cochran

PattayaParent, I had to take a different position at work and the load has been very, very heavy since mid January. Not so much on a diet, as being forced to grab quick meals wherever and whenever due to schedule. Seriously, 6 days a week and 12 to 14 hours a day, plus the commute, really makes it tough.

Anyhow, we did manage to get out last night to a place that was recommended quite some time ago - Romanasia off of Pratumnak on soi 9.

When you get to Romanasia, there is a feeling that the surroundings are meant to be sort of neo-Classical, with a footbridge over a pool, small villas on each side, and the restaurant straight ahead. The restaurant is quite nicely decorated, earth tone paint on the walls, bric-a-brac here and there and fabric screens to break up the room. The dining room is small, and according to their website seats 28 people. When we arrived at about 7:30 pm, we were the only people there.

Like pulling off a band-aid, let's get the bad news over with quickly.

When we first arrived, we were easily able to hold a conversation while waiting for food and drink to arrive, with some music in the background. A short while later, another customer arrived, and asked the staff to turn on the television so that he could watch the soccer game. Until this happened, I had been blissfully unaware that there was a big screen tv in the place, just over the bar. So they turned on the game, which pretty much ruined the ambience that we'd been enjoying up to that time. In a restaurant that's this nice, it was really an out of place touch. Party foul.

Secondly, the drinks menu needs some work. I was fine with a gin and tonic, but there are no real cocktails available. House wines are not very tasty, as usual, and the red was served well chilled. Strike two.

Finally, one of our entrees was roast lamb, which came to the table a little dry. Not a major calamity, but detracted from the overall experience.

I have to say that the food here was a very pleasant surprise. The aforementioned gaffes aside, dinner here was, gastronomically, quite successful!

My girlfriend started out with a mushroom and garlic on toast appetizer. On a base of sliced small baguette, they pile on tender mushrooms that have been sauteed in butter with garlic, onion, black pepper, and (I think) a little white wine. Very smooth and savory, with the bread not toasted too hard and the mushrooms at the perfect consistency. The flavors were very complimentary in this dish. Serving size is three pieces. Not enough for a meal in itself, but perfect for an appetizer.

My appetizer was salmon chunks sauteed in butter. The fish was in small, bite size pieces, in a specialized iron pan with little divots (think tiny round muffin pan, maybe), with each morsel capped by a ceramic lid to hold in the heat. This comes to the table sizzling and tastes great. The fish is not overcooked, but buttery and hot and supported by a ton of finely chopped roast garlic. The only warning: its hot! I burned my tongue because it was too good to wait for it to cool. Outstanding dish.

For mains, she ordered a roast lamb with rosemary gravy, mashed potato and mixed vegetables. Presentation on the plate was decent, but not spectacular. When it arrived, it looked like a quite small portion, but turned out to be the perfect size. We didn't leave hungry, and we didn't leave stuffed either. No complaints there. The rosemary gravy was not overloaded with rosemary; used just enough to lend bouquet and flavor to the velvety sauce. With the only negative being that the meat was a little dry, this was still a good meal.

I chose the Indian style butter chicken with garlic rice. Decent portion size, very tender and flavorful chicken, and a nice gravy (sauce?) over the meat. While Indian by Nature puts out better, this was still very good, especially considering this isn't an Indian restaurant. There was more rice than I felt like finishing. Overall quite tasty.

We capped this off with a blueberry crumble each. These are served in a tiny tartlet pastry shell, with one small scoop of vanilla ice cream, a decorative sprinkle of strawberry syrup on the plate, and a couple sprays of whipped cream. While the ice cream was nothing out of the ordinary, the little blueberry crumbles were delicious!! The pastry was crisp, the filling was sweet, but with a touch of tartness to offset it perfectly, and melting a little ice cream on top made this a hot and cold, sweet and tart, soft and crispy delight. Outstanding dessert!!

With two glasses of wine for her (one each of red and white, and both best avoided) and two completely acceptable gin and tonics for me, this three course meal for two came to just under 1100 thb. We've added this to our list of favorites and will for sure return.

And to think we only went there because Au Bon Coin was all booked solid!!

Can you believe we're in April already?

Not much time today, but wanted to post a quick blurb about a few places I've been in the interim.

