Pattaya Cafe

The papaya salad is SOO GOOD!!! If you want it authentic, this is the place. They use real fermented paste and you can smell and taste it. This is the one thing that will bring me back. Their other dishes were good too but I fell in love with the papaya salad.
The food is fresh and service is very fast. The young girl is awesome in her service. Thanks for a great experience.

Best place for Lao/​Thai food. Servers were nice and polite. I would come back once or twice weekly for food this good

ordered green curry and pad kee mao for lunch — both dishes were very tasty and good — i ordered thai spicy — it is hot but it is good
the server is very friendly

I wanted to try this place bc of the reviews. food was good, but service was lacking by a lot! there were only 2 servers at the time and it took forever for the food to come out. We ordered the angel crab which was pretty delish, but it was cold in the middle. When I informed them they went to cook it some more? but it was still cold in the middle for a few of the them. I’d like to give this place another chance bc the food is pretty good, but I’d give it a few more months so they can hire more servers.

I was pretty disappointed with the service here. For a Friday night there was ONE server for the entire dining room. She also looked like she was WAY too young to be working, didn’t look a day past middle school age. When we first arrived, she apologized for our wait to get a table said that her other server went somewhere she didn’t know… Took awhile to get service after (again, only one server) after about 15 min of sitting down and waiting to be served, the other waitress came in and I heard her say to the poor girl running around the restaurant «why didn’t you call me? Do you need my help?» Pretty ridiculous if you asked me. Finally the other server who came in from somewhere else came and got our order.
Food I must say was delicious, it did not disappoint. Which is the reason why I’m giving this place 3 stars. Everything came out one at a time… Atleast 5+ minutes apart, which sucks when you’re trying to enjoy dinner TOGETHER with friends. My husband got the Pattaya BBQ and he said it was ok, he was pretty much done with it by the time we got our appetizers. I made him start eating in fear that his food would get cold. My friend ordered the Crab Angels to start, and at first they were cold, so we sent them back, when warm, as it should have been, it was pretty good. It had a bit of curry in it which gave it a nice twist. I ordered the Laos style Papaya Salad (Thai hot, because that’s the only way you should ever have it in my opinion) and it was SO good, you can tell it was homemade. It was definitely spicy. My friends husband got the crispy duck, which was also delicious, and my friend got the pad sa ew, again delicious. I got the spicy lo mein as an entrée and it was really good. I couldn’t eat much of it in one sitting being that I also got that Thai hot, and I was being a wimp and couldn’t handle all the spiciness.
All in all, if this review was based on food alone, it’d get atleast 4.5 stars, everything was delicious (I just didn’t try the Pattaya BBQ)
But because the service was absolutely horrible, I can’t give more than 3. I honestly want to give it 2, but I feel bad for the poor girl who had to serve the restaurant on her own. I forgot to mention that after the other girl took our order, I never saw her again until we paid our bill and there were 4 very messy tables in the restaurant due to the fact again, there was only one person serving.
I don’t think I would be back, unless I was picking something up to go, because like I said, the food is amazing. Service just made our dining experience far from enjoyable.

I went to Pattaya for lunch one day. The food was great. It’s a combination of Thai and Laos flavors for most of their dishes. Pretty authentic. I ordered the Pad See Ew. which was fantastic. The only downside on my part was ordering the dish to be made spicy. It was extremely spicy. so just be careful. :)

YES! Finally found a restaurant that serves Laos food up north! I used to have to travel a hour to Hot Café down south by the airport for any Laos food, but Pattaya Café is only 10 mins away and the food is great if not better! Plus the environment is way cleaner, the restaurant presents itself well with the kind waitresses and furniture and dishes!
I was craving papaya salad hot Laos style and they nailed it! Just the write heat! I wish you could get pork skin to eat with it instead of cabbage though. The chicken wings, lad na, Laos sausage were delish! Top it off with a Thai tea in a nice fancy glass! I’m definitely coming back here more often, especially since it’s close to work for lunch and home.

Ordered pineapple fried rice, massaman curry and mango sticky rice to go. When I arrived about 15 minutes later the food was ready and packed securely. The server who helped me was polite and got me out of there quickly. Everything we ordered was delicious! The amount of spice was just right and the dishes were very flavorful. It was all still piping hot when I got home, too. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ highly recommend. I will be back.

Yes!!! It’s just like eating food my aunties and family made growing up-​LAO style! I’ve been trying to find a restaurant that made Lao papaya salad since I’ve moved here to Georgia 3 years ago, found out about the new ownership and had to try it. Absolutely delicious and satisfied every craving! And to top it off– LAO sausage and sticky rice!!! Yum! If you’ve never had Lao food and enjoy exotic food, this place is great! Make sure to order Thai spice. It’s fire! Love love love!

