What advice would you give the thousands of empty restaurants in Pattaya and the dark side which are mostly empty all of the time?
My first one would be, unless you are a restaurateur, don't bother. I would hazard a guess that of the places I have eaten out at in the last month, Arroi Thai, 8 Horseshoes (Now a Russian place in Jontiem and bloody marvelous), and Ticino are all run by restaurateurs with solid experience. Every other place is run by people having a go, and on the whole, failing.
My second would be decide what you are going to be, and do it to the best of your abilities. 99% of the places that are struggling and always empty are "Farang food with a bit of Thai for the blokes missus" type of venues. Usually these fail on all levels because the farang food is shit and not cooked properly, and the thai food is 4 times the price of the local thai shop, and not as nice. Thus, they are empty.
My third would be If your chef / cook can not cook all the items on your menu, change either the menu or the cook. Don't just keep going because each new customer you attract will not return.
My fourth would be to take some control of what comes out of the kitchen. Unless they have had some formal training (not education, but training) in western cooking, most thai cooks fail on every account to cook western food. The usual problems are meats not cooked properly, reheated food cold in the middle, and poor portion control. Basically they apply Thai cooking practices to western food which does not work. Take time to teach the menu to the chef, showing them each dish on the menu and the standard you expect them to cook them to. If they do not, they get shown the door.
Lastly, only deliver the food all at the same time if your chef can actually manage his time properly to assure that the dishes are all ready at the same time. I would rather have food delivered the Thai way as and when they are ready than to wait and receive a cold plate of food that sat on the side waiting for the other one.
Oh, and the golden rule if you are buying an existing restaurant.....if it is currently successful, do not buy it. Successful places are usually good because of the owner, and when that goes, the places goes down hill. So the only way to get your investment back is to cut corners and increase prices and next thing you know, you're boarding up the windows. Here's a wild guess - the courtyard pub changed hands in the last year? Was decent a couple of years ago but now is shit. Buy a restaurant that is cheap and on it's knees - that way you have little to lose.
What else?