Suan Beer, just off Sukhumvit on the Farside. Best potato salad ever, bar none. Really quiet place, with retro American pop playing at a reasonable volume, good (not great) beer selection, and outstanding sauerkraut. RaRo's earlier exhortation to "try the Thueringer" is dead-on - really good sausages, served with a decent mashed potato and the aforementioned sauerkraut. Prices are very very reasonable as well. We've been twice, ordered two 0.5L German beers, two appetizers, and two entrees each time, and I think under 700thb each trip.

Easy Corner, off of Pattaya Nua near Differ night club. Its really dark in there! The music is sometimes okay, sometimes not, and always loud, but the best three-flavor fish I've had anywhere. Stop in for the fish and for the smoked salmon terrine, but beware - cocktails here get expensive quick.

Blue Terrace on Pattaya Nua. This is convenient to my home and has pretty decent Thai food and fairly typical pricing. If you like Tom kha gai, they do a good one here. Moo daed daew, three-flavor fish, steamed veg, and cabbage in soy sauce all good choices at this place, and the green curry with beef is also recommended. Huge projector TV outside for soccer matches, live band, etc. On more than one occasion, they've not been able to fill drink orders (Singha beer has been out on two occasions, and no gin and tonic available another night). This place is not extraordinary, but decent.

Tried to get a table at Au Bon Coin for tonight, but all booked up. Will try to get in at Romanasia instead. Let's get this thread "happening" again!!

Syd, wth is "capernoited"?

??? I thought there was a recent ASEAN agreement that was supposed to DECREASE all the costs of alcohol among member countries? Did I hallucinate that bit?

aussiechick, what do you mean "there won't be any Guiness"?

Had this bad problem where if I was in the shower and the gf was washing dishes, the power would go out. The condo was a one br, 2 bath unit, and it seems that if both of the water heating units were running at the same time, it would trip the breakers, which of course were not in our unit, but down the hall in a central room. And we also had a major problem with the hoses to the water heaters blowing off the compression fittings and spraying water everywhere. That happened 5 or 6 times last year.

I'd recommend you rent short term first. Lived there for a year, and glad to be out now. Serious issues with the power supply and with internet availability. Expensive for what you get, also.

Interesting to hear that the Sportsman has a great carvery. Went there once - not for carvery night, but just for off-the-menu dinner - and was not impressed. When is their carvery served? May be worth another try.

I can say that the food at Jameson's is always good. The only disappointment I've ever had there is when the beef & Guiness pie disappeared from the menu. I miss it!!

Location is not a big deal. Its quite convenient to my home, and right in between 2nd and 3rd Rd. Besides, show me a place in Pattaya that has an ideal location?

To each his own! Bon appetit!

dam_n! Is it Friday ALREADY?? Where does the time go??

OK, still on for tomorrow night, but I may be a little sleepy. Raro will have to play loudly.

Already talked to Leo on Sat. night. Called Dave, and we're planning to be there next Saturday night.

Haven't been getting out much. We had issues in a different department at work, so I was moved over to help out, along with quoting new projects and not having a floor supervisor for the new department. Been working 6 days a week, 12 hours plus every day, so its work, sleep, repeat.

I'll be out in the northside this evening, so may be able to stop in at Leo's sometime tonight. Not sure if or when, but maybe i'll see you there!

"The New Machine"? Haven't heard about this. Any good?

On the radio, I've been hearing ads for the Punchline Comedy Club. Can anyone tell me where the place is, if they book decent acts, and if its a decent place for a night out? Thanks!!

Have to disagree with you, timekeeper. My experiences from both places were just the opposite! Totally thrilled with Grappa, but you'd need a cattle prod to get me back into the PanPan at Jomtien.

Goes to show you - each of us has his own opinions, and our experiences vary a great deal. Always good to hear other points of view, though.

Everybody - keep them coming!!

i respect your views Cochran and have always enjoyed reading your reviews but for Grappa at least, i felt i was right on the money

my company on the day was a previous head chef from a fancy restaurant in Australia.

he liked the overall decor but not the chandeliers and thought the spag bol he had at 280 baht was small portioned and very ordinary.

i am no chef, but i thought the small ham and mushroom pizza at 180baht was passable and the very small rissotto at 240 baht i had, was salty and i subsequently left half of it

the bill with a few soft drinks was around 1600baht, (when i could get a waiter over to deliver the bill)

maybe its better at night but i won't be going back to find out

i added to my review as i wanted to put a bit of meat on the bone, so to speak .......

