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The menu at Par's Place had a wonderful little page that covered a few things that had confused and yes, in the beginning, annoyed me about most restaurants in Pattaya. He was nice enough to print me off a copy. With great liberty taken, below is what he gave me.

While specifically not mentioned below, I suspect this is also why the waiter staff hover over you no matter how long huge the meal is or how long you take to decide what you want. This custom can be very unnerving to some.

When dining out in Thai restaurants you will find that a few things will happen that may annoy you.

 

If there are a couple or more people eating at your table, not all the meals or even portions of a single meal, will come out together. It may span as much as 15 to 20 minutes from the arrival of the first plate until the full order has been completely served. This is not because of poor planning or poor service.

 

Thai food is cooked quickly at very high temperatures to seal in the flavor of the ingredients. So if the meal is prepared and put aside while the others are made, the meal will be mushy.

 

Another thing that might annoy the Western mindset is that when meals are finished, none of the plates are cleared away.

 

To understand this style of service you must know how the Thai people traditionally eat.

 

When they dine out for the night, which is exactly what they do, they start off with a dish that is put in the middle of the table and everyone has some. Then maybe half an hour later they order another dish. So during the course of the evening four Thai diners may eat three to six different dishes. That is why the plates are left on the table.

 

They may have the right idea of dining out, the meal lasts all night, with conversation the major staple. Compare this with the all to common Western practice of individual meals eaten as fast as possible.