Evil Penevil

Has Hickory Butcher ended its retail operation? I planned to go on a meat-buying trip to Jomtien tomorrow and was checking their FB page for hours of operation. A fresh message says, "WHOLESALE ONLY. Sorry for the inconvenience." What's the story? Evil

Retox Game On, on Soi Honey near 2nd Road, deserves a full-scale review, but for now, I'll just mention one meal I had there: the gammon steak with eggs, thick-cut chips and fried pineapple for 275 baht. It was a a large portion with a thick piece of ham- once gammon is cooked, it becomes ham - two eggs, two slices of pineapple and plenty of chips. The eggs were fresh and cooked perfectly "sunny side up." The ham was a bit salty, but I like it that way. It was moist and had a lot of flavor, clearly a quality product. The pineapple added a sweet balance to the saltiness of the ham. I didn't much like the chips; they weren't crisp and too soft and soggy for my taste. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of thick-cut chips and prefer the thin-cut style that have been twice fried. I would certainly go back to Retox Game On for its ham and eggs, but I'd ask for fried potatoes rather than chips. Retox Game On appears very popular as a sports bar, but this short review only covers one meal under 300 baht. It has an extensive menu, with a lot of options under 300 baht. It's mostly U.K. comfort food, but there are some "international" and Thai dishes as well. Evil

I agree with the above. Leng Kee is probably better for a full meal but Fra Pattaya is good if you are in the WS area. And the duck at MK is excellent, plus the girls love the hot-point style cooking. Ecil

Lunch at the Coach House Diner in northern New Jersey across the Hudson from Manhattan. Today, it's a full service restaurant famous for its large portions. It also has one of the best salad bars I've experienced. I had one of the day's specials, all-beef knockwurst with homemade sauerkraut and boiled potato. The salad-bar starter and the main course came with five (!) pieces of bread baked on the premises. The special cost $10.00 and the bottomless glass of Coke Zero was $2.25. It was enough food for two meals. Evil

The "Blue Elk" burger at Bareburgers on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Elk medium rare, duck bacon, Amish blue cheese, tomato fig jam and stout onions. Delicious! The complimentary bottle of water in the 93 F heat (34 C) was very welcome. Cost of the burger was $15 and $2.75 for the white peach ice tea. With tax, the meal was $19.47 and I left a $3.53 tip, so $23.00 all in. I didn't want chips or any other side. It's interesting that the Blue Elk burger was cheaper than a Hooters' burger. I have a feeling the rent Bareburgers pays a few blocks from the UN is higher than Beach Road. Evil

A brief update on Yamato: I ate there with a friend in August and it was as good as always. We had quite a feast, with sashimi, appetizers and main dishes. The total cost was about 1,750 baht, but 550 baht or so went to alcohol, a flagon of saki and two large bottles of Asahi. The complimentary appetizer: Really high-grade sashimi: We also had an outstanding dish of grilled squid: My main dish was the tonkatsu set, which came with several "sides," including miso soup. The pork cutlet was tender and breaded perfectly. Bottom line: Yamato is probably the best option for Japanese dining near WS, perhaps all of central Pattaya. It's not cheap and "all-you-can-eat" Japanese buffets abound in the area, but Yamato offers top-quality traditional Japanese food in relaxed surroundings. Evil

I really like the squid in the sizzling pan! And another good noodle dish for the nights you've had too much to drink. Grilled pork: Evil

More pics from Fra Pattaya: Really good noodle soup with wontons! Another favorite of mine:

At the other meal, he again had the pumpkin soup as his starter. He had baked salmon with potato salad and garden salad as his main: I went with the roast duck breast, mashed potatoes and cashew salad. The dessert that came as his final course was Japanese cotton cake. I don't remember the exact prices, but my special was under 300 baht. Evil

