Bruce Mangosteen

I'm sure Ron will be by shortly to answer this.

Great! Hope you enjoy. Please let us know your impressions.

Yep, that's the special I mention in my review! Not to be missed!

Agree Ron. It's too bad Pete's board persona isn't more like his real-life personality. Of course, the same could be said about me...

By all means, would be interested in your impressions.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Thanks Martin!

By the way people, "thedodger" turns out to be Pete/Poggle/Darkside, so his remarks should be considered in that light. I doubt he's even been to Thailand since HR opened in fact. Any mod who saw fit to remove his remarks from this thread would have my gratitude.

When you consider the many ways restaurants have of making it look like they've given you more food than they have, coming across a place that actually gives a good portion size of the main course is quite refreshing.

I don't like when restaurants stack the plate with fries and other stuff to try distracting you from the tiny main course. In this case the steak was nice and big; I don't even think I finished the fries.

Got this from Ron at HR: Kitchen is 11:00 to 10:00 PM Sun-Thursday and open till 11 PM on Friday and Saturday. Those are the minimum hours and quite often we will stay open later or open earlier if a major event is on the boob tube! Bar is open to WHENEVER! Never closes before Midnight!

Thanks for the comments guys. About the opening hours, I've e-mailed Ron to ask. The website has their e-mail address and phone number. They also have a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=1495...8196&v=wall

Understood. I'm sure next time you'll get what you want. To be absolutely positive, you can chat with Craig or Ron and they'll make sure your order is filled correctly.

Nice one mate.

The owner of the place used to be the Asia area President for Planet Hollywood, so he probably has a handle on the PR. It's a matter of taste mate. I personally prefer them thick and not as well cooked. If you ordered it "well" and it came still pink in the middle, you could have tried sending it back. There you would have no problem with the staff complaining. Also try "VERY well done" that might work!

Again, not sure when you were there but it was only soft-open until recently and they hadn't started advertising until recently. It's in a residential area to be sure, but I think Ron wanted to include residents in his clientele so it made sense. Next time, simply order the burger "well done". I actually prefer my burgers medium or medium rare. Each to his own mate. Cheers. Get back to us with your impressions. No, not a girlie bar. BYOLBFM all the way. Cheers mate. Hope you enjoy.

My pleasure MM.

