I would be very wary when asking for a restaurant advice from any taxi driver. If there is no people in there eating with you that is flag 1, flag 2 is if there are no Thai people eating in there. Honestly, these situations are why I now invest so much time and effort about researching infomation on Bangkok and looking for restaurants before arriving. It will save you time and most likely a lot of money.

I also felt for the same scam. I don't remember whether it was the same place. But it was a sea food joint and it was near baiyoke II tower in Ratchathewi.
.

iam so glad i dont eat seas food.....

missed this scam. but saw majourity of the others.

We just got scammed last night as well by this HORRIBLE supposed Restaurant. My girfriend ordered a crab dish without me knowing and when the bill came it was 4,800 Baht. The food also tasted like absolute crap. I had a big argument with the manager and several staff but I could see if we didn't pay then they would bash us.

These sorts of things MUST BE STOPPED otherwise Bangkok and Thailand will get a VERY bad name and nobody will come here.

I also can't be bothered going to the police as they won't care.


Here's a few other ways this could be spelt so others might report the rip-offs

Phaya thai Seafood, Sri ayudthya Road, Ratchathewi Bangkok
Paya thai seafood restaurant ripoff
Si Ayutthaya, Thung Phaya Thai, Ratchathewi, Bangkok, Thailand restaurant stole my money

Hey I just rang the Thai tourist police (simply phone 1155) , she reckons she'll report it to her boss but most likely nothing will happen UNLESS MANY MANY people call.

It would really help if EVERYONE who has been ripped off by them posts it here, as that may eventually carry some weight with the police.

So stand up and be counted, report these thugs.

Also, I'd not be so unhappy if the food wasn't about the worst meal I've ever had.

Never ever order anything in Thailand without checking the price upfront. Would you do that in your own country. Yes you were scammed and i think this is deplorable, but you were a little foolish as well.

Agreed, tho what if the price was $1,000,000 per gram, would it still be our fault?

This restaurant is there for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to RIP-OFF unsuspecting tourists.

Certainly the way that they do it makes it hard to draw the line, but really it should be shut down and somehow outlawed ASAP.

Peter, I have a policy of never buying anything without it being priced. In any bar in Thailand I pay as I go (for obvious reasons).... In restaurants I make a note (so they can see) of what was ordered and the price, more often than not they have taken the menu away . Usually the family run small 30B - 60B restaurants I never get a problem, its the "classier" or seafood restaurants I have been stung a few times, disappointing to say the least.

"In restaurants I make a note (so they can see) of what was ordered and the price,"

Wow. What a shame to be so paranoid on holiday.
Can't blame you though.
After 2 days in Thailand, you realize that everybody you meet is trying to scam.
Too bad.

As "the riddler" say, a big hint would be the lack of Thai people eating there. If it really was something special, it would be full of locals tucking in.

i pride myself being australian im not easily mislead or scammed..well even myself and my wife got scammed in a resturant in bangkok i think it was called pathayia seafood resturant..well i and my wife walked in off the street,place looked ok and staff were very friendly to begin with..at a waiters suggestion i ordered a crayfish,the menu stated it was 1000 baht which i thought reasonable..my wife ordered snapper..we also ordered several singha beers..my crayfish was huge tasted nothing off crayfish as it was way over done with garnishes etc..my wifes snapper looked and tasted pretty good..well the bill arrived and i was shocked to see it came to 14 500 baht!!!! thats like $600 australian dollars!!! well of course i disputed the bill with managent saying the crayfish was only 1000 baht and my wifes snapper 700 baht..the very nicely at first said no..1000 baht per kilo of crayfish (not stated on menu or told to us) and 700 baht per kilo of snapper...what a load of bullshit,i went off,arguing my case but it didnt help..well two thai men came up to us and threated violence..that was there first mistake..there second mistake was to actually pull out some iron bars to hurt us..now being rather big and an australian soldier they had no chance against me..i flattend them plus i overtured several tables in the process...now im not the violent type but they were going to hurt my wife and me very badly..on the way out the door i threw a plate at the manager..they are the biggest arseoles ive come across in bangkok...stick to the food court in siam sqaure or eat where the locals eat..food is always better and cheap as chips..no complaint anywhere else

David,

Can you post the name and address of this place?

Many of these scam places are run by Police.

David Australia, how damned disgusting, you know reading posts like this makes me feel physically sick, you go on a supposedly nice holiday and end up being threatened by louts. I am delighted you managed NOT to pay but you were lucky, and I wouldnt advise others to try it, I hope you manage to embarrassee the Thai embassy when your home, personally I feel the embassies should be held accountable for the atrocities that are happening to foreigners on their soil. $600 yes right what utter bastards, unfortunately the situation is becoming worse.