A friend and I had a couple of meals at Bite Me last week. He went with the three-course special both times; I had the daily special once and some items off the a la carte menu the second time. Hus first special began with the pumpkin soup: along with a glass of kir and garlic bread: Bite Me's take on chicken cordon bleu was his main: He said the breading was light and not the slightest oily. "Delicious" was his overall verdict. I had the chicken tenderloin salad with a poached egg as my starter. It consisted of several substantial pieces of chicken tenderloin on a bed of vegetables, topped with a perfectly poached egg, It was large enough to have been a main course on its own. I followed with the slow-cooked lamb shank on a bed of mashed potatoes and veggies. Some pieces of chorizo sausage added a little heat and a nice flavor accent. It was a big portion of lamb, very tender and packed with flavor. Unless you're an extremely hearty eater, I wouldn't advise a starter before the lamb shank. It's just too much food. He finished his meal with a chocolate brownie, one of several chocolate dessert choices as part of the three-course meal. The cost of his three-course special was 440 baht, while my starter was 120 baht and the lamb shank 370 baht. Considering the quality and quantity, it was good value for money.

It's in the same dog-leg stretch of Beach Road as Bamboo, but at a diagonal across the street. Fra Pattaya is closer to the intersection with 2nd Road. Evil

Fra Pattaya offers Thai and Thai-style Chinese food at very reasonable prices. It's near the intersection of Beach Road and 2nd Road and a stone's throw from the Beach Road entrance to Walking Street. OK, I'll say it first to steal the thunder from the trolls: Tourist trap! Tourist trap! Because of its location, Fra Pattaya sometimes called a tourist trap, but that's unfair. The food that has been served up by Fra Pattaya to hungry tourists and locals for decades is tasty and inexpensive, even though it may cost more than at comparable restaurants away from Walking Street. Every time I've eaten there, the majority of guests have been Thais and Asian tourists. Fra Pattaya also does a lot of take-away business, with a steady stream of vehicles stopping to pick up orders. For the visitor heading to Walking Street for the evening or returning home after a night out, Fra Pattaya is a good option for a meal. I'm well aware that better and cheaper Thai food may be available elsewhere, but that's not relevant if you feel hungry at 3.00 a.m. after visiting WS. The menu is extensive and covers the whole range of Thai and Thai-style Chinese dishes. Roast duck, pork and seafood are emphasized. Service is fast and attentive, but can seem a bit abrupt. That's often the case in Thai no-frills restaurants that churn out plate after plate throughout the day. As said, Fra Pattaya has been around since the 1980s and some of the photos on its walls commemorate Pattaya in bygone days. Duck is the house specialty and comes in several forms and portion sizes. The deep-fried chicken wings are a personal favorite of mine, here with a serving of crab fried rice. Chicken leg and thigh with mushrooms and veggies is another dish that hits the spot after a night's drinking. Two kinds of shrimp, stir-fried and deep-fried. All these dishes cost between 90 baht and 160 baht. No culinary heights, but decent for the money,

An update from a recent meal at Wooden Box. My friend had the salad (giant portion) and rib-eye steak; I had the chicken tacos and sea bass baked in parchment with riceberry rice and quinoa. Both were very good and value for money. I'll upload the pics first while I have a fast Internet connection and get back with more text later.

A simple but good meal- Panang beef curry and rice for 135 baht at a small restaurant on Soi Bukhao. Really good balance of flavors in the sauce with just the right touch od heat. The beef was tasty and not tough! Evil

Eggs Benedict is a tricky dish to make and it doesn't allow for substitutions. The Hollandaise sauce has to be freshly made as it doesn't tolerate long periods under heat. American-style side (streaky) bacon doesn't go well with Hollandaise, so it has to be the leaner, more subtly flavored Canadian-style back bacon. The eggs have to be poached properly, which depends on split-second timing, and it has to be a muffin as the base because bread gets too soggy, even when toasted. It's a lot for a busy chef to get right, which is why many restaurants don't offer it. Just like the little girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead in the nursery rhyme, when eggs Benedict is good, it is very, very good, but when it is bad, it is horrid. Evil

