Christmas at the Pattaya Beer Garden

[N3RGT 118]

Pete,

I'll certainly be sampling some of your fare very soon. Also hope there are a good many freelancers

around too

Edited January 3, 2009 by N3RGT

[MeGoDanceNow 4,281]

Bigmick, I trust you paid a corkage fee for the sherry you brought in?

[Emil 0]

Agreed not after you have ordered.

 

I'll be different and disagree. I've been to places where I had to wait in a waiting area or bar for close to an hour and then once seated for dinner, waited another 30 minutes for the food. It's still works out to 90 minutes. The one thing that I would expect and demand is hot food, the wait is not a problem unless I've got plans to meet someone or get to a movie. In America places will have staff that's only around for a few hours during peak times, I don't know if I've ever seen this concept in Pattaya.

 

Usually when I go out to dinner with a group of friends the primary purpose is to socialize with them, so if there is a wait it dosen't bother me. I do prefer for the meals to come near the same time instead of being staggered.

Edited January 4, 2009 by Emil

[soi unwise 6]

If I had planned to go at prime time,during high season,with the knowledge of how good the VFM is I would allow a minimum of 1 hour to be fed.If I didn't want to wait so long to be fed I would have taken a few nibbles,nuts etc in anticipation of such a wait.

And do we really want super efficient while in Pattaya ?? Imperfection is part of the make up of the place ( Pattaya not PBG )IMHO.

[chuckrivera 1]

I'll be different and disagree. I've been to places where I had to wait in a waiting area or bar for close to an hour and then once seated for dinner, waited another 30 minutes for the food. It's still works out to 90 minutes. The one thing that I would expect and demand is hot food, the wait is not a problem unless I've got plans to meet someone or get to a movie. In America places will have staff that's only around for a few hours during peak times, I don't know if I've ever seen this concept in Pattaya.

 

Usually when I go out to dinner with a group of friends the primary purpose is to socialize with them, so if there is a wait it dosen't bother me. I do prefer for the meals to come near the same time instead of being staggered.

 

I was talking about 90 minutes from the time you ordered, not the time you walked in the door. Agreed, during dinner rush periods, you'll wait to be seated, then wait again for your food. Perfectly acceptable, and even expected. Waiting for 90 minutes after you order is not acceptable in any establishment. Most of the problems experienced in this thread seem to be waiting one hour plus from the time of ordering.

[Bushcraft 2,572]

After all that's been said, a word of praise when it's due. I took my girl to PBG on New Year's Eve at around 7.30. The place was almost full. We both ordered the chicken cordon bleu, which really is excellent, and the food arrived within 20 minutes. Had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, keep it up Pete.

[Emil 0]

I was talking about 90 minutes from the time you ordered, not the time you walked in the door. Agreed, during dinner rush periods, you'll wait to be seated, then wait again for your food. Perfectly acceptable, and even expected. Waiting for 90 minutes after you order is not acceptable in any establishment. Most of the problems experienced in this thread seem to be waiting one hour plus from the time of ordering.

 

I understood exactly what you were saying and my point was that 90 minutes is 90 minutes. I'll explain my point again. If I walk into a place to have dinner and I have to wait in a waiting area or the bar area for 1 hour before a table is ready in the restaurant and then another 30 minutes from the time that I place my order before it arrives, I've still had to wait a total of 90 minutes from the time that I arrived at the establishment before I begin to eat. I'm assuming that these people who waited the 90 minutes were seated and placed an order as soon as they arrived at the PBG, if they arrived and had to wait an extended period of time to be seated and have their order taken then their wait was greater than the 90 minutes.

[Rick1079 0]

I think most on this board are there for thai women not thai food!!!!!!!!

 

I thought the woman were part of the food

[Hub 203]

I am still gobsmacked when so many foreigners go to Thailand and demand non-Thai food and then complain when it doesn't come out the exact way they are used to back home in Farang-land.

 

Get over it guys you are in Thailand eat Thai food or stay at home in Farang-land and eat your lousy stooge food, get fat and have a heart attack and die!

 

Get real!!!!!!!!

 

 

No offense, but that makes no sense to me. If you have a Farang menu, you should be able to handle it properly. If someone from Italy comes to the USA and orders spagetti, should they expect to wait 90 minutes and have it come out cold?

