Soi Notes is a food journal, not a ranking. Here is how I work, so you can judge my judgment.
Who is writing. I am German. I lived in East Asia for several years, and now I am living in Pattaya for a while, eating my way through it. English is not my first language, so my sentences may sometimes stumble. If one trips you up, tell me.
How I use AI. I do the eating, the tasting, the photos and the opinions myself. For the language, I use two assistants: DeepL helps me translate, and Claude helps me edit and structure my texts. The verdicts are mine.
What I cover. Local restaurants are the heart of this blog: the places where Pattaya actually eats. Beside them, I follow the food of East and Southeast Asia: Thailand, China and Japan, plus Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Curries from India get their own place too. Years in East Asia taught me to taste with a few reference points. I will say when a dish reminds me of something I ate there, and I will say when it does not.
I pay for everything. I pay my own bills. No free meals, no sponsored visits, no deals with restaurants. If that ever changes, I will say so at the top of the post.
Discounts count as context, not as a trick. I sometimes use discount apps for hotel restaurants. When I do, I name the app and the discounted price, and I give the regular price as well. You should know what a meal costs on a normal day.
One visit is an impression. Two visits are an opinion. I try to eat at a place at least twice before I write a verdict. If I only went once, the post says so.
What I look at.
- Taste: Does the food do what it promises?
- Craft: Fresh ingredients, balance, a kitchen that cares.
- Price: What I paid, and what I got for it.
- Place: Setting, service, hygiene. Plastic stools are fine. Dirty ones are not.
- Story: Where the dish comes from, and why it tastes the way it does.
Prices. Every price comes with a date and is given in Thai baht. Prices in Pattaya move fast. Check before you go.
No stars, no scores. Numbers pretend to be precise. Taste is not. Every post ends with a short Verdict: a few honest sentences on who should go, who should skip it, and what to order.
My taste is not yours. I like bold flavors and small budgets. I try to say so when it shapes my view. Taste is personal, and that is fine.
Photos and videos. All photos and video clips are taken by me on a phone. No stock images, no borrowed pictures.
Mistakes. I get things wrong: closed shops, changed menus, wrong prices. If you spot an error, write to me at Reddit or Bluesky. I fix it and mark the correction at the bottom of the post.