PLEASE NOTE: This review concerns a restaurant called the Wooden Box, not some of the other wooden boxes that can be encountered in Jomtien, whether in condo buildings or in bars. The Wooden Box has been open about six months on Thapphraya Road in Jomtien, next door to the Pattaya Provincial building. It specializes in salads and other healthy food, although it is by no means vegetarian. There's plenty of meat, fish and seafood on the menu to keep the veggies company. According to its Facebook page, the Wooden Box is Thai owned and operated. The Facebook page also says the restuarant grows its own vegetables and herbs on site hydroponically. There's a pic on the page of the tanks and trays in full bloom with healthy green stuff, but they were empty when I visited yesterday. The view after dark. The restaurant is open from 9.30 a.m. until 10.30 p.m. and serves all-day breakfasts in addition to its lunch and dinner fare. Salads are the restaurant's focal point. The "basic" salad, a huge portion of greens and three toppings, costs only 77 bahr, including dressing. My salad below cost 123 baht as I asked for extra toppings (boiled egg, beetroot, almond slivers, raisins, etc.). The salad is literally a meal in itself. The interior is bright and spotlessly clean. The seating, which includes some sofa and armchairs. is comfortable. There are tables indoors and out with space for 60 diners. The salad bar is impressive, but I'm not sure if there's an "all-you-can-eat" buffet option. I'll ask about that next time I visit. Prices are very reasonable for the salads and a lot of the other dishes, with plenty of options under 300 baht. However, if your tastes run to ribeye steak or lobster, you'll be paqying the same prices as in comparable restaurants. The steak cost 535 baht and the lobster 935 baht. The first time I visited Wooden Box, I only ordered salad and a watermelon smoothie. You order the salad on a check-box menu, ticking off the options you want. The salad was fresh and the various components were packed with flavor. The homemade balsamic dressing (one of about five options) was great and the salad came with a bowl of grated Parmesan cheese, which gave my salad a nice accent. Total cost was 198 baht (123 baht for the salad, 75 baht for the smoothie). On my next visit, I had the mushroom cheeseburger at 255 baht. Instead of a bun, it features two extra large mushroom caps (breaded and deep-fried) as the top and bottom layers. It was a novel idea- I've never seen it before- and very well executed. It came with a small serving of salad, shredded beetroot and a few potato wedges. The beef patty was tender, well-seasoned and cooked properly. In all, a delicious and filling meal and good value for money. My next meal wasn't nearly as good as the mushroom burger. I decided to try the eggs Benedict, which turned out to be a big mistake. Eggs Benedict is a U.S. dish consisting of poached eggs and Canadian bacon on a toasted muffin, then topped with Hollandaise sauce. This is what it's supposed to look like (pics from the Net): And this was what I got: Everything was smothered with a thick Hollandaise sauce that wasn't good. Instead of a layer of Canadian bacon, it was topped with a slice of streaky bacon and had some diced ham inside. There was also a layer of spinach and slices of French bread had been used rather a muffin. The eggs were poached properly, but that's about the only positive comment I can make. It didn't taste any better than it looked. Since the pics are depressing, I'll add a bit of info about the dish itself. There are two main versions of how it originated. The most accepted version says it was invented in the 1860's by Charles Ranhofer, the legendary chef at Delmonico's in New York City. Supposedly the wife of a NYC millionaire named Benedict wanted a dish featuring poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce and Raqnhofer came up with eggs Benedict. The other version holds that it was invented in the 1890's when a stock broker named Benedict asked in the restaurant of the Waldorf Hotel for poached eggs and bacon on toast with a boat of Hollandaise on the side. He wanted it as a cure for a hangover. The chef at the Waldorf was impressed and decided to add it to the menu, but substituted Canadian bacon and a muffin to make the dish more fitting for the fancy Waldorf. I scraped off the sauce and ate the eggs. It can be that eggs Benedict was a culinary bridge too far for the Wooden Box. Eggs Benedict is like the girl in the nursery rhyme who had a curl in the middle of her forehead: when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid! It's rare in the U.S. to find eggs Benedict done properly, even less likely abroad. However, the meal wasn't a complete flop. The 235-baht price included coffe or tea, a glass of real orange juice and some fruit. On that basis, I'd give it a 4 out of 10. The miss with the eggs Benedict won't stop me from returning to Wooden Box. I want to try this special before it runs out on Aug. 15: Bottom line: Wooden Box is a welcome addition to the Pattaya food scene with its salads and "Thai fusion" dishes. Just don't order the eggs Benedict. Evil