[Hub 203]

I understood exactly what you were saying and my point was that 90 minutes is 90 minutes. I'll explain my point again. If I walk into a place to have dinner and I have to wait in a waiting area or the bar area for 1 hour before a table is ready in the restaurant and then another 30 minutes from the time that I place my order before it arrives, I've still had to wait a total of 90 minutes from the time that I arrived at the establishment before I begin to eat. I'm assuming that these people who waited the 90 minutes were seated and placed an order as soon as they arrived at the PBG, if they arrived and had to wait an extended period of time to be seated and have their order taken then their wait was greater than the 90 minutes.

Emil:

 

I have to respectfully disagree. I think the 90 minutes in each situation is totally different. Firstly, as a good place when you arrive they will tell you so and it is your decision. When sat at a table and ordered, the expectation is that the food will be coming out in a reasonable time (60-90 minutes is not reasonable in any situation, IMO). What if someone is really hungry or hypoglycemic (sp?).

 

If I walk into the PIC Kitchen or Mata hari and they say 45 minutes (which has happened), i'll talk to the group I'm with and come to a decision, and sometimes order an appetizer while having a few drinks. To be sat at a table and wait 90 minutes for a burger is Totally different and unacceptable, IMO.

 

I think one of the telling items is even that someone had to tell Pete this was going on (people waitinf for 90 minutes for cold food) without any staff raising the red flag. Sounds like they need a food expediter. (and yes, I have worked in several restaurants). Although the picture of Gordon Ramsay chasing Pete around for a week calling him a donkey is pretty amusing

 

Pete:

 

In all due respect, I would have got on the internet immediately when your plans changed and announced it, with maybe the warning about the 7-8:30 period also. The BMs above have a legitmate gripe when they say they came specifically knowing the pre fixe would help alleviate any waits.

 

The bottles of wine are a nice gestures, but does little to salvage a ruined night, especially it being xmas, and bigMick probably had major egg on his face. I do hope it does work out for you and the problems can be fixed.

[Dr Mick 111]

Pete you will have to write off this xmas dinner as not a good day .

Think again before doing this again.

 

You know what falangs think about xmas dinner ,should be one of the best dinners in the year.

 

Yours did not even hit the grade as average sunday lunch

 

The night was not spolit as I had good friends and company in a wonderful location ,

 

You just have to put the other things right to make xmas night a special wonderful night next year

for everybody including your staff and yourself.

 

Sure your staff missed some big tips this night .

 

Yes thank you for the two bottles of wine it did help to blur some of the memories.

 

Saying this I do hope you succeed in 2009 as I have enjoyed talking to you in the past.

[bigmick 840]

Hub , why would i have egg on my face??

Our point was clear enough, we were prepared to wait for our food, we understood it was busey, but waiting for a long time only to get 5 out of the 14 meals ordered was not good enough and then to find the food was cold and on cold plates was even worse.All of the people in our group went there on the strength of the advertised menu for xmas day which was changed over nite, and to see pete say he only had a few complaints is just poor, to total there were 14 on our table , 4 guys from ireland one side , 8 on another side and i believe 22 behind us, theres 48 for a start, surely pete should have been walking around himself seeing that at peak times its all going as well as can be , in stead of sitting with his chums for 30 minutes who happened to come in after us yet get there food before us??

ladydrinking; i never brought any drink into the bar, it was someone else, thats shows how much attention was being paid

all said and done we all have been customers of petes before and now, and sincerly want him to succeed in anything he does, he is a really good guy who works hard, i think he will learn from his mistakes and i think and hope the food issues will be sorted out so we can ALL post positive things in the near future

[Dungheap 243]

Suggestion for big nights like Xmas, etc: Put on a buffet for the masses.

Edited January 5, 2009 by Dungheap

[FatherMojo 2]

Suggestion for big nights like Xmas, etc: Put on a buffet for the masses.

 

 

Actually, that my be the easiest solution.

 

FatherMojo

[Hub 203]

Hub , why would i have egg on my face??

 

Bigmick:

 

Because I thought you were the one that suggested eating at the PBG to your friends as you are a board member; maybe I misinterpreted your post. I didn't mean it as a knock on you at all.

 

Hub

[kev0184 12]

Bigmick:

 

Because I thought you were the one that suggested eating at the PBG to your friends as you are a board member; maybe I misinterpreted your post. I didn't mean it as a knock on you at all.

