The Bay Restaurant, out on the point at the Dusit Resort,
was one of those restaurants that you knew was “there”, but other than
the Saturday night BBQ, there was no real compelling reason to go
“there”. To be honest, it was one restaurant that had slipped into the
shadows and out from view. That has changed! Spectacularly!
After a 10 million baht makeover, the Bay is an all-new
restaurant, with an all-new attitude, an all-new chef and an all-new
refreshing Italian approach to its cuisine.
A few words on the venue itself. The makeover has
converted the old restaurant into a very sophisticated building, with clean
lines and an uncluttered ambience. You can dine inside in air-conditioned
comfort, or just sit around the long curved bar and enjoy cocktails or a
beer, and there are even a couple of ‘lover’s nooks’ for secluded
semi-private dining, or go outside overlooking the pool area with the
cooling sea breezes. It is modern, and for me, the architectural style is
reminiscent of a high class Mediterranean island resort. Cool, clean, simple
and yet striking.
The furniture, napery, cutlery and glassware are also all
of a very high standard and you know as soon as you are seated that this
restaurant is promising something special. Even the glass container with the
grissini breadsticks done in curlicues show that someone ‘cares’.
We dined with the Dusit Resort’s resident manager,
Stefan Heintze during the ‘soft opening’ period for the totally
refurbished restaurant and began with a bottle of their own label
chardonnay, a very pleasant white from California, bottled expressly for the
Dusit Resorts.
The new menu certainly has an Italian emphasis, with the
chef Silvio Mutzner dedicated to the Bay Restaurant and given a free hand to
produce something just that little more up-market than before.
We followed that Italian concept with a combination of
the Bay antipasti items that included pan-fried goose liver, marinated
shrimps, sardines, eggplant mousse, baked garlic, veal in tuna sauce,
salami, Coppa and Parma hams with the expected melon slices. The chardonnay
certainly went well with this dish.
Our next foray into the menu was a wild mushroom cream
soup with Toscanini truffle oil and garlic flakes. The white glazed pottery
dishes were such that you felt they should have been kept for artistic
display, rather than being so crass as to eat out of them. That makeover
also included crockery! The soup was simply superb too, and the garlic
flakes just lifted the dish to a sublime height.
We changed to red at this point, and stayed with the
Dusit’s own label, again from California, and again a very pleasant drop.
We were treated to a roasted marinated rack of lamb on a spiced lentil stew
with basil polenta and rosemary gravy. The meat (imported) was very tender
and chef Silvio showed that he is capable of cooking with a light hand,
retaining the lamb flavour, while still adding to it with the spiced lentil.
By now we were more than replete, but Stefan insisted
that we try the desserts, and with (weak) protestations, I allowed myself to
be seduced by the tiramisu with pistachio mousse and red currants!
We came away from the Bay Restaurant very impressed. The
venue is spectacular in one of the most beautiful settings in Pattaya, right
beside the swimming pools and the waters of Pattaya Bay. The food was
definitely of a very high standard, the service personnel were impeccable
and the prices were, for the quality received, most reasonable. I would
recommend that Pattaya’s food lovers should re-acquaint themselves with
this restaurant. The Dusit Resort has introduced a very worthy “new”
player into the fine dining scene. The Bay Restaurant had given us a
wonderful culinary evening and a great new discovery, which we now have
given to you. Very highly recommended.
The Bay Restaurant, Dusit Resort, 240/2 Pattaya Beach Road (enter from
the Dolphin roundabout intersection of Pattaya Second, Pattaya North and
Pattaya-Naklua Roads), Pattaya City, telephone 038 425 611, fax 038 428 239,
email [email protected]. Open seven days, 11 a.m. until 10.30 p.m. Secure
parking in hotel grounds.