This is a restaurant that will warm the cockles of every thrifty diner's heart. You can get a decent, albeit small, portion of steak, French fries and salad for 119 baht. Or pork steak with the same accompaniments for baht. It's called in English Steak 9 Rai Sai 3 and is located on the east side of 3rd Road about halfway between Soi Lengkee and Pattaya Klang. More on how to find it at the end of this post. It's a small open-air restaurant that is easy to miss. Let's be realistic. For 119 baht, you aren't going to get the best steak in Pattaya. Also, the steak I got was overcooked, even though I had asked for it rare in both Thai and English. The frozen crinkle fries had been cooked properly, but there weren't many of them. The salad was fresh- I just wish it hadn't been drowned in Thousand Island dressing out of a bottle. It was definitely Thai beef, but it wasn't tough. If it hadn't been overcooked, I would have been very happy with it. [ When I arrived at 7.00 p.m. one night last week., the place was almost full. I got the last table. The inexpensive food seemed popular with both Thais and farang. And everything on the menu is very cheap and real value for money. For those with big appetites, you can order extra meat and French fries at a discounted price. A double portion of steak would be 228 baht. A big bottle of Leo or Chang goes for 75 baht, while Coke is only 15 baht and water 10 baht! [ Besides the misses with the steak, the table I had faced right out on 3rd Road. It was hot and you got all the noise and exhaust fumes from the street. I wouldn't have rushed back to Steak 9, but unusual circumstances put me there again Tuesday with BM capdagde (Andy Cap). We had planned to eat at the Tsunami Sushi Buffet, but there were no seats at 6.00 p.m., so we continued down 3rd Road to Steak 9. Andy was hungry, so he ordered both the steak and fish, a budget "surf and turf" combo. He was happy with his meal and said the beef was better than a lot you get in France. I had the pork steak and it, too, was good. It was juicy and not overcooked with plenty of flavor, definitely different to the tasteless pork you often get in the West. Steak 9 won't become a regular haunt, but I wouldn't hesitate to eat there again if I have my way past. The food I've had there is better than at other budget restaurants like the Sailor or Seaside, altrhough the menu is more limited. The red marker shows its location. It's within easy walking distance of the LK Metro area. If you're riding the baht bus on Soi Bukhao, get off Evil

Punch and Judy has a very good special on Wednesdays: In fact, P&J has decent specials every day . Tomorrow, for example: And the rest of the week: P&J's Sunday roast has long been popular among Pattaya expats. I've had mixed results at P&J's on Sundays- mostly excellent but occassionally disappointing. Definitely the best idea is to get there as close as possible to noon (start time for service of the Sunday roast dinners). Some memorable Sunday meals at P&J over the years in the pics below. Portions are very large and the price reasonable. P&J is a very pleasant place to have a meal or a drink. It's airy, spacious, clean and the seats are comfortable. Service is friendly and the kitchen is accommodating to special requests about the food. The only downside is the location for those who lack their own wheels. P&J i not on the baht bus route and you will have to take a moto or be prepared for a 20-minute walk from the nearest points reachable by BB. Evil

No, it's not. You order dishes from the menu. ShabuShi, which is an all-you-can-eat buffet that also belongs to the Oishi group, is located in Central Festival. It's a hot-pot style arrangement where you grab the ingredients off a conveyor belt, but it also has sushi and other dishes for a very reasonable 375 baht. Both Fuji and ShabuShi are often rammed with customers. That's one advantage of Oishi at The Avenue, it gets busy but I've never seen it full. Evil