 

Hub

 

Hub, unfortunatly it was me who suggested the venue, which was made on the "they only have a set menu, wait wont be as long as normal" quote to the gang on the 23rd!!!!! ooopppsssss!!!

[Emil 0]

Emil:

 

I have to respectfully disagree. I think the 90 minutes in each situation is totally different. Firstly, as a good place when you arrive they will tell you so and it is your decision. When sat at a table and ordered, the expectation is that the food will be coming out in a reasonable time (60-90 minutes is not reasonable in any situation, IMO). What if someone is really hungry or hypoglycemic (sp?).

 

If I walk into the PIC Kitchen or Mata hari and they say 45 minutes (which has happened), i'll talk to the group I'm with and come to a decision, and sometimes order an appetizer while having a few drinks. To be sat at a table and wait 90 minutes for a burger is Totally different and unacceptable, IMO.

 

Hub,

 

Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I thought Pete said that the wait staff was informing patrons that there was going to be a wait so my scenario was based on knowing that I'm in for a wait. Like I said in my initial post, if I have follow on plans or like you say someone must eat at a specific time, then I wouldn't wait and if I were given a wait time of 30 minutes and it turned out to be much longer I would be upset. My comment was how I would feel about waiting 90 minutes after I ordered and I said I wouldn't care as long as I know that there will be a wait and that its happened to me before. The difference was that I had to wait in a different area and then once my name was called I then would have to move to the eating area. 90 minutes is 90 minutes whether its waiting in one area or two area. In some places I might not like waiting in the dinning area for 90 minutes and would prefer to have the time split between the bar area and the dinning area because if there is a sporting event on I can watch it in the bar area while waiting as the dining area might not have a TV. PBG has TVs so waiting at my table would be like waiting in the bar area of a restaurant. I also mention that when I go out to dinner with friends, socializing with them is a high priority so yaking with then during the wait I enjoy. If you ever saw me you would see that I don't miss many meals and eat 3 times a day with a couple snacks thrown so I'm never starving when I sit down to eat.

 

Again my post was how I would feel not anyone else.

[PattayaPete 527]

I agree that a 90 minute wait in a restaurant is never acceptable and I am embarrassed that it has come to that a few times over the past couple of weeks in the Beer Garden.

 

I will be writing more about the Christmas debacle in my blog once I have all my thoughts and plans straight but for now I'll just say that I called the whole thing completely wrong. It was our first Christmas and I just has no idea what was going to happen or how we would deal with it. Just how wrong I was will all be revealed in due course.

 

New Years Eve was another debacle but for different reasons. I actually though we might be quiet as we were not doing a party or anything special. Duh, completely wrong again. In fact by 10 pm on New Years Eve we were so full I had to close the gate and refuse entry to new people. This did not go down well with more than a few people who abused me roundly through the closed gate. However when I got home that night and heard the news about the Bangkok fire I felt somewhat vindicated in my decision. I am already working on a better plan for next New Year.

 

Several people have commented that my excuses for slow food service are getting old and things should be right by now. I fully understand that point of view but I also know how much we have improved over the past 8 months.

 

Back in May we struggled to do 100 meals a day. When we struck 200 a day in September it was tricky but several changes in the Kitchen and extra staff helped. In November we were almost coping with 400 meals a day and further refinements were added. By Christmas time we were doing well over 500 meals a day and really not coping. Every improvement I made to fix the situation just got swallowed up in extra growth. When Mikey was here he reckoned we would max at at about 500 meals in terms of capacity and I think he was right.

 

The good news is that the big Christmas rushed ended last Friday and since then we have been coping remarkably well with 400 plus meals a day. It seems easy now that we have peaked out over the Christmas fortnight. I am sure a few more surprises still await me but it's downhill from here to May and our first full year of operation.

 

To anyone that got a bad meal or a protracted delay over the holiday fortnight my sincere apologies. I doubt we will ever be that bad again. I'll be posting a major analysis of what went wrong and how I plan to prevent it happening again on my blog in a week or so and will certainly welcome any feedback, positive or negative.

 

Pete

[laffnliv 78]

Pete, your openness is refreshing and should be seen as an example for those who only deal in excuses. I wasn't there for Christmas or New Years as I had to do the required Christmas bull-shit with family in the States. Will return next week to enjoy the PBG again.

