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A page devoted to relating where The Pattaya Otter has been stuffing himself.
In this edition we cover the following venues:-
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Mags 4th Anniversary.
One of our favourite local small restaurants, ‘Mags’ on Thepprasit Road, just round the corner from my condo, held its 4th anniversary party on the 13th March. This was also originally scheduled to be the National Elephant day party but  as that was cancelled due to the proximity of local council elections, this left us free to visit Mag and his partner Tim for their party event.
A special set meal was laid on and the small street café was filled to bursting point, mostly with regular customers who had been coming to enjoy the superbly valued fare over a goodly part of the period it had been open.
During the proceedings a 4th Anniversary cake was produced and after being paraded around was duly cut and offered to all.
Happy 4th Anniversary Mag and Tim – look forward to the 5th, plus many visits in-between.
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Rabbit Resort.
The Pattaya City Expats Club held its March monthly dining out at the Rabbit Resort restaurant on Jomtien beach on the evening of March 4th – being the first Thursday of the month, as has become our custom.
The Rabbit Resort is a boutique hotel and resort situated some way alon g the pedestrianised walk along Jomtien Beach. It is easily identified by the numbers of rabbits, both real and manufactured, that can be seen all around it, and to aid those less able to walk the short distance from the main road, the resort operates an electric buggy cart.
For this event, the owner, Debbie and her Thai husband, organised a set Thai meal for the 40 odd club members that had signed up to attend – by far the largest  attendance we have had at any of these monthly events.
Unfortunately we were not able to meet her husband as he was a candidate for the forthcoming mayoral election and as such by election rules could not be seen to be appearing to be canvassing.
Nevertheless Debbie was extremely visible both in welcoming us with a starting drink in the resort’s beachside bar and then once we had all assembled, leading us to the upstairs open air restaurant where we were to be fed.
She explained to us that the restaurant building actually consisted of an old traditional Thai stilt style house that had been found derelict upcountry and which they had had disassembled and carried piece by piece to Pattaya and then put together again to make the room we were now in – quite remarkable.
The food consisted of a buffet style Thai meal with an assortment of various dishes being brought to each of the half dozen or so tables that we had gathered ourselves around.
How much each person managed to eat of this rather depended on how many fellow trenchermen he or she was surrounded by – in my case, quite a few.
Nevertheless I managed my fair share of what was provided and finished it off with a Thai style sweet before returning again downstairs for a farewell drink.
Another fine dining experience for our increasingly popular monthly outings.
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Sugar Hut (sorry no pics)
By a strange coincidence, just two nights after our visit to the Rabbit Resort, I ended up and another similarly styled location – The Sugar Hut resort just off the highest point of Thappraya Road on the way between Pattaya and Jomtien.
The reason for this was a visit from my good friend Malcolm from Bangkok and his suggestion that, being a Saturday evening complete with Saturday evening traffic, rather than plough our way back into Pattaya as we usually do when he comes to visit, we go somewhere closer to home (he now has a condo for his use here in the block just across the road from mine).
So after a few telephone calls and some discussion, we decided that we would meet up with some friends, who were also staying nearby, at the Sugar Hut resort.
This place although located not far from where I live and the entrance to which I pass every time I go to Pattaya, I had never in all the years I had been coming here actually visited – so I was quite enthusiastic about our choice.
It is similar in style to the Rabbit Resort, consisting of traditional Thai style buildings but is a lot larger and has been in operation a good deal longer.
Being away from the beach it is also a different setting, appearing to be almost in a jungle with the narrow pathways between the various buildings being surrounded by high undergrowth – you have to be careful finding your way to the toilets lest you get lost.
The main restaurant part of the complex is again situated on the raised platform of a Thai style stilted building, but much larger again than the one at the Rabbit Resort and offering the option of seating on chairs at a normal height table or the more traditional Thai style floor cushions around a low table – we opted for the former.
Including Malcolm, myself, his girlfriend, his friends and their girlfriends we made up a party of 8 people and after spending some time examining the extensive Thai food menu, we decided to let the ladies decide a number of communal dishes for us – and we were not disappointed with the outcome. A mixture of Thai soups, fish dishes and various meats plus rice and noodles made its way onto our large table, washed down by some local beers.
Although initially looking rather expensive when we were examining the menu, the total bill for all eight of us when it came proved a pleasant surprise.
Sugar Hut – Much too long a time before I visited, and hopefully a lot less time before I visit again.
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Indian by Nature.