Happy to have found this Thai/​Laos restaurant in Duluth. Pattaya is located in the same shopping center as Kroger & LA Fitness but the restaurant is facing Peachtree Ind Blvd near Moe’s. The service was great; most of the food exceeded my expectations; the prices are pretty reasonable. The restaurant is not that big but is filled with mainly booths. Looks like they can possibly accommodate one or two big parties at a time depending on the size with their long table in the middle of the room. We ordered everything spicy level: Thai hot and it was actually pretty spicy (in a good way).
~ pad thai — this was my least favorite dish of the night but it was still pretty good; it’s just a bit too sweet for us
~ papaya salad (Laos style) — delicious! I’ve been craving this for a long time but haven’t found any restaurant around town that makes it Laos style
~ chicken khow poon — I haven’t had much luck finding this around town either and the bowl of chicken khow poon at Pattaya was awesome
~ spicy basil fried rice — great flavors & just the right amount of heat
~ thai iced tea — rich, creamy, & yummy!

Rolls appetizers are small. I would get at twice the size at other restaurants. Tom Yum soup is too salty.
Owner is friendly & trying to reach out. Its a plus. I’ll try again some other time.
Thanks —

The food tasted amazing! I had almost everything so I can try it. Our waitress was very nice and kind. The new owner, Paul was great also! I drove all the way from Acworth/​Woodstock so I can try it and I loved it. I’ll try it again sometime soon. Everyone has to try it for their own opinion. The restaurant is somewhat facing Boston Market in case you can’t find it.

I decided to frequent Pattaya Café once again after reading that it was under new ownership and that the chef was of Laotian descent. I was made aware of the new changes on Unilocal by the post made by the new owner Paul C. I too am of Laotian descent and have a very difficult time finding Lao food in my area – so I decided to try it again. As soon as my husband and I walked in I saw the owner – I pretty much looked at him right in the eyes and he turned to walk away – no greeting. That threw me off a little bit because I thought that as an owner of an establishment regardless of who walked through the door you would want to build some type of rapport with your potential customer. I was then welcomed by a sweet young girl who walked us to our table. She was our waitress the entire time and was very helpful and had great recommendations.
We ordered the papaya salad, chicken wings, spring rolls, shrimp tom yum soup, and sticky rice – very traditional dish. The food was great – I have no complaints.
My complaint is that outside of the young girl who was about 11 – 15 years old the customer service wasn’t great. I saw many adults who didn’t even address us. Some of the cooks came out from the back and set up a table to eat near our table. No hello or even goodbye as we left. I thought this was just so odd. I was really expecting them to really try to go above and beyond to build rapport since the old Pattaya Café was just mediocre. I will say that the quality of food has been highly improved but the customer service failed me.

This place has been on my «must check out» list for a bit. This used to be the Polish restaurant that we used to dine at often. After they closed Pattaya Café came in. We got the green curry with shrimp, drunken noodles with chicken, and a Thai iced tea. They have a pretty large menu with both Indonesian and Thai cuisines. It works well for a group that wants options. We got our entrees medium spicy which definitely had some heat to it. For those that can’t handle much spicy well I think the medium spicy level would be too much to handle. For those that like some heat then medium is the way to go. We both really enjoyed the drunken noodles. Noodles were cooked well and had good flavor. It was also loaded with vegetables and chicken. The green curry with shrimp was not as big as I thought it would be. It was also a bit too watery (not thick) than what I’m used to. I’ve had better green curry elsewhere but will definitely try it again to make sure. The flavor was pretty good and they gave a good amount of shrimp. There was eggplant in there too which had a nice consistency and enjoyed because I love eggplant. The Thai iced tea was definitely a miss for me here. Maybe it was an off night? The ratio of tea to milk was off as well as the flavor. The thai iced tea portion was nice though. Ours came in a pretty tall styrofoam cup. It was actually pretty big. Kinda annoying when you go to some other places and the cup is small or it’s average size but ice to liquid ratio is really off so you really only get a few sips in and then it’s ice time. I noticed they also do delivery as well as lunch specials Mon-​Fri which is a great plus. The price point for the lunch specials are crazy good. Wish I worked nearby. Also their dinner prices are all very reasonable as well. I hope this place does well and sticks around this area. There needs to be more diverse dining options in this vicinity.
**Came back another time and ordered the Masaman Curry with shrimp and it was sooooo good! I’m picky on my curries and their Masaman curry is on point. Great flavor and consistency. They loaded it up with shrimp too! I’m pleased.**

My new local favorite
I have not been a Thai food lover but have been ordering lunch here for months with my co– workers. Love this place. My favorite is the pad Thai and I like it spicy. The Drunken Noodle is also good. The restaurant is clean and tidy. So glad to have this nearby’