Timekeeper,

I spoke with an Italian acquaintance this weekend, and his opinion of Grappa matches yours. I'm paraphrasing, but he found it absolutely terrible in terms of taste and quality.

Maybe I'm in the minority on this one. I'll admit that when I tried their buffet one night, I was less than impressed, and I haven't had breakfast there, but really enjoyed the pastas I've ordered from the menu.

New post, Christmas Eve.

The evil giant corporation has me working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This afternoon, I had a business meeting with another TV member because of our respective jobs, and he happened to mention that there was excellent schweinshaxe to be had at Klein Heidelberg, soi 18 Naklua (just down from Leo's Blues Bar, same side of the street). I haven't had good Schweinshaxe in quite a while (though I know Hopf on Walking St has been recommended for this dish), and haven't tried Klein Heidelberg at all, so off we went.

We got there a bit before 7, and the place was already doing good business. During our time there, it got quite full. We each ordered schweinshaxe (hers with mashed, mine with fried potato, and both served with a mild but delicious sauerkraut) and an order of potato pancakes, as we were both quite hungry. We ordered an apfelwein to sample (not to our taste, though), but wound up with Erdinger weissbier for me and a mai thai for her.

Drinks came out quickly. There was a note in the menu explaining that there was additional prep time required for the potato pancakes, and this turned out to be accurate. We waited, and then waited some more. Truth be told, it probably wasn't all that long, but seemed an eternity because I was hungry, and the food being served to other tables looked and smelled delicious.

Our server stopped by to make sure we were okay, to apologize for the wait time, and to explain that it was because of preparing everything fresh. Eventually, the food came out....and it was definitely worth the wait!!

The potatoes were cooked perfectly - a little browned on the outside, tender on the inside, but not overcooked to mush. A taste of fried onion was mixed in for a great overall flavor. The sauerkraut, mentioned above, was perfect - warm, a little salty, a little sour, not overpowering at all. And the knuckle itself? Perfection. For starters, its a large portion. You'll be hard pressed to finish it unless you're absolutely famished or have a spectacular appetite. The skin on the outside is cooked to a crisp crackle, and when you peel it away, you reveal the most moist, flavorful, and tender pork I've had in Thailand yet. The meat easily peeled away from the skin and the small amount of fat with no effort. Nothing was overseasoned; nothing was overdone or underdone; everything was delicious.

The potato pancakes became almost an afterthought, which is a shame, as they were excellent as well. Crisp around the edges but tender in the center, these tasted very fresh and were lightly salted. Served with a small dish of applesauce, these would make a great light meal on their own.

I recommend this place highly, and thanks for the recommendation that got me there tonight. We'll for sure be back - next up to bat is the roast chicken. It must be a hallmark dish there, as they were serving it up left and right as fast as they could get it out of the kitchen.

Stop in, let me know what you think!! Just bear in mind the wait time, and be patient....

It's reviews.

They have to be eaten first before you can review them.

That was funny! Needed that, what with working on Christmas Eve...and Christmas Day.

That being said, there's another thread currently open that lists all the places having a "do" for Christmas lunch and dinner. Among them, Cherry's, Manhattan's, Jameson's, Royal Cliff, Amor, Casa Pascal, etc etc. Best of luck, Merry Christmas...and stop back on this thread afterward and let us know how you fared!

Okay, quick update.

Terrazzo, the Italian restaurant at the Holiday Inn on Beach Road. Menu looks good, but if you want Italian, go to Grappa or Toscana. I'd give this one a miss.

Haven't tried many new places lately, as the work schedule is INSANE these days.

I went to Just Burgers and left comments on that thread, so no need to rehash here.

Recommendations for a new place to go? May have some time this weekend to get out for a meal someplace.....

I stopped by Just Burgers on Friday for lunch.

I'll keep it brief here - probably not the best burger in Thailand. While the bun was great and the toppings were fresh and crisp, the beef totally kills it. Good fries, cold beer, low price, short wait times - many good points. But the beef is just not good. Its seasoned similar to the burger at Jameson's, but there's a very dense texture to the meat that I just didn't care for. Good value for money, but I think I'll cook them at home.

If I could make two recommendations to improve the place:

1. Add cheddar to the list of available ingredients.

2. Expand the menu to include a burger made with imported beef. There are those of us who would gladly pay more for a really great burger.