Yes, that was something I missed in the review: Oishi has two open "kitchens" where food is cooked is cooked to order. You can order tempura, for example. I'm normally happy to fill up on sushi and sashimi, as well as the soups, small warm dishes and a dim sum bun or two, so I haven't paid too much attention to the cook-to-order option. The dim sum corner: Evil

Oishi is a Thai food and beverage group that operates several hundred restaurants under six different brands including Shabushi, Oishi Ramen and Oishi Japanese Buffet. It also sells bottled teas and chilled and frozen food products through retail stores like 7-11. This review covers the Oishi Japanese Buffet on the second floor of The Avenue Mall on 2nd Road. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet of mostly Japanese food where for a fixed price- 539 baht per person in Pattaya- you can glut yourself on sushi, sashimi, warm dishes, soups, salads, desserts, etc for 90 minutes. Beverages (sodas, tea, fruit drinks from a dispenser) are also included in the price. You have to be very hungry or an exceptionally slow eater if you need longer than 90 minutes to feel satisfied, but you can keep chomping away at a cost of 20 baht per 10 minutes after the first 90 minutes. It's a brightly lit and spacious restaurant with the food set out at various stations in two rooms. It has a capacity of about 200 customers (I'm guessing). On Saturday at 4.30 pm, I counted roughly 50 guests, split evenly among Thais and Japanese. On the many occasions I've eaten at Oishi, I've been the only farang. The food at Oishi is good but falls short of excellence. Unlimited sushi and sashimi is the main attraction at Oishi, but there a certainly better places in Pattaya to enjoy raw fish, namely Tsunami Sushi on 3rd Road; chain restaurants like Fuji and Zen at Central Festival; and stand-alone Japanese restaurants (Yamato, Chamiko). In terms of quality, Oishi is a notch below the others, but that's where the all-you-can-eat concept comes in. Your 539 baht will go further at Oishi than all the others except Tsunami. Oishi's advantages over Tsunami are only logistical: Oishi has a more convenient location and longer hours of operation; there's never any difficult getting a table at Oishi; and you can enjoy a more private dining experience. Due to Tsunami's popularity, you may be forced to share a table with strangers. It's largely for those reasons my most frequent dining companion favors Oishi over Tsunami. Here's the result of her first run at the Oishi buffet tables. She went very heavy on the salmon sashimi, a personal favorite of hers. That's what she likes, eating as much raw salmon as she wants. The salmon itself was OK, but as said, a notch below the best Pattaya has to offer. Top salmon for sashimi has a buttery texture and flavor which is balanced nicely by the wasabi and soy dip. The salmon at Oishi is a bit lean. The food at Oishi is set out at four separate buffet stations, one of which is devoted to sushi, sashimi and various Japanese salads and pickles. It's pretty standard stuff; no surprises on the sushi or sashimi front. The sushi at Oishi is let down by the rice- it doesn't have the proper level of acidity. The second buffet station features both hot and cold prepared dishes as well as a variety of steamed buns. Fish simmered in miso soup Steamed clams in sauce Chicken with cashew, which is admittedly a Chinese dish. One thing I liked about Oishi's buffet is that the trays on the chafing dishes are rather small, which means they are replenished often and the food is kept hot and fresh. I haven't paid too much attention to the third and fourth buffet station, which are in a separate room. they are devoted mostly to fruits and desserts. The desserts at Oishi, which include ice cream, are skippable. But really, who goes to a Japanese buffet for Western desserts? Bottom line: Oishi is not a bad option for people who want to stuff themselves on sushi, sashimi and a few warm dishes at a reasonable price, but better Japanese food is available elsewhere in Pattaya. Evil