I had super high expectations but should have known better since there was no one in there eating dinner. There has only been one great Thai spot in Duluth that I have ever had and it closed a couple of years ago, very sad :-(
We ordered the green curry and the spicy basil entrée with white rice (which was an extremely small portion), chicken satay and the spring rolls. The spring rolls were the best part of the meal and chicken satay was ok. My 2 year old enjoyed it. The Green curry was bland, no real flavor. The chicken was skimpy and unappealing. The spicy basil was no better and I was lacking in everything that I love about this dish that I thought was a basic Thai dish. How could I get these two wrong???
After spending $ 31 on this dinner, I wish I would have gotten a sandwich from publix with soup or ate a peanut butter and jelly.
I really hoped I had found my new favorite Thai spot that was close to my home. Guess the search continues or I have to settle driving to Golden Seven on satellite or Thai spice at the forum.

Pattaya is the name of a city in Thailand and the menu here at Pattaya Café reflects that with all sorts of Asian dishes… the thing is none of them are very distinctive (sadly). The food is fine, ok, and edible but just not really worth the drive if you are not close by.
It turns out that all of the Unilocal on here previous to mine are entirely correct … this is a solid 3-​star establishment.
The owners come across as very nice and certainly try to please but I get the impression they are not really experienced restauranteurs (for lack of a better excuse).
As other Unilocalers have mentioned, they offer «lunch specials» but it is just an entrée (when so many Asian eateries offer «lunch specials» that add a soup or egg roll or wings to accompany it).
And «other Unilocalers have mentioned,» the interior is oddly spartan … I’d love to know what business was in this space previous because the chairs in dining room are still wrapped with fabric denoting a special event space or a tea room. Kinda odd.
We tried three dishes at Pattaya and only felt like they were very standard.
Pattaya is located on the front side of the very busy Kroger/​LAFitness center near Pleasant Hill road and Peachtree Industrial Blvd. I wish them well but their kitchen should try and step it up.

Let me start out by saying that this place has potential, but needs some renovations. The interior of the restaurant itself needs some work. Something simple: why have a tv on when you are only going to show cartoons? Are a majority of the clientele children or adults who love cartoons? The walls are bare, you mainly see white, no significant works of art that could potentially give life to the place.
Another huge change that is needed: take out the supposed Vietnamese and Thai food. Just turn this place into an Indonesian restaurant and do it well. The Mi Tek-​Tek and Empe-​Empe I had with a friend were delicious. The Mi Tek-​Tek was $ 8.50 (you can split with another person because it was such a large portion). The Empe-​Empe was $ 7.50 each. For those of you who have no idea what these dishes are… Mi Tek-​Tek essentially is thin flat noodles that are stir fried (see picture I posted). This dish is actually like a street food dish if you were to visit Indonesia. The closest I can describe this dish to would be similar between a Chinese Lo Mein and Pad Thai due to the ingredients and differences in flavors. Empe-​Empe is made from grounded fish meat with an egg in the middle that is fried. This fried fish is then placed in a sauce with noodles. The Empe-​Empe is quite delicious here!
Another way to improve the restaurant: kitchen ventilation /​overall circulation of the restaurant. I noticed how much the smell of the cooking stuck to me after I left the restaurant. Yes, this could be me being picky, but honestly, I highly doubt guests want to purposefully smell like the restaurant when they leave the establishment.
Overall tips for new customers:
1. If you are visiting for the first time, wear casual clothing and expect to smell.
2. Order the Indonesian dishes because that is what they are really great at cooking. Don’t try the supposed Vietnamese or Thai dishes thinking that you’ll be impressed. The Indonesian dishes are what hits the spot!
3. If you have questions about any of the dishes and are new to it, don’t be afraid to ask! Indonesian food is delicious!

My experience was great. The food was delicious and service was excellent.
Not knowingly, I actually got here 4 minutes before closing and was just about to turn away; however, the owner insisted that we stay and eat.
The place looked clean and simple. We ordered a Thai tea to start with. The owner recommended the Salmon curry and Chicken Thai fried rice. I’m glad he did because they were delicious!
I really enjoyed my first time here. The owner made us feel very welcome. The prices were not the cheapest, but reasonable.
Definitely will return again for any future Thai fixes!

I wish there was a 4.5 because that’d be more accurate. We arrived on their opening day, and were their first table!
I ordered the Penang curry for lunch, and it came with coconut soup. The coconut soup was made fresh and tasted great. It was the perfect quantity to whet my appetite. They didn’t have hot tea after they said they did and forgot to put out silverware with our food but it’s their first day.
Penang curry was top notch. The curry was perfectly coconut with the perfect amount of spice rising out of the flavor in my mouth. Veggies were fresh and chicken was tasty!
Service was at a reasonable speed and the staff was very friendly! The owner stopped by and let us know that they have a grand opening in 2 weeks (7÷24÷15)! I’ll consider dropping by again!