Unfortunately in this town, riverside dining isn’t always as good as the view on display, and The View simply reinforces this sad trend. It’s been famous for its great location, as well as its branches in Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Vientiane, for quite a while. We were intrigued when they rebranded themselves and dropped the “Good” from their name—did someone build something and block their vista? Turns out that actually not much has changed décor-wise: there’s the same simple terrace outside filled with wood furniture and lots of candles; and a more bar-like vibe with the stage and live band. Still, it’s not really the ambience that’s the problem, it’s the food. They’ve basically taken every comfort food they can think of; salads, fried fish, tom yam, even some pasta, and put them into the nearly-thirty-page menu—always a worrying sign. Take their somtam with sirloin and deep-fried sticky rice (B290), although the fried sticky rice was perfectly crispy and salty, the rest of the dish is a disaster. The salad and dressing don’t work together, while the poor quality beef tastes sour and dry. This complaint also applies to one of their recommended and most popular dishes, the deep-fried pork knuckles (B340). The pork is rock hard and tastes as if it has been fried in some very old cooking oil. There’s no improvement with the fish options either. The gaeng som cha-om pla salid tod (leaf fish and fried egg in sour tamarind soup, B180) is dreadful and too salty, overpowering any taste of the fish and egg. At least it wasn’t totally burned, which was the fate that befell the pla chon namtok (deep fried snakehead fish with spicy herbal salad, B280) on our last visit. Perhaps more shocking is the fact that this place is always packed despite its food failings. Maybe that’s why they feel that they can put such little effort into the kitchen. The truth is that the only good thing about the View is the view.
