Buffet Dinner Bangkok - Ramayana Restaurant - King Power

Ramayana Buffet Restaurant

Ramayana is a buffet restaurant on the third floor of the King Power duty free building next to The Pullman hotel. It offers an "all you can eat" international buffet.

However, the wording "International" needs to be changed because it is most certainly not what a westerner would call International. So, if it's not, then what is it ?

What it really is, is a cheap buffet for Thais who just want to eat a lot and have one or two dishes that are not Thai and therfore, by default, must be international dishes.

To cut to the chase, we suggest you avoid it as you'll not enjoy it. There are so many better places to choose from.

What's Wrong With The Ramayana?

We were invited to join a nice Thai family for a meal one night after they'd bought some tickets to the Ramayana resaurant knowing that we're a bit fussy about our food and where we eat. They were most pleased to tell us that the Ramayana was an international buffet and even showed us some pictures on a brochure. This was good for all of us. They could eat Thai food and we could eat our international dishes and so we arrived at about 6 pm on a Sunday night to begin our feast.

To get to the restaurant, just find your way to the King Power building and take the glass elevator to the third floor and upon exiting, you'll see the entrance and as we did so, we knew it was going to be bad.

For a start,the place was very large and the seating was similar to a cafeteria. This was made worse by the fact that there were hundreds of Thais all milling around with their entire families - from young to old.

After being seated, we wandered over to the food but not before skillfully navigating through the crowds, running kids and the infirm.
We grabbed a plate and made our way through the melee to the International food which consisted of - one dish.

By one dish, we mean one western dish because there was Chinese food and there was Japanese food (Sushi anyway) but there was just one, very poor, western dish which was some kind of thin sliced beef and some creamy sliced potatoes. We chose that and went to rejoin our group who had piled their dishes with Thai food and seafood.

Needless to say, the food was bad. Not poor but bad as the potatoes were hard and the creamy stuff was flavourless and pointless. The beef was of very low quality, thinly cut and was the kind you find in a noodle dish in Hong Kong.

There's Plenty Of Food - Right?

There is plenty of food but it's all geared towards what Thais like. There's an entire row of Thai dishes and a large section for noodle soup as well as some Chinese (Thai really but they call it Chinese) food. Even the Japanese food was based around popular dishes for Thais and even the chocolate fountain was aimed at Thais as all the dips were Thai fruits and snacks meaning you dipped bananas or melon into the chocolate.

So, What's The Problem?

Quite a bit really. The food was substandard for a good buffet. If you want Thai food, go to anywhere else as this was all based around curries and soups and wasn't really that good. The Japanese and seafood seemed OK but fighting the crowds of Thais who refuse to queue is very trying.

Then there's the issue of crowding. Thais can't queue or form any semblance of order and so it's one massive free-for-all of of kids, adults carrying kids, adults who think they're the only ones in the place and old people being lead by kids. It's a mess.

Anything Else?

Whilst eating the meal, one of the older Thais suggested the crab wasn't very fresh and this was realised the next day with one or two reporting some funny tummy's - but nothing serious. We felt the Western dish was so poor that we left it and spent the rest of the night watching everyone else eat as we don't like to battle our way for food and decided to eat again later elsewhere.

Any Positives?

There is a Joe Louis Puppet Troup which wanders around giving a pupper show. This is quit interesting and would be very well recieved in a quieter, more civilised atmosphere but the crowds of people wandering around in a cafeteria type setting made it seem slightly odd and wasted.

Would We Consider Going Back

How Much Did It Cost?

We had specially priced tickets which cost 300 Baht each but the regular price is 600 Baht per person.

For Thais, this is probably decent value as they can eat a lot and they don't care about the atmosphere but for Westerners it's poor quality and just not worth the hassle of the crowds and lack of choice.

For an extra 400 Baht you can go to the Marriott Resort & Spa and get a truly international buffet with steaks, lobsters, Chinese food, Italian food, Indian food and often a number of others, all set in a great location by the river and with a great show of Traditional Thai Dancing. Worth every penny