Big Fish Returns to Pattaya with Seafood at Its Heart
After welcoming guests since 2014, Big Fish at Siam@Siam Design Hotel Pattaya has returned with expanded buffet stations and a broader selection from breakfast to dinner, while seafood remains firmly at the centre of its evening identity. The restaurant's appeal is not built on reinvention for its own sake, but on giving a familiar Pattaya favourite more culinary range without losing the character that made it memorable.
Executive Chef Antonio Velazquez leads the kitchen across two distinctly different services. Dinner is built around seafood, live preparation and generous international choices, while breakfast shifts towards steamed dim sum, eggs, breads and Thai comfort dishes. Together, they give Big Fish an identity that extends beyond the evening buffet for which it is best known.
The dining room is playful without becoming childish. Deep marine blue sets the tone, offset by bands of red and white, teal tiles, natural timber and woven rattan. Oversized fish made from reclaimed-looking wooden planks swim across one wall, while shells, trailing greenery and illustrations carry the seaside theme around the room. The details do not whisper, but Pattaya has never demanded unnecessary restraint. What keeps the design from feeling like a collection of nautical props is the warmth of the materials: pale wooden tables, woven placemats, bistro-style chairs and basket-like pendant lights soften the stronger colours. Vibrant and deliberately artistic, it gives Big Fish a visual identity that feels entirely its own.
Daylight gives the restaurant another personality. Large windows draw the sun across the tables and illuminate the open food counters, where bamboo steamers, baskets of bread and rows of condiments form part of the visual rhythm. By evening, the colours deepen, and the stations take on a more theatrical quality, particularly once oysters, sashimi and roasted meats are laid out. The restaurant feels sociable at both times of day, but not identical, which is precisely what a hotel dining room serving breakfast and dinner should achieve.
Dinner belongs to the seafood. Oysters are presented generously on ice, alongside shellfish and chilled selections meant to be approached at an unhurried pace. The wider offering includes rock lobster, blue crab, giant river prawns and mussels, with seafood served cold, grilled to order or tossed into a Cajun-style boil. This flexibility matters at a buffet: abundance is easy to provide, but allowing the ingredient to appear in genuinely different forms gives the meal more range than a long counter of near-duplicates.
The Japanese section is one of the clearest additions to the reopened restaurant. Neat rows of nigiri sit alongside sashimi and maki rolls, with salmon and tuna bringing bold colour to the counter. Live preparation keeps the display fresh, adding movement to a format that can otherwise feel static. There is pleasure in watching a plate come together before returning to the table with only the pieces that held the most appeal, even if restraint at a buffet remains largely theoretical.
Beyond seafood, the international selection makes a convincing case for mixed appetites. Hot dishes move across Asian and Western territory, while pizza provides an easy, familiar counterpoint to the chilled seafood. At the carving station, roasted meats are presented whole, then sliced to order, their browned exteriors giving way to pink centres. Roast chicken offers another substantial option, making it entirely possible to enjoy dinner at Big Fish without constructing every plate around shellfish.
The cold section broadens the choice further with cheeses, cured meats, breads and salad leaves accompanied by an unusually generous line-up of dressings and toppings. Caesar, sesame, honey mustard, blue cheese, Thousand Island and Thai seafood-lime dressings sit beside seeds, dried fruit and roasted vegetables. None of this is as dramatic as a platter of oysters, but these quieter details make the buffet easier to navigate and allow diners to compose a plate rather than simply collect one.
Dessert has its own station, framed by the restaurant's illustrated walls and a small fishing-boat display. Cakes, pastries, tiramisu, and individual sweets provide variety without abandoning the room's cheerful tone. The section feels integrated into the restaurant rather than appended to it, an important distinction when dessert is expected to conclude a large meal rather than merely occupy the final available corner.
Breakfast reveals a different side of Big Fish. The seafood theatre recedes, and the open counter fills with bamboo baskets of steamed pork buns, assorted dim sum and delicate translucent dumplings. Shumai wrapped in green skins arrive plump and neatly packed, while the Ha Gaw dumplings offer a lighter companion. Served together and scattered with crisp fried garlic, they create a breakfast plate with more character than the usual procession of eggs and toast.
Eggs are nevertheless well represented, with an omelette station preparing them to order. The broader morning spread moves confidently between international staples and Asian breakfast habits: breads and rolls with salted and unsalted butter, cheeses, salads, fruit, dried fruit and seeds sit alongside steamed dishes and hot Thai food. A plate of rice with spicy stir-fried chicken, vegetables and a crisp-edged fried egg captures the appeal of the latter especially well. It is substantial, direct and unmistakably comforting, with a rich yolk ready to soften the heat of the dish beneath it.
The bread counter offers hard rolls, soft rolls, mixed loaves, focaccia, vegetable bread and breadsticks, supported by a choice of butter and cheese. Nearby, salad greens and toppings allow for a lighter start, though steaming bamboo baskets make virtuous intentions hard to maintain. Coffee, juice and the familiar elements of a hotel breakfast round out a selection that feels broad without losing sight of the restaurant's Asian setting.
Big Fish has not tried to become anonymous in pursuit of polish. Its colourful, humorous interior remains closely tied to the sea, while the food provides enough variety to support two very different services. Dinner is the more dramatic occasion, led by oysters, seafood on ice, Japanese preparations and the grill. Breakfast is brighter and more relaxed, moving from dim sum and Thai dishes to eggs, breads and salads.
The reopened Big Fish keeps its seafood heritage intact, now supported by stronger international choices and live preparation across the buffet. Its existing artistic setting continues to provide the colour, while the expanded food offering supplies the sense of discovery. In a city accustomed to spectacle, Big Fish understands that dinner should be generous, breakfast should be comforting, and a little colour rarely hurts either.
Big Fish at Siam@Siam Design Hotel Pattaya
Tel: +852 9722 8388
Website: https://www.bigfishpattaya.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigfishpattaya/
Email: rsvn@siamatpattaya.com
Location: 6th Floor Siam@Siam Pattaya, 390 Thanon Pattaya Sai 2 Pattaya City, Bang Lamung District Chang Wat, Pattaya City, Chon Buri 20150
Credits
Article: Wariya Intreyonk
Photos: Wariya Intreyonk
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