of cheese to offer, including Brie and Gorgonzola.

Also some tasty desserts. The profitoroles and the tiramisu are my favourites. The tiramisu is made by Tsum himself and is a first class sweet treat. The drinks menu is also very extensive. For me, daSofia's house wine is of an excellent quality, 150 baht a glass of real wine. On occasion I sometimes purchase a special bottle of wine. Prices of these special bottles of wine: between 1.200 and 1.500 baht. Enjoy and watch the activities in soi sampan from the terrace.

daSofia is a restaurant actually staffed by Tsum's family. In the kitchen are two sisters and a brother of Tsum. This gives a decent continuity in the staff occupation and in the quality of the dishes. The service staff is also subject to little change. The current three service ladies have been employed for quite some time, which also translates into good service and knowledge of the menu. The service ladies can effortlessly answer questions about the menu or requested recommendations.

I have been visiting daSofia since their opening, over three years ago, with an average frequency of once every two weeks. Based on their quality, location and coziness, daSofia is number 2 on my list of favorite restaurants.

5. Irish Clock

Also this restaurant is located in soi sampan. Irish Clock is very centrally located in soi sampan with the Pannarai hotel on the left, the daSofia Italian restaurant on the right and the brand new The Eight hotel opposite. It has a small outside terrace but also a large space inside, which is equipped with air conditioning.

After a somewhat difficult lease period, owner Som has been back at the helm for some time. She does this with great charisma and great commitment. Customer friendliness and service are the keywords. Som does that wonderfully. Moreover, she can also offer a number of rooms for rent for the attractive price of 750 baht per night.

Since a few months, Som also has an excellent strength in her staff, in the person of Kaet. Kaet was a lady bartender at Brick House inn, but has returned to the old nest after yet another collision with the manager there. And that is Irish Clock. Irish Clock's service staff does a fantastic job. Absolutely no complaints about that. How different is it with the kitchen staff.

My curiosity to give Irish Clock's kitchen a try was aroused by a few positive messages from farang on social media. I had visited the terrace of Irish Clock with some regularity, but never had anything to eat there. So just give it a try. But unfortunately: what comes out of the kitchen is a complete disaster. The kitchen staff even manages to ruin something as simple as spring rolls by removing it from the frying oil too quickly, so that the spring rolls are still cold inside. I could cite many more examples, but let's stop here.

From now on I will only come to Irish Clock for a drink, to chat with Som and/or Kaet, to chill on their terrace and nothing else.

On my list of favorites, Irish Clock comes last, place number 7. My advice to Som: replace your kitchen staff and find a good cook. Irish Clock is quite an attractively located bar/restaurant with a small but beautifully situated terrace. Irish Clock deserves a lot more customers, but that can only happen if the kitchen starts performing.

6. Kavinburi hotel

The restaurant of the Kavinburi hotel is located on Prajak Road, opposite the Good Corner restaurant and Nutty Park. Parking is easy. The hotel has a spacious car park at the back of the hotel. Kavinburi's menu is fairly simple and certainly not extensive. It is wonderful to relax on the narrow terrace. No air conditioning on the terrace. A very big, standing fan, which is completely focused on me. In addition to the usual drinks, Kavinburi also offers bottles of surrogate wine. However, the quality of that surrogate wine is quite good. As well as the price: approx. 650 baht per bottle.

According to Teoy, the Thai food is of good quality and taste. So I have no judgment about that and limit myself to the western kitchen in Kavinburi. I usually take the caesar salad in combination with a spaghetti dish. Sometimes I limit myself to some spring rolls, which are served warm here, by the way. An outlier is the banana split. Again depending on the presence of bananas and whipped cream (from a spray can of course, I have not yet come across real whipped cream in all of Thailand).

But if all the ingredients for the banana split are present, I get a banana split that is unparalleled. After consuming this ice cream creature, I will not step on the scale for 3-4 days.

The number of service staff is very limited, namely one to two. But given the number of diners, that is not too little. In other words: the restaurant is poorly attended. The young man who usually serves us is certainly sympathetic and goes out of his way to make us comfortable.

On my list of favorites I put Kavinburi in 5th place, it should be noted that the difference with Good Corner is very slight, and that the difference is mainly made by two things: 1. The good quality of the surrogate wine and 2. The very extensive banana split.

7. Good Corner

You can also find Good Corner on Prajak Road, opposite the Kavinburi hotel. It's the place I've been the most since the beginning when I came to Udon. The location is fantastic. Approximately on the corner of soi sampan, 150 meters from Central Plaza shopping center on one side and about 150 meters from UD night market on the other side, plus another next to the entrance to Nutty Park. A better location in Udon is not imaginable. Full of passers-by and then a decent terrace is of course very welcome. Good Corner has that terrace, both at the front and at the (left) side.

Parking is not so easy here. If there is no free parking space on Prajak Road, in front of Good Corner, it is best to go to Central Plaza and then park the car in the parking garage (note that it closes at 21.00 PM) or in the free parking spaces opposite the Centara hotel.

Good Corner has been run by a sympathetic Dane for about 2 years, together with his charming Thai wife. The previous owner was also a Danish. Not surprising that the clientele consists largely of Scandinavians. Good Corner's menu is quite extensive. Unfortunately, the quality of the food in general is very mediocre. Fortunately, there are some exceptions. The pizzas are not great but acceptable (too thick base). The spaghettis are decent. The meatballs are way too fatty, but sometimes that's nice. The ham/cheese salad, the tuna salad and the egg salad are ok. Particularly delicious is the hot served apple pie with ice cream and whipped cream and the dessert ice cream. In my opinion, those are the real highlights at Good Corner.

The drink list is very extensive. Most drinks are low priced. The wine is unfortunately again a surrogate wine, so not a real wine. The service staff is always obliging and happy to provide service.

It is not so easy to differentiate with Kavinburi. So whether one ranks 5th and the other ranks 6th is highly debatable. Anyway, for now Good Corner is in my 6th place.

charlY (www.thailandblog.nl/tag/charly/)

Appendix: Overview of restaurant reviews in Udon