The international award winner
by Miss Terry Diner
What a way to start the new year, with Dining Out at the Grill Room in
the Royal Cliff Beach Resort! We have always enjoyed eating there, but this
time we did not go with the staff knowing we were there to do a review, but
were hidden as guests in a party of 10.
Fine dining at the top end should be exemplary. Since the Grill Room and
Wine Cellar has won the prestigious New York Wine Spectator Award for the
last three years in a row, I must admit we did go there expecting something
out of the ordinary. We were not disappointed!
The venue is impressive. In the main building of the
Royal Cliff Beach Resort, you are swept into an area reminding me of an old
teak-wood sala, with its high ceilings. Outside is a smoker’s terrace with
comfortable seating, while inside, you dine in individual alcoves, with
again some most comfortable chairs.
The first impression after picking your alcove is just how professional the
service staff are in all ways. You cannot, at any time, just push your chair
back and get up. There always seems to be someone to do it for you, and
someone to slide it back under your posterior when you return.
The napery (to use that wonderful term from years gone by) is all starched
linen, with lead crystal wine glasses and heavy cutlery. The menu was
brought for our attention, which has the important information at the
beginning that if any diner requires reading glasses, they are available.
The menu items are under the control of Walter Thenisch, the executive chef
for the Royal Cliff, and he is a man who amazes me not only with his
culinary skills, but also for the fact that he has remained up to the minute
with the cuisine. Various items have also been included to emphasize the
interface between the diners and the kitchen, with several dishes cooked at
the table by the maitre d’hotel. There is also a set multi-course menu
priced very reasonably at B. 850 ++.
Incidentally, the service staff sommeliers have a superb
knowledge of the wines available from their Wine Cellar, which includes 825
labels plus 11 house wines spanning 17 countries and 36,000 bottles! Under
the supervision of Ranjith Chandrasiri, Thailand’s renowned wine judge and
president of the Royal Cliff Wine Club, the cellar has the largest range in
Thailand.
Since I do believe that food should be fun as well as sustenance, I enjoy
the theatre involved in cooking at the table, and could not resist ordering
the cream of tomato soup with bacon, mushroom and onions, flamed with gin.
This is sensational and it would be difficult to imagine a better first
course. Believe me.
For a main course I selected the Angus rib-eye steak, which is presented by
the maitre d’hotel on a marble slab and you choose the weight and watch as
it is cut from the whole rib-eye. It was grilled exactly to my requirements
with a wonderful horseradish cream accompaniment. Madame’s snow fish was
also superb.
It
would be nice to dine at the Grill Room every week. I am sure that neither
Madame nor myself would tire of the event, because dining at the Grill Room
really is an “event”. The service is exemplary, the food is exceptional, the
wines are superb and the ambience is such that you are happy to linger, and
there is at no time any feeling that the staff are standing around waiting
for you to leave! It does not surprise me that the Wine Spectator magazine
has been so enthusiastic over this restaurant. I would also give it the
highest accolade. However, for most of us, a weekly Grill Room experience
would be out of our reach, but it is one of Pattaya’s restaurants that you
should try for your own special anniversaries at least. Highest
recommendation possible.
The Grill Room and Wine Cellar, Royal Cliff Beach Resort, 353 Pratamnak
Road, Pattaya. Tel: 038 250 421, secure parking in the hotel grounds. Open
6.30-10.30 p.m. closed Tuesdays. Smart casual (no shorts). All major credit
cards accepted
