Sea Side Restaurant (off Soi 7)

[Evil Penevil]

On a whim, I ate at the Sea Side Restaurant in a subsoi off Soi 7, not far from the intersection with Beach Road.  There's also another oneSea Side on Soi Chaiyapoon, but I've never been to that one.

 

 

The subsoi is directly across from the Silver Star A Go Go. It's just before Tequila Reef if you're heading up Soi 7 from Beach Road.

 

 

It's not fancy, but a cheerful and clean place,  quite busy the evening I went.

 

 

 

A nice basket of condiments, but the bottles were running low.

 

 

The waitress was friendly.  The menu featured what could be considered British comfort food as well as some Thai dishes. The prices were low, with a lot of dishes between 80 and 200 baht.  The most expensive item on the menu was the roast lamb at 250 baht and that's what I chose.

 

My comments so far have been the restaurant equivalent of saying a blind date has a nice personality, so I'll get to the actual meal.  Here goes:

 

The first sign  that all would not be well came with the tiny saucer of Mint sauce that was served alongside my San Miguel Light (70 baht).  It was bitter and stale tasting, with the vinegar so acidic it could have been used to clean the points of a car battery. It also had oil added to it, as though it were salad dressing. Bizarre.

 

 

And the meal itself?

 

The Good:  A large portion at a cheap price.* The mashed potatoes had a good texture.

 

The Bad:  Everything else. It was one of blandest plates of food I've ever had in front of me, including hospital food after stomach surgery. No taste in anything except maybe the generic made-from-a-packet gravy.

 

 

 How the lamb could become so tasteless I don't know.  It also had the strangest consistency of any meat I've had since I ate at the Dog Meat Restaurant in Beijing in 1995.

 

 

 

 I didn't take more than one bite of it. The vegetables had had every molecule of flavor boiled out of them.

 

The Ugly:  The Yorkshire pudding.  It is NOT supposed to look like that when you cut into it.  No way I was going to put that in my mouth.

 

 

Bottom line: Yuck!  Don't get me wrong.  I enjoy British food and it's delicious when prepared as it should be.  Unfortunately, it so seldom is.

 

I'm putting on my virtual fireman's protective gear now as I imagine some flames will be coming my way.  The Sea Side, like the nearby Sailor Restaurant, is said to have a very loyal following.  I came close to getting death threats when I criticized the food at the Sailor and it was worse than the Seaside.  But I have to tell it like I taste it.

 

 

 

Evil

 

 

* I began to have philosophical qualms about that statement.  Is  a large portion of bad food at a cheap price a good thing?  I suppose it's relative.  If you're hungry and don't have much money, then I guess it's better to get a large portion at a cheap price than a small portion at an expensive price. But undeniably, the  mashed potatoes had a good texture.

[Pheat]

Have to agree with your review

I had a meal in the seaside once

 

One of the most disappointing meals I have ever come across

It always surprises me how busy this restaurant gets

Has to be down to the cheap prices not the quality of the food

[Martin_Pappier]

You're a brave and adventerous man Evil.

 

I would never even enter a restaurant like that. I learned years ago that you are almost guranteed to get a bland, tasteless meal.

 

"A nice basket of condiments, but the bottles were running low."

 

Gee, I wonder why? LOL

[Evil Penevil]

You're a brave and adventerous man Evil.

 

I would never even enter a restaurant like that. I learned years ago that you are almost guranteed to get a bland, tasteless meal.

 

"A nice basket of condiments, but the bottles were running low."

 

Gee, I wonder why? LOL

 I've certainly eaten in worse places, but a single visit to the Sea Side will probably do me for this life time. I may make a return visit to see if one of the less ambitious dishes on the menu tastes any better, but it won't be soon.

 

The empty condiment bottles were indeed a visual metaphor for a restaurant that serves tasteless food.

 

Evil

 

[Martin_Pappier]

 I've certainly eaten in worse places, but a single visit to the Sea Side will probably do me for this life time. I may make a return visit to see if one of the less ambitious dishes on the menu tastes any better, but it won't be soon.

 

The empty condiment bottles were indeed a visual metaphor for a restaurant that serves tasteless food.

 

Evil

 

OK, humor me.

 

Why would you even go into a reataurant whose sign reads, "Thai Food English Food"?

 

I'm not trying to stir shit, but doesn't that send warning flares? It does for me.

[chopper1]

if i fancy thai food i will go to seaside as thats not bad,the liver and mash is quite good but i would not recommend any other english food there.globetrotter is quite good next door if you like swedish food.

[Evil Penevil]

OK, humor me.

 

Why would you even go into a reataurant whose sign reads, "Thai Food English Food"?

 

I'm not trying to stir shit, but doesn't that send warning flares? It does for me.

