The Thai Garden Resort has been one of the most popular resorts in Pattaya for many years, and its themed buffets have been just as popular. Having been almost two years since our last review, it was decided it was time to repeat the process.
Exactly where is the Thai Garden Resort? For those who have never been to the Thai Garden Resort, it is on Pattaya Nua (North Road), and coming from Sukhumvit, it is 100 meters past Pattaya City Hall on the opposite side of the road. You can’t miss it. You can do a U-turn at the traffic lights. Plenty of parking inside the resort’s perimeter.
After parking, head towards the entrance of the main building and go in through the reception area, heading towards the large free-form swimming pool. On your left is a glassed-in air-conditioned area which houses items from the resort’s cold kitchen. Outside there are the hot buffet items with the servings not too big, so that the chafing dishes are being continuously replenished.
Seating is relaxed with comfortable chairs and large tables. Staff are on hand to whisk away the used dishes while the diners are up choosing their next ones.
First we looked at the rotating themes. The full revolving line-up consists of Mondays – Italian Buffet, Tuesdays BBQ buffet, Wednesdays Duck Buffet, Thursdays German Buffet with Roasted Pig, Fridays Asian Delights, Saturdays International Buffet and Sundays Steaks and Skewers Buffet.
We went on a Wednesday, so it was lucky ducky time!
With buffets, I always suggest you do a tour of the buffet tables first before choosing, as otherwise you will miss a favorite. This is even more important for the Thai Garden buffet with 14 main course items, for example. On the “duck” night, you could have duck a l’orange, Chinese style roasted duck, or a duck curry or a simple roasted duck. One of our review panel went for the duck l’orange more than once! The others all tried different dishes and we were very pleased with the standard of the items as well as hot meals in the chafing dishes maintained by setting out small helpings and refilling frequently.
Even with salads, there are multiple choices with fresh garden salad, marinated salad, mushroom bruschetta, Vietnamese roll, Kim-Chee, Mexican salad, ham and cheese salad and a spicy seafood salad.
The cold kitchen items include smoked salmon and condiments, the addition of the condiments being so important to the enjoyment of salmon.
The number of dishes is amazing and even seven desserts and we pigged on ice cream, showing the difference between ‘gourmet’ and ‘gourmand’. But it was fun!
What must be remembered is that these buffets are only B. 499 (all you can eat) and here’s an offer – children under 12 can dine free if accompanying an adult diner. (This offer runs to October 31.) Children under 4 are free anyway. There is a musical trio serenading diners with easy listening music, to just make the buffet even more enjoyable.
We washed everything down with the South African Eikendal white at B. 260 per glass and B. 1,300 THB per bottle. Another good drinking wine and the same price as the Eikendal is the Thai Garden’s Sauvignon Blanc from Chili.
The range of items makes this revolving buffet one of the best value buffets in Pattaya, and incidentally best to book as it can get busy.
The Thai Garden Resort, North Pattaya Road, 179/168 M5 – coming from Sukhumvit it is 100 meters past the Pattaya City Hall, on the other side of the road, telephone 038 370 614 or email [email protected]. Secure parking within the resort grounds.
