A real family business
by Miss Terry Diner
The last review we did on P.S. Sharkfin Restaurant was
over 3 years ago, and it has changed in that time. It has not grown any
larger, still being a single shophouse on Pattaya Third Road (about 200
metres from North Pattaya Road and on the left heading towards Pattaya
Central Road), but the menu has changed and there is now a mezzanine floor
that has been added to accommodate another 20 diners upstairs.
One aspect that has not changed is the ownership, still
being run by Payon (ex TAT Japan) and wife Sirirat (making up the P.S.).
There have been some building modifications downstairs, but it is still as
spotlessly clean as it was 3 years ago too. Even the small outside cook
station at the street frontage is stainless steel and stainless!
The main dining area only takes four tables, wooden
topped, with chrome cushioned seat furniture. The crockery is the
ubiquitous melamine and the cutlery, let’s say, utilitarian - but again,
spotlessly clean. The restaurant is air-conditioned and the overall
atmosphere would be called “cosy”. The waitress was very pleasant, and
you did feel that this was a ‘family’ restaurant. When we revealed
that we were indeed the Dining Out Team (Miss Terry being spotted writing
furiously while copying the menu), owner Payon came and joined us and
filled us in on the direction of the restaurant over the intervening years
since our last visit.
The new menu is not extensive, with the first page
having only 14 items and the second 15. The items are written in English,
Chinese and Thai. It begins with Sharkfin soup, two sizes - 300 and 500
baht. If you want a large size fin then you will pay 1,500 and 2,000 baht.
Abalone soup is next (B. 200 and 300) and Sea Asparagus is the same price.
Fish maw or bean curd soups are much cheaper at B. 100. Completing page
one, some stir fries are up next, ranging from B. 50-600, with morning
glory at the bottom end, through crab, to a large size helping of shark
fin at the top.
The second page is entitled Seafood, and ranges in
price between B. 50-300, with fried noodles topped with seafood at the
lower end and a shrimps steamed with vermicelli the most expensive.
The third and final page has drinks, beers and
desserts, with Singha beer B. 65 a large bottle or B. 80 for Heineken.
Payon did say that early next year they were thinking of adding some
Japanese items to the menu, adding that he also owned a very successful
Thai restaurant in Japan!
Being a sharkfin specialist restaurant, we began with a
B. 500 size order of sharkfin soup. This came in a clay pot and was large
enough to feed the four of us. It came with a side plate with some
beautifully fresh bean sprouts and coriander. It was excellent.
We followed that up with a stir-fried crabmeat with
spring onion, a stir-fried chicken with almonds and a yum woon sen (prawn
salad in cellophane noodles). These came with more fresh bean sprouts and
coriander and a glass with freshly growing shallots. Madame revelling in
the spicy prawn salad, while I enjoyed the crabmeat stir-fry which had
plenty of crabmeat - you did not have to send out a search party to find
it, as I have sometimes experienced. The taste was very delicate and the
cooking had not lost the crab flavour. However, all of us gave the
sharkfin soup our number one vote. It was unanimous.
We enjoyed our evening at P.S. Sharkfin, and the
sharkfin soup was truly superb, which explains why this restaurant is a
‘must visit’ venue for the Hong Kong Chinese tourists. The cuisine is
different enough from both Thai and ordinary Chinese to make this a great
option. I do not know of a cheaper sharkfin soup (of this quality) in
Pattaya and we can highly recommend this restaurant. Funky and small, but
clean and great cuisine. Try it one evening.
P.S. Sharkfin Restaurant, 8/65 M6, Pattaya Third Road, telephone 038
370 687. Open 1 pm till late.