For our April Pattaya City Expats dining out, we decided to visit the recently opened ‘Indian by Nature’ restaurant in the newly constructed Chateau Dale plaza right next to my condo complex.
This within walking distance location definitely influenced my voting this as the place to visit, but also I was impressed by its classical style exterior and also by the large number of cars seen parked there each night since its opening.
This time around 25 members decided to come and on entering through the huge wooden door (taken we were told from an old Indian fort) we found ourselves entering into really opulent air conditioned surroundings. To one side was a long curved bar and on the opposite wall was a raised dais on which two musicians sat, one playing the sitar and the other the tabla drums.
We were shown to our large tables and found at each place sitting, a silver plated dish with the restaurant emblem embossed on it.
When shown the menu, we had a choice of a set meal of an assortment of Indian dishes or we could choose from the a-la-carte selection. To accompany this was an extensive wine menu and a separate drinks list including some Indian traditional long cool squashes.
I along with about half our number opted for the set selection and a glass of one of the very refreshing drinks – the remainder chose various a-la-carte items.
Unfortunately this mix of choices and our numbers rather overwhelmed the obviously not yet very experienced staff that also had to cope with a good number of other diners. The result was that the food was very slow to come and a number of mistakes were made with the orders.
This however should not detract from what when it came was a freshly cooked (explained as part of the reason for the delay), beautifully prepared and delicious to eat meal.
And whilst eating (or waiting to eat) we continued to be entertained by the musicians who also played some western songs by request and all at a quite acceptable volume.
Regrettably when the time came to pay our separate bills, this again overwhelmed the restaurant’ system, resulting again in a very long delay and also some incorrect totals – which to be fair the restaurant eventually sorted out.
A new experience in Pattaya, a good quality Indian restaurant, but with the benefit of hindsight perhaps we should have given them more time to get established, and perhaps have pre-ordered a buffet meal for the numbers that we took there. It can get better and I’m sure it will.
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Royal Cliff Chilean Wines Gala Dinner
The Royal Cliff Wine Club held another of its periodic gala dinner events on Sunday 14th March, this time f eaturing wines from Chile.
As we have become expected to with these events, the multi course gourmet meal that accompanied this excellent selection of wines was well up to its usual standard.
After been greeted with a welcome wine and a sele ction of canapés on the hotel lobby area, we were then ushered into the Grand Ballroom where the tables were laid out with our place names. As has become the norm with these events the room was decorated with a theme for the evening – this time a seashore theme complete with lighthouses at each corner of the room.
We made our way to our group’s table, situated at the front just to the right of the stage, and from there had a close view of all the speakers and presentations.
The evening’s events were considerably enlivened by the guest speaker, Mr Geoff Cook from the Mondavi wines group who give us a very witty and interesting introduction to the wines provided.
It was also enlivened by our very ‘active’ table sufficiently close to the said speaker for him to be unable to miss and as a result he came over to compliment us on obviously enjoying his wines.
As always another excellent reason to be a member of this growing wine club.
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St. Patrick’s’ night at Kilkenny (no pics – not in a fit state)
March 17th as all people borne in the Emerald Isle (and quite a few not) know is St. Patrick’s day and there are certain traditions that most Irish exiles associate with this day.
- One is to find a traditional Irish pub.
- Another is to drink lots of Guinness.
- And the third is to have a good ‘craik’.
As Shenanigans had decided to opt out of the Irish pub stakes (for reasons best known to itself), I decided that the fairly recently opened Kilkenny Irish pub in Walking street seemed the best place to provide the above requirements.
And so it proved – arriving there around 9 o’clock I found the place already heaving, lots of Irish colours being displayed, lots of silly hats and wigs, and most important of all the staff well geared up to keep the Guinness flowing.
At this time of the evening there was just a single musician on the stage at the far end of the bar but as the evening wore on, he was superseded by a excellent lively band playing a mixture of traditional Irish music, modern Irish music, folk music and music that had nothing to do with Ireland at all but was still enjoyable to listen and tap the feet to.
A good number of Shenanigans exiles had also opted for an Irish night in spite of what their landlord had in mind and so took up residence at one end of the bar.
I joined them for a short time but was then waved over to a table by Peewee and Sue, friends from our club, and proceeded to sit with them, or to dance round the table with them as the evening progressed and the tally of empty Guinness glasses mounted. And there we stayed until the early hours – as best I can remember.
March 18th was cancelled.
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To view any of the above photos in full size, just click on it.
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