The Pullman Pattaya Hotel G has quietly made a name for itself for the varied cuisine on offer at their Beach Club restaurant. French chef Thierry Danzas is proud of his kitchen and has a rotating menu during the week. Wednesdays he has his seafood night, known as the Fisherman’s Catch, at the Beach Club restaurant, and this is the event we went to review.
To get to the Pullman Pattaya Hotel G turn into Soi 18 off the Pattaya-Naklua Road, go down to the bottom and turn right alongside the Centara Grand Mirage and keep going for another 500 meters and the Pullman Pattaya Hotel G (to give it its full title) is there on your left. Plenty of parking and then go down to the Beach Club.
The Beach Club is aptly named being right on the beach in front of the hotel itself. It overlooks the free-form swimming pool on one side and the beach on another, with a deck being built over the beach entered from the main air-conditioned restaurant itself. The restaurant is family friendly and on the night we carried out our review there were several families enjoying the seafood on offer. The service personnel are also very attentive and carry out their duty with the Thai smile. Napery is of good quality and the chairs are comfortable, a very necessary, but often overlooked, requirement for a relaxed dinner.
For most people, wine is an adjunct with relaxation, and the Beach Club has a range of very inexpensive, but very quaffable wines on special. There is a small national flag beside each entry to let you know where the wine originated. We chose an Australian Reisling, a Wairau River 2008, which at B. 900 won’t break the bank and was a pleasant, clean on the palate, wine.
The concept of the Fisherman’s Catch is that the diner selects his or her seafood items from the displays over ice pool-side which then go to the kitchen to be cooked. The prices per 100 gm are clearly indicated, similar to buying seafood at the markets themselves. Service personnel assist you with the selection, and after that is done, it is a case to just sit back and let the enjoyment begin.
The kitchen is an open one at another side of the Beach Club, and I counted eight chefs hard at work, with the occasional spectacular flame issuing from the woks. The presentation of the food from the kitchen is obviously important for the Thai chefs, with even items such as a crab curry being looked at from all angles and small adjustments to the position of the crab shell necessary.
Items on offer include lobster, blue river prawns, tiger prawns and green crabs.
With Chef Thierry’s help, we selected some large prawns to be done in garlic and pepper and crabs to be cooked as a curry. Some clams were added to our basket and a whole fish to be steamed. There is a board which indicates to the diners the different ways the seafood could be cooked. While we were waiting, Chef Thierry sent out a fish soup to keep the ‘hungries’ at bay while waiting for our selections being cooked. This was not something for reviewers, but all guests on the Fisherman’s Catch Wednesday evening receives this. And by the way, it was a most enjoyable soup.
We were a party of four and we thoroughly enjoyed our seafood evening. Our items were cooked correctly and it was a most pleasant evening. Well worth the trip down Soi 18.
The Pullman Pattaya Hotel G has some daily specials as well as a la carte: Monday Chef Wut’s Wok (B. 399), Tuesday KORT night (B. 655), Wednesday the Fisherman’s Catch, Thursday Chef Thierry’s Special (from B. 299), Friday and Saturday is a Seafood BBQ buffet (B. 988 with a half bottle of wine) and Sunday is a Lazy Sunday with cold cuts and cheeses, pickles and breads (from B. 199). One should never be bored at the Beach Club!
Pullman Pattaya Hotel G, 445/3 Moo 5, Wongamart Beach, Pattaya-Naklua Road, Soi 16, tel. 038 411 940-8, www.pullmanpattayahotelG.com. Plenty of secure parking within the resort grounds.