 

Little Roy

[Rick1079 0]

Pete, still looking forward to visiting your establishment when we arrive

[short 215]

I agree that a 90 minute wait in a restaurant is never acceptable and I am embarrassed that it has come to that a few times over the past couple of weeks in the Beer Garden.

 

I will be writing more about the Christmas debacle in my blog once I have all my thoughts and plans straight but for now I'll just say that I called the whole thing completely wrong. It was our first Christmas and I just has no idea what was going to happen or how we would deal with it. Just how wrong I was will all be revealed in due course.

 

New Years Eve was another debacle but for different reasons. I actually though we might be quiet as we were not doing a party or anything special. Duh, completely wrong again. In fact by 10 pm on New Years Eve we were so full I had to close the gate and refuse entry to new people. This did not go down well with more than a few people who abused me roundly through the closed gate. However when I got home that night and heard the news about the Bangkok fire I felt somewhat vindicated in my decision. I am already working on a better plan for next New Year.

 

Several people have commented that my excuses for slow food service are getting old and things should be right by now. I fully understand that point of view but I also know how much we have improved over the past 8 months.

 

 

 

 

 

Let me add a personal view point here.

 

 

On New Years Eve I decided to visits Pete's restaurant for dinner. To get there I had to pass several open air bars that were showing free food. I could have easily eaten the fee food at those bars and gone on my way but I didn't for two reasons.

 

1. I didn't want to be indepted to those bars for food because I wanted too do New Year eve on the pier.

2. I wanted a view by the sea.

 

When Pete's staff seated me they warned me that the wait time was extremely long.

 

Pete's staff seated me with another couple which is fine on a holidy.

 

I ordered "Sliders" hoping that they would be fast.

 

I don't think that Pete knows what the American definition of a "Slider" is.

 

I will say Pete is getting very good at making American bacon for BLTs.

 

 

 

Back in May we struggled to do 100 meals a day. When we struck 200 a day in September it was tricky but several changes in the Kitchen and extra staff helped. In November we were almost coping with 400 meals a day and further refinements were added. By Christmas time we were doing well over 500 meals a day and really not coping. Every improvement I made to fix the situation just got swallowed up in extra growth. When Mikey was here he reckoned we would max at at about 500 meals in terms of capacity and I think he was right.

 

The good news is that the big Christmas rushed ended last Friday and since then we have been coping remarkably well with 400 plus meals a day. It seems easy now that we have peaked out over the Christmas fortnight. I am sure a few more surprises still await me but it's downhill from here to May and our first full year of operation.

 

To anyone that got a bad meal or a protracted delay over the holiday fortnight my sincere apologies. I doubt we will ever be that bad again. I'll be posting a major analysis of what went wrong and how I plan to prevent it happening again on my blog in a week or so and will certainly welcome any feedback, positive or negative.

 

Pete

 

MM : edit to change color of short's comments

Edited January 8, 2009 by MM

[rockinjerry 2]

Pete, your openness is refreshing and should be seen as an example for those who only deal in excuses.

Little Roy

 

Agree 100%!

 

Pete, still looking forward to visiting your establishment when we arrive

 

 

Ditto as PBG will be one of my first stops!

 

Happy New Year, Pete, Ann, & The Pattaya Beer Garden.

[Picco01 0]

Hi Pete,

 

Some feedback on the Garden for you.

 

Attended place twice.

 

First time was told that any rice dish would have a 40 minute wait, not sure it takes that long to cook rice? So just had a drink and left.

 

Second time prompt service except that second entree came out just after mains had arrived.

 

Other than that really liked the place, you probably have more room for more tables if required on the food side however I appreciated the uncramped dining experinece.

 

The place was probably 50/50 between diners and drinkers when I was there, and its so big it would take about 150 people to look crowded. But I will definitely visit again.

 

[soi unwise 6]

Was you alone or with a whore Picco ? Just curious. x

[PattayaPete 527]

Short

 

You are right in so far as I had never heard of a Slider prior to Mikey ( an American Chef and board member here) suggesting we add them to the menu. He also taught our cooking staff how to make them.

 

I have never had one anywhere else or even heard of them before although I must say I quite like what we make and eat them often.

 

I take it from your comment that they do not meet your definition of a Slider. Can you explain what the problem or difference is.