Food Courts at Central Festival

[Evil Penevil]

The food area of the basement level of Central Festival is now divided into three distinct components, plus new and old restaurants.

The three components are:

1)  Food Park, the heir of the original food court:

Food Park has been in operation since July and I described it HERE.

2) A more upscale area called Beach Eats:

3)  A counter-service area that appears to be an extension of the supermarket, the Central Festival Food Hall:

In addition, there are several restaurants on the basement level:

Beach Eats has recently opened in the mid-section of the level.  It appears to be aimed at Thais and Asian tourists, with higher prices than usual for a food court.  I took the following pics at about 4.00 p.m. and as you can see, there weren't many customers.  That's certainly a  big difference from the pre-renovation days at the old Central Festival food court when it would be filled to the last seat much of the day.  This pic  gives an idea of how it used to be:

McDonalds, Burger King and KFC were  busy when I took these pics. They don't have many seats, so it's easy for them to fill up. The other restaurants outside the food courts had no cutomers at all.

Gotta love plastic models of food.  

 

The Food Court is next to McDonalds at the Beach Road end of the level.  It also had few customers.

A number of spaces intended for restaurants remained unused.

De Tummour is a national chain of Thai Isaan restaurants with an emphasisi on somtam and other spicy dishes. It should be popular among Pattaya's bar girls but I doubt it will have broad appeal among tourists.

Bottom line:  The renovated food courts at Central Festival seem to have bet heavily on attracting Thais and Asians as their predominant customer base.  So far it doesn't seem to be working out for them.

I wasn't inspired to eat at any of the food court variations and went with the new Ramen Ippudo restaurant.

You can read my review of Ippudo in this section.

Evil

[Blix99]

Thanks Evil. Does the cash card work in all of these new segments or is separate payment required?

[Krapow]

More than happy if it's not as busy. 

Enjoy eating a light lunch there, but not the previous cramped conditions.

[Pumpuynarak]

Great pics and report Evil TFP.

[KWA]

On 12/17/2019 at 6:36 AM, Blix99 said:

Thanks Evil. Does the cash card work in all of these new segments or is separate payment required?

Different cash cards for Beach Eats and the Food Park.  Real cash I think at the Central outlets but not used them so not 100% sure.

Edited December 18, 2019 by KWA

[Golfingboy]

I really loved the mall food courts when I was up in Chiang Mai, so much choice and so cheap. Only thing I hated was being 5 baht short on a new item with the card,  and either saying “f—k it” or having to go back and reload 

[john1000]

Always a great choice. Still like Sizzler for the buffet salad.

[Krapow]

37 minutes ago, john1000 said:

Always a great choice. Still like Sizzler for the buffet salad.

Yes, agreed, nice when you fancy a change, healthy as well. 

[galenkia]

I like the one upstairs at Royal Garden Plaza. 

[john1000]

On 12/18/2019 at 8:08 PM, galenkia said:

I like the one upstairs at Royal Garden Plaza. 

Great views from there