The Queen Victoria Inn on Soi Yodsak (Soi 6’s
“real” name) is a well established traditional English Pub, with its own
restaurant serving high quality ‘pub grub’ and these days having its own
hotel rooms as well, following the recent refurbishment, repaint and refit.
One most noticeable feature is the new lounge meeting room, with a nook
upholstered in red.
The rest of the Queen Victoria Inn is as you remember it,
done out in a typical English pub decor, with maps, old photographs, horse
brasses, old timbers and even a collection of tea pots! There is a central
sit-up bar and along the walls overlooking the soi (and its wonderful
sights) there is alcove seating for four to five people. On each table is a
sparkling clean woven basket with very clean (and filled) bottles of malt
vinegar, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce, Coleman’s mustard
and Tabasco. The immediate impression you get is that somebody ‘cares’.
Adjoining
the central bar is the carvery area, complete with dedicated carvery chef. A
hot station has the meats, and alongside are the Bain Marie hot containers
for the vegetables, while on the other side is the cold station with the
prawn cocktails.
The very happy and obliging young service ladies were
resplendent in snappy white shorts and tops. Manager Bert Elson telling me
that at the weekends the bar staff wear ‘sporting’ outfits, with
Guinness outfits on Fridays, Tiger outfits on Saturdays (from Tiger beer,
not from the striped animals that inhabit Indian jungles) and the footy
whites on Sundays.
Being a pub, selling ales is the primary business, but
they are not selling these at a premium. In the draft beers, Heineken pints
are B. 140, Guinness B. 160, Kilkenny B. 180 and their latest addition of
Strongbow Cider on tap is B. 190.
The Sunday Carvery costs 290 baht and includes soup,
prawn cocktail, carvery covering roast rib of beef, roast turkey (you
don’t have to wait till Xmas), roast pork and roast ham. The vegetables
include creamed cauliflower, mashed potato, roast potato, carrots, peas,
Brussels sprouts and cabbage. There is also Yorkshire puddings (and you
don’t have to come from Yorkshire to enjoy them) and stuffing for your
turkey. And I almost forgot – there’s desserts as well with apple
crumble being on offer on the Sunday we went along.
I began with the soup, which one of the young ladies
brought to our table from the hot-pot tureen. This was a ham and pea soup
which was very flavorsome and was presented in a large English style soup
bowl, with a ‘proper’ soup spoon! Thank you Queen Victoria Inn. Some
French bread accompanied the soup, plus one of those fiddly foil butter pats
that I hate, but that is a personal view, not shared by everyone.
The prawn cocktail was also brought over and was a very
acceptable example of the genre with fresh lettuce, nice dressing and
correctly cooked prawns. Unfortunately mine came with a spoon that I usually
see in sugar bowls, making it difficult to extract the lettuce. I did
mention this to Bert who said he would look into the cocktail fork supply.
(So next time you go and you get a proper cocktail fork, thank the Pattaya
Mail and Miss Terry Diner!)
I tried all the roast meats and they were correctly
roasted, and the vegetables not overcooked (the peas were delicious). It was
a fine Sunday roast dinner, just like my Mum used to do.
Desserts? Sorry Bert and the girls, there was no more
room!
We enjoyed our Sunday lunch, and so too did the many
people we saw that Sunday, including a couple of families with children of
all ages. One such was Malcolm and Christina Bowden from the Charity Club of
Pattaya, with Malcolm saying (unasked), “We come here most Sundays. It’s
such good value.” At 290 baht the Dining Out Team could only agree.
Definitely worth the trip one Sunday. Highly recommended.
Queen Victoria Inn, 437/137-140 Soi Yodsak (6), Pattaya, telephone 038
425 418, email queenvictoriainn@ hotmail.com, website www.
queenvictoria-inn.com. Street parking. Sunday carvery from 12.30 p.m. until
9 p.m.
Evelyne
and Ghislain Lassance