Top Deck Restaurant in Prachuap Khiri Khan Review
We generally like to stick with local cuisine when we travel, both because food is a big factor in choosing our destinations and because it’s typically just better. But we couldn’t resist trying Prachuap Khiri Khan’s resident Australian-Thai restaurant Top Deck thanks to its stunning location, and I’ll admit that we were pleasantly surprised!
Location: 10/10 (excellent)
In terms of location, it simply doesn’t get better than this! The restaurant is located on the second floor of a beautiful waterfront building with stunning views of the waves right across the street. You can see the lovely islands in Prachuap Bay, and I can only imagine how pretty it would be during golden hour or moonrise.
The power lines obstructing the view over the water are unfortunate, but presumably the restaurant can’t do anything about those, and you learn to ignore them pretty quickly.
Service: 6/10 (average)
The service is really where Top Deck struggled. As we entered, we were immediately ushered upstairs to the dining area. There, we saw someone (presumably an employee, since we arrived within a few minutes after the restaurant opened) sitting and watching TV with their back to us. We awkwardly loitered for a minute, talking loudly enough to be heard without receiving any acknowledgment, before we decided to just seat ourselves and wait.
So we sat at the corner table on the deck and relaxed. Within a minute or two, someone showed up with menus, but shooed us off of our chosen table and to the next one over because “that table is dirty!” Remember, we got there right after opening, so no one had had the chance to eat at that table yet… so I guess being “dirty” meant that it had never been cleaned the night before? Who knows, but it certainly wasn’t reassuring or a strong start. (The occasional smashed bug between the pages of the menus didn’t do much to convince me about cleanliness, either.)
Luckily, service improved from there, with no further noteworthy incidents one way or the other.
Food: 8/10 (very good)
This is where Top Deck surprised me. We both ordered Thai-style dishes (when in Thailand, right?), and to my pleasant surprise, my red curry dish was actually somewhat spicy. I was a little confused that Gustavo’s dish was described on the menu as if yellow curry and massaman curry are the same thing, but that may just be a translation issue. The resulting dish was very tasty, though, and would definitely be ideal comfort food!
Despite my red curry having some heat, the food tasted more like American-Thai food than any other meal I’ve had in Thailand. If I had been blindly eating the food with no context or information, I would have thought I was eating at a Thai restaurant at home in California.
Edit/update: I’ve just seen a response on Tripadvisor where the restaurant explains that they adjust the level of spice or sweetness depending on whether the person ordering is Thai or foreign. This explains why it tasted like American-Thai food; I guess we look too white to get the normal Thai-style version! I’m subtracting one star from this category for the policy of serving modified recipes to non-Thai people. I understand being asked “spicy?” since a lot of tourists can’t handle spicy food, but I’m not impressed with having that incorrect assumption made for me.
The portions are much larger than we’ve gotten used to in Thailand, and are definitely suited for Western-sized appetites.
Price: 9/10 (very good)
The prices at Top Deck are slightly above average compared to other seafront eateries in Prachuap Khiri Khan (which means they’re dramatically higher than market food or street food, but that’s to be expected). The Western food in particular was more expensive, with the Thai portion of the menu being more in line with similar restaurants nearby. Again, this makes sense! Given the portion sizes, the prices were definitely reasonable.
Final Score: 8/10 (very good)
To be honest, we probably won’t come here again simply because there are other restaurants that we prefer in the area. With that said, our overall experience was very good. If you’re looking for a nice atmosphere where you can have some more familiar food in large portions, Top Deck is absolutely worth a visit!