Have to disagree with you, timekeeper. My experiences from both places were just the opposite! Totally thrilled with Grappa, but you'd need a cattle prod to get me back into the PanPan at Jomtien.

Goes to show you - each of us has his own opinions, and our experiences vary a great deal. Always good to hear other points of view, though.

Everybody - keep them coming!!

I'm the mechanical manufacturing manager for a multinational with a new factory here. While most of my engineers are Thai, we have almost all expats in management on 2 or 3 year contracts. QED is quite correct - you can likely find a company here that needs your skills and will help with a work permit in your field of expertise.

Good luck.

Where can I find a Halloween party or event or whatever in Pattaya this weekend? Failure to plan has left us without a destination. If nothing special is going on, we'll just hit familiar places, but it seems a shame to waste an occasion.

If you know of anything, please post up!!

PattayaParent, I don't know. When I first came here in Sept. 08, they had Mantra and Henry J. Beans (I stayed at the Amari for a week), but don't remember Grappa there. Could have been.

There's a new place I've seen on Beach Road lately called Terrazo. Any info on that one?

Thanks, Syd. We don't get out as much as we used to, just because work has really ramped up in the last few months, but when i find a really good one like this, I'll be sure to pass it on!

Its been a while since I've posted any restaurant items, but recently found a new place that we really, really liked. The sad thing is that they've been open for the better part of a year, and i'd never even heard of the place!!

Last weekend we met some friends for lunch, and as we were driving around I saw the sign for Grappa, an Italian restaurant inside the Woodland Suites building, off of 2nd Rd just north of the dolphin roundabout. So on Monday night we dropped in there for dinner.

The place is a wine bar and Italian restaurant. Lots of glass, very open atmosphere, comfortable seating. This is a quite nice place - real silverware and real table linens and etc. Of course we started off with cocktails, and if the place has a weakness, that's it. I have DEFINITELY had much worse cocktails in Pattaya, and would probably rank the cocktail at Grappa about 7 of 10. I ordered a Tom Collins, and it was serviceable but nothing to brag about.

After we placed our order, a selection of bread was served. This was hot, fresh, crusty on the outside, tender on the inside, and delicious. One bun was served hollowed out in the middle with a bruschetta-style topping stuffed into it. Pesto and butter are on the side.

I tried their Insalata Riviera as an appetizer, and my constant companion had prosciutto grissini. The salad was served in a thin, crisp pastry, with a lettuce mix, bacon, and vinaigrette on the inside, topped with anchovies, and served with roasted bell pepper, prosciutto, and cooked tuna on the outside. If you're not very hungry, this could serve as a delicious lite meal. Strongly recommended. The prosciutto grissini is served as two cheese grissini with prosciutto wrapped on the end, sort of like a drumstick. This one was served with a side of pesto and a side of a white sauce for dipping. The grissini were crisp and tasty - no stale breadsticks here.

Mains were spinach fettucini with olive oil, garlic, and prosciutto for her, and spinach/cheese tortellini in Bolognese sauce for me. The menu has about 8 different pasta shapes/styles (fettucine, spaghetti, gnocchi, tortellini, penne, etc.) and several sauces to choose from, and you mix and match. Each was served with sliced parmesan on top and two slices of garlic bread. While the bread had good flavor, it was a little more crunchy than I prefer. The pasta, both dishes, was absolutely amazing. The Bolognese was not overly greasy as you sometimes find, and was in perfect proportion to the amount of pasta. It was very well seasoned. When the main dishes came to the table, the serving sizes looked a little skimpy, but as you work your way through it you find its plenty.

I tried a glass of their house red with dinner. This is a decent wine, but I disremember what variety. They serve it at room temperature, which was very much appreciated.

I finished with a tall shot of grappa to settle everything down. In keeping with their namesake, they offer several varieties of grappa. I'm not a connoisseur of this liqueur, so chose from the top (less expensive) end of the list and was satisfied.

My girlfriend ordered one of their desserts - a chocolate and cappucino creme mille feuille - served with a small scoop of chocolate gelato on the side. The pastry was light and crisp, and not overloaded with sweetness - a nice finish, but too much to eat it all.

The wait staff here is professional and attentive, but not intrusive. A nice job of walking the line.

Overall tab was just under 2100. Well worth it, and we will absolutely be back....as soon as I work up either enough appetite to eat so much again, or the intestinal fortitude to order less!!