The Sailor Restaurant offers some of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, Western food of any sit-down restaurant in Pattaya. However, it is very much a case of you get what you pay for. Of the four meals I've had there, one has been inedible (food was rancid) and two were merely bad, but the most recent (last week) was acceptable if not good. No question whatsoever that Sailor qualifies as under 300 baht ... I believe every dish on its menu is less than 200 baht. But whether the food is good, well, that much more problematic. However, no discussion of cheap eats in Pattaya would be complete without at least a mention of the Sailor. After an absence of two years due to the three awful meals, I decided to make a return visit as I heard from friends the food had improved. Once again, I tried the pork schnitzel with potato salad. The last time I ordered it, the potato salad was rancid and the schnitzel had been pounded so thin and fried so hard it couldn't be chewed. This time the schnitzel was much better. It was a small square of breaded pork that wasn't paper-thin and had been properly cooked. It tasted OK, if nothing special. At 100 baht for the schnitzel and 40 baht for Coke Zero, you can't fault the price. The potato salad, also a small portion, was basically chunks of boiled potatoes dressed with mayonaise and sprinkled with chopped chives. There was no mustard or any other seasoning in the dressing. It was the kind of potato salad served in elementary school cafeterias in the US. It was a bit off-putting to find a piece of macaroni in the potato salad. The most benign explanation would be that the same spoon had been used to plate the potato salad as had been used to dish up another customer's macaroni salad. The Sailor isn't air-conditioned and the dining area was extremely hot, even though I was sitting under a bank of ceiling fans. For that reason alone, I won't be going back any time soon. I wouldn't endure that sort of discomfort while dining even if the food was much better. For several decades the Sailor has been noted for its service with a snarl as much as its cheap if dodgy food. The surly waitresses were among the most unfriendly I've encountered anywhere in the world. I'm happy to say that appears to have improved a bit. A waitress actually smiled at me last week and didn't use a rude tone of voice. Remarkable! The only reason I can think of for anyone to eat at the Sailor is a very tight budget. The food isn't good, nor is it a pleasant place to have a meal. If you're willing to spend just a little more money, better is available all over Pattaya. Evil

As others have said, a tourist visa is the way to go. There's still enough time to apply via mail or courier service for a visa from the Royal Thai Embassy in Canberra: http://canberra.thaiembassy.org/Home/visa Or you can pay a few bucks more and have a visa service handle it for you. Just do a Google search for visa services. Either way, DIY or paid service, it will be less money and hassle than a trip to a nearby country. Of course, you may want to visit Cambodia, Singapore or Malaysia for a few days, which would also solve the problem. A friend of mine was faced with a situation very similar to yours. He had a return flight 39 days after arrival in LOS. He had planned to do a 12-hour border run to Laos to extend his 30-day visa exemption stay, but fell ill on the day he was supposed to do the run and didn't feel up to sitting on a bus for many hours. Through a visa service in Pattaya, he was able to get permission from the Immigration office to stay another 7 days in Thailand and then simply paid 1,000 baht for a two-day overstay. Not the best solution, but it works. Evil

The lamb burger at Bite Me is exceptionally good, one of the most flavor-packed dishes I've had anywhere. If you haven't tried it, now's your chance. Evil

A had a very good meal in Xinn Tien Di, a Cantonese restaurant on the third floor of Gaysorn Plaza in Bangkok. The restaurant is noted for its Peking Duck and that's what we had. The exterior and interior shots have been lifted from the Internet as I had the wrong set of lenses with me for such pictures. The star of Peking Duck is the crispy skin, not the duck meat. The skin is sliced from the duck and eaten with spring onions, cucumbers and a special sauce, all wrapped in a very thin pancake (actually a crepe). The duck carcass is then taken away and the meat is prepared as a separate dish, most often as duck soup to end the meal. We also ordered fried goat ribs as a second course. I've never associated goat with either Chinese or Thai cuisine and it was in fact the first time I'd seen it on a menu in Thailand. The ribs were very meaty and flavorful, better than pork ribs, I thought. As side dishes, we chose baked morning glory with garlic and ... four kinds of Chinese vegetables. I forgot to photograph the duck meat dish. We ordered it stir-fried with garlic and soy sauce. It was OK but nothing special. As said, it's the duck skin that is the highlight of Peking duck. The duck cost 680 baht (two dishes) and with the other three dishes, the total cost was 1,500 baht for three people. A bottle of SML went for 150 baht. It was an excellent meal and I wish we had a restaurant like Xinn Tien Di in Pattaya. Evil