A couple of months ago Mr. and Mrs. Axeslinger planned a trip to Ayutthaya. Knowing Lady Mangosteen is from there, they asked if we'd like to go with them. We gratefully accepted. It was also agreed that we should book into a hotel for a night in Bangkok and visit Stargazer in his new gaff, Home Run Bar and Grill. http://homerunbangkok.com HR is a sports themed bar and grill with the decor accent on baseball. The basic plan of the bar is an open downstairs bar area with a separate upstairs dining room. The full menu is available in both areas of the bar. You enter to a row of tall-table seating and a big screen TV. A specials board just inside the entrance lets you know the daily specials and other news. To your right is a pool table, and at the back of the pool table area is the bar. Due to the long drive we were very thirsty. We wasted no time bellying up. The boss held court when he could break away some time. You'll notice that they've taken pains to make sure they have the correct glassware for each different style of beer and drink. To me, it's details like this that show the care the owners have taken to make the experience of being in their establishment as pleasurable as possible. This very close attention to detail is evident time and again during your stay in HR. We ordered up some food. Axe ordered a burger. When I asked him for a review, he simply said, "The best burger I've had in Thailand. Period." I happened to notice that the specials board proclaimed the day of our visit "Wagyu Wednesday", which meant two Wagyu steaks for the price of one. Fantastic deal. I ordered a rib eye, medium rare, prepared Cajun blackened for myself and a sirloin, medium, grilled for Lady M. I figured she'd be good for about half of hers. Boy was I wrong! While we waited for our steaks, Lady M. took some pics of the bar area and upstairs dining room. First, the bar area from above: Apparel is on offer. The shirts are of a very high quality and quite comfortable. The upstairs dining area. Note the memorabilia on the walls. BTW, the place was still "soft open" at that time accounting for the few customers. The boss of the kitchen popped out and posed for a photo. The steaks arrived. They smelled fantastic. Lemme tell ya what: Those steaks were fantastic! First, and this is important, they were cooked CORRECTLY. What Americans call a "medium rare" steak is a steak that is cooked so that the interior is warm but still red. That was what I wanted and it was EXACTLY what I got. The outside was grilled perfectly and the Cajun seasoning had the perfect amount of "bite". That was one hell of a great steak. I got barely a taste of Lady M.s steak she liked it so much. It was beautifully grilled and again cooked exactly correctly. Both steaks were quite tender with a strong buttery flavor. If you want to know what steak SHOULD taste like, you owe it to yourself to make a beeline to HR! BTW, Lady Axe had the ribs and said they were delicious too. Clearly the food is worth a trip all on its own. OK, dinner over, time to socialize! We went outside for a breath of air. A guy (whose name I've forgotten) was sitting out there and he recognized some of us from our pics on the boards (believe he said he was a member of Secrets), so we invited him and his girl to join us. As it got later, the gaffer graced us with his company. The pool table got some use. The friendly staff is always standing by to check the tightness of your girlfriend's rack. Finally, closing time. Axeslinger was very pleased with his bill, and after some CPR was able to pay it. I'll be very honest: I don't remember the exact amount of my bill. It's certainly due to the passage of time since then, and has nothing to do with the barrel or so I drank of high-octane dark beers from around the world. My impression is that it was around 3500 baht. Before you join Axeslinger on the way to the ICU, consider that we're talking Bangkok here, that was for two people drinking all night, I ordered TWO top-quality imported steaks and was drinking what would be expensive beer anywhere in Thailand. I thought this price represented excellent VFM. The staff closed the security gate and locked the door. For some strange reason, we were on the INSIDE of the door at the time. So we decided to make the best of it. Things got rather ugly after that. I'm sure we don't need to see a bunch of pictures of guys who were still stone sober after 32,098 more beers and Jagerbombs, so we'll skip to the conclusion. Home Run Bar and Grill hits it entirely out of the park. Comfortable airy layout, beautiful decor, great pool table, well-stocked bar, attentive service, spectacular steaks and food, fussy attention to detail, well stocked bar, ...what the hell ELSE do you want?! Home Run Bar and Grill. 253/2 Sukhumvit Soi 31 Bangkok. http://homerunbangkok.com (See site for map.) What can I say? It's fecking great. Well done Mr. Stargazer!

Bump! See you tomorrow!

Will do mate. BWAHAHAHAHA!!! Good luck.

Sorry you can't make it mate. Understand about the work night. Wednesday night is the night before I'm leaving for the US, and I plan a quiet one with the GF. Have a great Christmas and New Years. BTW, having dinner with Andy tonight.

Sorry to have missed you. Maybe next time. Same to you. They do already.

Nope, although I'd imagine that easy things probably do seem hard to you from time to time. You can't judge any business in Pattaya solely by reading the boards. Easy peasy. Just as well. I'm sure Alex and I have enough problems and don't need your fleas to add to the list.

Weeeeeeeeeheheheheheheeeeeelll, I'm sure that after reading this thread you're all just as excited as hell to come bid me a fond farewell! I'm sure we'll get a staggering turnout at the Rockhouse from Pattaya Talk, like we always do! BTW, nice to see Damon and LadyDrinkKing in the RH last night. Maybe you boys could share the secret to visiting me there without incident? There are clearly some folks who wouldn't know what time to use the restroom in Pattaya if it wasn't posted on the boards, so maybe they could use the help.

Erm, Thanks!

Well, that's fine, but in that case I'd suggest that you stay far away from Pattaya. Those sorts of things go on here in many bars you probably frequent, whereas actual incidents of those same things in the Rockhouse are vanishingly rare. I'd suggest that your method for determining what particular Pattaya bars are like is badly flawed. Clearly you are attempting to infer reality on the ground here in Thailand at least partially by reading the boards, which would be somewhat akin to inferring the theory of relativity by reading tea leaves. Until you have settled on a better way to select bars, to avoid inadvertently stumbling into a bar that is ACTUALLY doing these things, you should probably stick to holidaying somewhere safe for people who are, let's say, under-endowed in the common sense department.