DINING OUT - ENTERTAINMENT

The Kilkenny Irish Pub and Restaurant

by Miss Terry Diner

I could have started this week’s review by saying that the search for the proper “English” chip is over. Available in trencherman portions along with equally sized main dishes. The place for hungry drinkers. However, there is more to The Kilkenny Pub and Restaurant than a ‘chip butty’ (and B. 149 if you’d like to try).

For those who want to drive to their dining out venue, this is a slight problem with this place. Being on Walking Street, which closes to vehicular traffic in the early evening, means that you have to park behind the Marine Hotel or on Second Road. Stroll down to Walking Street through Soi Diamond for some fun!

The Kilkenny Irish Pub and Restaurant is around half way along Walking Street, on the ocean side of the street. You will not miss it, but do not expect “waitresses” in skimpy outfits to greet you as “Hello sexy man! Come inside please!” You will instead get a shy smile from the Kilkenny girls in their smart maroon waistcoats and long aprons as they usher you inside.

The bar area is long and thin, and leads out into the dining section at the side of the stage (which is used by the band presenting live easy-listening music every night from 10 p.m.), which in turn gives access to the ‘Sea Terrace’, an undercover, but non-aircon, section looking out over Pattaya Bay. The dining section features heavy wooden tables and some log seats, as well as a couple of upholstered alcoves. Various sauces are on the tables including malt vinegar, HP sauce, ketchup and Tabasco, and the cutlery is a good quality, supplied in starched white napkins.

The menu is large in physical size, but the choices are limited to mainly British standards. There is also a list of rotating daily specials, ranging in price between B. 220-360 and covering a salmon steak (Monday) and roasts at the weekend. Being a pub there is also a list with the daily ‘Happy Hours’ and bargain drinks.

The main menu has 14 choices of Starters and Snacks which begin at B. 89 for garlic bread, through Soup of the Day at B. 129 to a Fisherman’s Basket at B. 259. A Pies and Pasta section (B. 199-349) covers Cornish Pasties at the lower end and a Beef and Guinness Pot Pie at the top end.

Kilkenny’s also have a range of filled baguettes served with chips with most around B. 179.

There are a couple of salads (B. 199-219) then 16 items called “Traditional Pub Favorites”. These range in price between B. 199-499 and cover UK standards such as Bangers and Mash, pork chops and apple sauce, gammon steak, steak and chips, and Irish beef stew as well as a Chilli con Carne and a Chicken Wiener schnitzel.

Madame decided to try the Wednesday Special which was a fish fillet (two good sized fillets too), with vegetables and mashed potato, while I went for the steak and chips from the main menu. The supplied steak knife was really not needed, as the steak was quite tender, and I did enjoy the chips. The garden peas were also very good, and plenty of them. The meals were well cooked and good sized serves. Desserts were offered, but both of us were too full to do any justice to them.

Referring back to the introduction to this week’s column, I certainly did enjoy the larger British style chips which came with my meal, compared to the ubiquitous “French” fries (which are really Belgian), that most other restaurants call “chips”. The daily rotating specials look good and not overly expensive, and the Wednesday fish dinner Madame ordered was excellent. This venue is a good place to spend an evening with friends, a few beers (Kilkenny’s would naturally be a good starting off point), dinner and listen to the band. The best dedicated UK food in Walking Street. Try it.

The Kilkenny Irish Pub and Restaurant, Walking Street, South Pattaya (before the Marine Bar coming from the central Pattaya end of Beach Road), telephone 038 711 094-5, fax 038 711 098, email kilkenny@loxinfo.co.th. Open 11 a.m. until late, seven days.