My son and girlfriend were recomended a resturant called Phayathia seafood in bangkok in the middle of October 2008 their meal consisted of Lobster,2 Prawn currys and a bottle of wine.....£319.92 sterling THB53,270 this is not a scam this is theft !! they have worked hard all year and saved to come to thailand I wish there was some way to complain as there is no way this is not anything but theft... signed an angry mother. Not even Gordon Ramsay charges these prices.

Me too, A sam by Taxi driver bring to the "Black Restaurant". It's look like the Police Bangkok can't do anything about this scam.

@, where was the restaurant you ate at?

Police can't or won't do anything?
LOL.
Believe me, if there is a scam going on the Thai cops want to be part of it.

Between four of us, we ordered one Lobster, eight large prawns/shrimp, 3 bottles of beer and one 7 Up, cost, $800 Australian. After much negotiating, finally got it down to $600, still very heavily ripped off, never again. Name of restaurant, "SomBoondee Sea Food Market"

Me and my husband just came back from Bangkok. first day at Bangkok, we hired taxi driver for day tour and he also took us to the Seafood plaza at Suanlum for dinner . This restaurant is not fancy restaurant. Service was bad. We thought that our taxi driver is nice enough to bring us to cheap local seafood restaurant. So I ordered 4 large prawns, one crab and one seabass dish for three of us ( including taxi driver).
We didn't like the taste of food.. it's very different than US. Cost, I had to pay 220 us dollars. It's Scam. each shrimp was 30 dollars. Name of restaurant again: seafood Plaza at Suanlum Bangkok

Why don't people ASK to see the menu before ordering?

Michelle K

for future reference, don't order or buy anything without looking at the price first.

Better yet dont go to Thailand

For the lunch, my taxi driver brought us very cheap restaurant. the seafood noodle dish that I had was 50 baht. We trusted our taxi driver. We didn't expect that he will bring us kind of restaurant for dinner. I also gave him the name of restaurant that I want to go for seafood dinner, but he insisted to bring us to different seafood restaurant which never gave us menu to read.
Restaurant owner brought us to the seafood tank area, I had to choose the seafood that i wanted. I saw some price on the tank.. but i didn't know that price is per gram.
I know it's my fault that didn't ask for price for each seafood. I just thought that seafood in general at thailand is cheaper than US. I never thought that a shrimp can cost 1000 bht(30 us dollars).
I really learned the lesson from this trip.

Michele K, its an experience I hope that people reading this will take on, thanks for letting us know.

This issue does make me angry when people say why dont you just check the menu.

The mafia is running the sea food restaurant scams pure and simple, criminals.

The victims who get ripped off are innocent. No one deserves to get ripped off on holiday by criminals.

Ripping off is theft by another name.

Hi…I had a terrible experience too with this scam SomBoonDee restaurant, where located near Phayatai BTS station. Please send your experience to

Office of the Consumer Protection Board of Thailand:

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

http://www.ocpb.go.th/main_contact.asp

Please spread the news to your friends as many as possible.

Most Taxis parked in front of hotels and tourist spots are criminals posing as transport.
Their goal?
To deliver tourists to scam places, many owned by Police. That's why the Police allow them to loiter near hotels.
Hotel managers are too afraid to chase them off or are afraid to interfere with "business".
Call the Police? Thats been tried.....

We fell for this scam today!

There is a "taxi driver" or "tour guide" that stands in front of our hotel (Majestic Grand) that would ask us every morning if we needed a ride anywhere. So on this particular day, he took us to the mall, and then to a seafood restaurant. To make a long story short, the bill came out to be 5000 baht for 3 prawns, 1 fish, and 1 pineapple fried rice.

The gentleman's name is Mr Yadi - He is local thai man that speaks proper english, and stands outside of Majestic Grand Hotel asking if you need a tour guide or taxi. Beware of him!

At above, gee whiz! You were overcharged by around 4300 baht too much...

Oops! At above, gee whiz! You were overcharged by around 4300 baht...

These stories are shocking and I'm sorry to hear them.

But I'm surprised at people's naivity. Never, EVER accept an offer of a 'tour', recommendation or visit to a shop or restaurant or anywhere else from a taxi driver or a tuc tuc driver.

If in doubt you can always eat at the food courts in the large malls. The prices are reasonable and clearly posted and you will not encounter any problems.

