One of the most popular restaurants in Bangkok, Thailand is Greyhound Café. It’s a small restaurant chain that has six stylish locations in only the most upscale malls in the city.
Greyhound Café is the place where the hip, the cool, and the people who want to be seen hanging out, so it’s also usually full of young people who look like fashion models.
I’ve eaten at four of the six Greyhound Café locations in Bangkok and, although I love the idea, overall, I’ve been disappointed with all of them, and here’s why.
Greyhound Café Design and Atmosphere
One of the things that first attracted me to Greyhound Café was the design of each restaurant. They are some of the most beautifully designed restaurants in Bangkok, with contemporary large open rooms, grey granite floors, and a high-tech black and grey color scheme.
I do love eating there just because each restaurant is uniquely designed (none of the Greyhound Cafés look the same), and because it’s nice to eat in such a lovely restaurant.
Greyhound Café Staff
Thailand is known to have ‘good service’ which, if you live here, you soon find out is actually not true. Thai staff is always very attentive but, as far as being efficient, it’s not usually true.
The Greyhound Café staff is pleasant and certainly attentive, but, as far as serving the food in a decent time frame or bringing what you actually ordered, that’s a different story.
At three of the four Greyhound Cafés I’ve eaten at, I’ve been served either food I didn’t order, eaten someone else’s order because the wait staff told me that’s what I’d ordered, or been brought something that resembled what I ordered – but wasn’t.
Greyhound Café Food
Of course, at any restaurant, the main thing should be the food. Greyhound Café in Bangkok serves fusion food – a mix of Thai and Western food, with a couple of Japanese-style things thrown in for good measure. In the seven or eight times, I’ve eaten at the restaurant, I’ve ordered a wide variety of food.
The last time I ate there I ordered French Onion Soup as an appetizer, which is normally one of my favorite soups. With a taste that was bland compared to French onion soup in the US, I left most of it.
Fettuccini with Shrimp and Mushroom Cream Sauce was next. It looks beautiful when it arrives but, again, it was completely bland with nothing but a peppery taste for flavor.
My friend ordered Penne with Spicy Pesto Sauce and, as we both love pesto sauce, we were excited to try it. She ate four mouthfuls and left it; I tried two and could hardly get the second one down.
This time, all you could taste was an incredibly strong salt flavor like someone had accidentally knocked off the salt pot lid when flavoring it.
Finally, we decided to order a slice of cheesecake to share to end the meal. In only two bites, I could tell the cheesecake was old. It had a sour taste, as though the milk was off, and I pushed it to one side as I couldn’t eat anymore.
My friend also gave up, and we both asked for the check. Price-wise, Greyhound Cafe is very expensive compared to much of the rest of Bangkok.
The soup was 120 baht, which is just about American price), the plates of pasta were between 220 and 250 baht, almost five times the price of pasta at many Thai restaurants, and the dessert was 100 baht.
For those prices in Thailand, I expect delicious food, but the food at Greyhound Café just didn’t cut it.
Although I’ve eaten at Greyhound Café mostly for the atmosphere and not for the food, I’ve given up completely on eating there anymore after the last meal we were served.
Greyhound Cafes are pretty restaurants with fashionable décor and an in-style atmosphere, but I’ll leave it to the upscale Thais from now on, who mustn’t know, or care, what good food is supposed to taste like if they can actually keep going back there.
Greyhound Cafes are in Bangkok at the following locations – Emporium Mall on the second floor, Central Chidlom on the 4th floor, Siam Center on the ground floor, J-Avenue at Thonglor Soi 15, La Villa at Ari, and Major Ratchayothin on Pahonyothin.