 

I once wrote a review of the Sailor Restaurant that several members of various boards found humorous. One of them urged me to do a review of Sea Side,  but I declined at that time as I don't set out to eat in mediocre restaurants.  The other day, I had my way past Sea Side and decided to give it a try. As I said, quite a few people were eating there and that can sometimes be a sign the food is good.  It wasn't in this case and I wrote my review accordingly.

 

Evil

[Yahooka]

JFC...........are you sure the "Yorkshire pudding" wasn`t a fishcake ...??

Thank`s for saving me that experience.

[nice to visit]

OK, humor me.

 

Why would you even go into a reataurant whose sign reads, "Thai Food English Food"?

 

I'm not trying to stir shit, but doesn't that send warning flares? It does for me.

 

I think most restaurants/cafes in Pattaya have a variation of this sign though. Presumably so couples are catered for.

 

If it's really a Thai restaurant with a few foreign dishes thrown in there is a good chance they will end up tasting like Evil's lamb in my experience.

[Edge]

I have to agree with your conclusion.

 

I've been going there off and on for about 8 years.

No, it never would have won any prizes for culinary excellence, but it did offer good basic English style meals and Thais I've taken there have always been pleased with the Thai dishes.

 

In all that time I've never tried the Lamb - I've thought about it but never trusted them to come up with good quality Lamb.

I've been happy in the past with the Roast Chicken, Roast Beef, Filet Mignon and Liver & Bacon, but over the past 6-12 months the quality of the meat went down and down until finally they presented me with a Filet which wasn't even decent stewing steak, although I think they had stewed it.

I told them it was inedible and left it to one side - the LB 'waitress' just grinned and asked if I wanted sausage instead, but I just said I wouldn't be back.

 

The Roast Beef is probably still reasonable value at 170, with water at only 15 Baht, but again the meat is not as good as it used to be.

Last time I had Liver it was chewy as old flip flops and Roast Chicken is all I would risk there now.

Shame really.

 

BTW, I went to Seaside 2 a couple of times a while back and I don't recommend the OP goes there.

[Evil Penevil]

... until finally they presented me with a Filet which wasn't even decent stewing steak, although I think they had stewed it.

I didn't want to sound too speculatively harsh in my review, but I suspect that's what had been done with the lamb. Local meat, possibly mutton dressed as lamb, that had been boiled to reduce toughness, then re-heated in an oven or microwave. Otherwise, I can't account for the total lack of flavor and very odd consistency to the meat.

 

Evil

[Edge]

I didn't want to sound too speculatively harsh in my review, but I suspect that's what had been done with the lamb. Local meat, possibly mutton dressed as lamb, that had been boiled to reduce toughness, then re-heated in an oven or microwave. Otherwise, I can't account for the total lack of flavor and very odd consistency to the meat.

 

Evil

 

I think you're probably right re' boiling, but it couldn't be freshly roasted anyway, so a microwave was almost certainly involved.

Their location is poor for passing trade, so they are reliant on regular customers to a large extent.

I think they've suffered badly from the reduced numbers of Westerners in town generally and in Soi 7 particularly.

Unfortunately it hit them straight after they expanded into next door - before then it was often difficult to get a table and even their Christmas lunches were very popular, particularly with the Brits.

 

It seems as though their answer to reducing trade has been to cut costs, particularly of the meat.

Thus they are now shedding their remaining regular customers.

No doubt the next step will be to jack the prices up 555.

 

Do you get out to Ban Chang - had a reasonable Roast Lamb dinner at the Camel Pub not long ago - have to be a Sunday though?

 

I haven't been yet, but I'm told the best Sunday Roast is here.....Valley view restaurant (near Ban Chang-Rayong)

.

[THAJEC]

Foods American fried rice

            Thai noodle seafood.

             Sweet and sour,fried fish and rice

             Cordon Bleu (soft and juicy)

             Steak Kidney pie

 

These foods was from my laymans point of view OK and taste.

 

I have never had Lamb, but accepted, that my friends complained, that it was as a shoe sole.

[Martin_Pappier]

I think most restaurants/cafes in Pattaya have a variation of this sign though. Presumably so couples are catered for.

 

If it's really a Thai restaurant with a few foreign dishes thrown in there is a good chance they will end up tasting like Evil's lamb in my experience.

 

Good point.

[Edge]

I think most restaurants/cafes in Pattaya have a variation of this sign though. Presumably so couples are catered for.

 

If it's really a Thai restaurant with a few foreign dishes thrown in there is a good chance they will end up tasting like Evil's lamb in my experience.

 

I don't know the history of who set it/them up, but the theme was clearly aimed at the Brits (hence the name Seaside) and there were souvenir tea towels from various seaside resorts around Britain pinned on the walls.

 

I'd say the Thai dishes were the add ons in this case, although obviously everything is prepared by Thais.

 

It was specifically aimed at Brits (even including Bakewell Tart & Custard dessert) and they did a good job, but unfortunately it's gone off the boil (sorry).