Whenever I have a bad experience at a restaurant I write a review on tripadvisor.com

There is a man outside Majestic Grand scamming their guests every day.

This is happening in front of EVERY tourist hotel. Most are posing as taxi drivers.
They usually are parked illegally buy they each pay police 2,000 bt a month for the right to rip off tourists.

All the hotel managers and staff see this but NOBODY will warn the farang guests.
Many speculate the hotel manager gets a fee to ignore this problem.

This same scam happened to us in May 2009. My fiancee and I were just talking about it tonight and decided to look up the name of the restaurant in his credit card statement from the month we were in Thailand. The restaurant was Phayathai Seafood in Bangkok. I googled the name of the restaurant and found this page listed as the second listed page. We were getting a very late dinner and were having trouble finding an open restaurant, so we hailed a taxi and asked the taxi if any restaurants were still open at that hour. He said he thought he knew of one place that might be open. He took us to a seafood restaurant where taxis basically pull straight into the restaurant. Then, you get out of the car and walk up to the seafood tanks to pick out your fish. Above each type fish is a sign displaying the price in baht per ounce. We didn't notice the per ounce when we picked out our fish (probably because I have never in my life purchased seafood at a restaurant or even a market that was priced per OUNCE). We got 1 snapper and 1 crab. Neither of us ordered alcohol. We thought the food was pretty good, but that was probably because it was late and we were hungry. The bill came to be $175! We paid the bill because we figured the high prices were because the food was good, the seafood was fresh, and that the place was probably popular. (The restaurant was empty except for one table, but it was late enough to be past dinner time. We assumed it was busier during the day because the restaurant was large.) When I first saw the bill, I thought I had misread the prices. On the way out of the restaurant, I checked the price sign again to see why they had charged so much. At that point, I noticed the "per ounce" qualification on the prices. It was such an odd and horrible experience that we still talk about it occasionally to this date (a year and a half since it happened). To me, this is more than just an issue of fraud, it's an issue of deeply rooted governmental corruption. Bangkok is a large city with a very large police force. Despite such a large law enforcement arm, and despite law enforcement having notice of the problem, the criminal activity persists. It makes me sad for the Thai people because they are the true victims here. Thai people are a wonderful people deserving a government that protects them from bad actors rather than one that is controlled by bad actors.

Write down the address and the name of the restaurant please

I was ripped off by this restrauant SomBoonDee restaurant, where located near Phayatai BTS station.
It was a usual evening where me and my friends is waiting for cab outside indra regent hotel. A taxi driver refuse to send us to chinatown as there is a demostration by yellow party. intially we thought he try to scam us, but left his cab nevertheless.then a hotel stuff approach us and recommand us to a nice seafood restaurant and offered a ride for 20 baht. Alhtough we aware of scam cases in bangkok, we decide to give a try as he seems not like a scammer. Lucky we ensure that we know the price before order food in the restaurant.The dinner turn out to be 3300 baht which is very high.
Too bad i discover this sites too late.

Never believe anyone even those who work for hotel. Nobody will work for free.

So sad these criminals flourish on our vulnerabilities: inability to read/speak Thai, lack of connections with Thai's who can help us avoid them or help us overcome them.
My wife is Thai, and I simply go nowhere in Thailand without her, so I've managed to avoid this. But the same kind of crap has occurred to me in other countries when I was unaccompanied. In Greece, this type of scam happened to me once. Luckily, I carried two wallets. The one I opened publicly had no credit card, and very limited funds (Under $50 US). I was able to escape with minimial losses by showing them what money I had. They were happier to take it and be done with the matter than deal with the tourist police, though the local police would have been just like bad Thai police.

After reading all of the above experiences, i guess i'm the luckiest among all who had experienced the nightmare.

To cut short the story, we intend to get a good Tom Yam and made the biggest mistake of asking a taxi driver. He got really excited (judging from his voice tone) and recommend us to Somboond Seafood Market.

We were greeted and brought straight to the seafood section. Eventhough we read the per gram price stated but still made the mistake of ordering a red snapper fish that weighs around 700gram. We didn't had any idea on the price and all of sudden my wife (the saviour) alerted me that it gonna cost us a bomb for the fish....she said "hey, did you really total up the amount for 700gram?" and then i realized that we have been scammed for a fish that suppose to cost us only 350Baht.

We ordered fish, 2 white rice, mineral water and Sprite. Total damage was 1,036 baht inclusive of service charge and government tax.

We escaped from big disaster because my wife requested waiter to bring the menu and sh*t, all of the prices listed were absolutely high!

Best way to experience food in Bangkok is by read the menu first before order anything.