by Miss Terry Diner
The Old Germany international restaurant is at
Maptaput, on the main Sukhumvit Highway and is under the same ownership as
the Deutsches Haus in Pattaya, with the effervescent Dieter Floeth and
wife Pet at the helm.
You are constantly reminded of the name of the
restaurant - “Old Germany”, just as soon as you pull up outside. The
building is decorated like a German townhouse, complete with planter boxes
of flowers at the windows. Inside, the restaurant is wood panelled, with
German memorabilia everywhere, ranging from Hanoverian helmets,
lederhosen, Bavarian aprons, beer steins in rows, the Pattaya Blatt
German newspaper, maps of the Ardennes and even a framed photograph of
Michael Schumacher. If that is not enough, the waitresses are all decked
out in chequered dresses too. This is definitely a German restaurant!
The dining area has a central sit up bar with high
stools where you can drink and eat, and around the perimeter are many
tables of differing sizes, so larger groups can be catered for. Upstairs
there are more dining areas and function rooms which can cater for up to
200 people, and according to Dieter, the Maptaput business community use
these for business lunches and dinners.
The menu begins with drinks, and again the German
connection is apparent, as after the local beers (50 baht per .33 L
bottle) there are many imported German beers including Veltins,
Warsteiner, Diebols Darkbeer and the wheat beers Maisel’s, Paulaner,
Erdinger and the wonderfully named Weihenstaphaner.
From there you are into 6 soups (B. 70-180) including a
German pea soup, then appetizers (B. 70-90) which includes hamburgers,
complete with french-fries, and sandwiches. For the youngsters there is a
children’s menu (B. 50-80) which includes an ice cream at the end, then
a half page of sausages (this is a German restaurant), most of which come
with home fries and sauerkraut (B. 70-170).
Sixteen main dishes are next (B. 130-190) with ribs,
roast pork, schnitzels and pork knuckle on offer. 7 steaks are next,
generally under B. 200, then 6 seafood dishes all under B. 160 and then
salads (B. 40-120). There is a page of Thai favourites (B. 50-70) and then
a page of imported specials with Norwegian salmon, NZ lamb and US beef.
These are mainly around B. 260. One excellent feature is that there is a
Thai language version of the entire menu too, not just the Thai items.
There are many Thai dinner guests who would like to try “farang” food
too. Well done, Pet and Dieter. Almost forgot, there are 3 lunchtime
specials as well (B. 110-150) covering American meatloaf, chicken or
steak.
We began with soups, with a Hungarian goulash for me
and a French onion for Madame. The goulash was thick and meaty and
excellent, while Madame’s French onion was different from the usual run
of the mill, being a creamy soup, rather than based on a consomm้,
but was still very pleasant.
For mains, Madame had the spring chicken with fries,
while I went for the more traditional schnitzel. Both were very good and
the quantities enormous. The schnitzels (there were two!) were not dried
out and were thick and not battered to death, literally or metaphorically.
We finished with some Black Forest cake, which is made
by Pet herself, as is the German bread that was served with the goulash.
During the meal we had some draft beer, which always seems to go well with
European food, and then Dieter and Pet joined us for a round or two of
schnapps. Or was it 7 or 8? Forgive me, this was written the next day and
the memory is hazy!
We found the Old Germany Restaurant provided good
nourishing food in large portions and taking into account the low prices,
represents excellent value. It is well worth taking the family down. It is
a little way (53 kilometres via highway 36) from Pattaya, but it is a
pleasant and easy drive. Highly recommended as a good value family style
restaurant.
The Old Germany, Sukhumvit Road, Maptaput (Opp PTT Refinery and just
past the Jet/Jiffy service station), tel. 038 682 342.
