Christmas Dinner Options 2017

[Evil Penevil]

 

........

 

There's no lack of Christmas dinner options in Pattaya. At least 100 restaurants offer some sort of festive holiday meal.  The difficulty is finding one that's both good and offers decent value for money.

 

My choice has already been made. 

 

I had the Christmas carvery buffet at the Hard Rock Cafe last year and it was excellent.  It had everything you could want in a Christmas buffet and then some. 

I wrote about it and posted a lot of pics here.

 

 

 

 

But it is a bit confusing this year.  Apparently Hard Rock has two Christmas options, the  Santa Rock buffet ...

and a BBQ buffet that's more expensive.

Both buffets are held at the same time on Dec. 24th and Dec. 25th in the Starz Diner, so I imagine the BBQ buffet includes more dishes to appeal to non-Western diners. I can do without BBQ skewers, sushi and tiger prawns on Christmas Eve; I just want turkey, stuffing and other fixings, plus Christmas desserts. The Santa Rock buffet is fine for me. I sent HR an email asking for a clarification.

Otherwise, the restaurants popular among farang are offering Christmas meals.  I read frozen turkeys now cost 600 baht per kilo in Thailand, so it's understandable the meals are quite expensive. If past history is any guide, you need to book a table ASAP.

 

 

 

 

More to come.

Santa Penevil

 

[Evil Penevil]

At the upper end of the Christmas meal scale you have Bruno's ...

 

 

and at the top, there's the Hilton.

 

 

 

 

 

The Marque Bar has a Christmas party, but I haven't seen anything about a Christmas meal.

 

 

Last year's thread on Christmas dinners is still relevant and contains more suggestions.  Of course you'll need to check with the restaurant about details and prices and preferably to make a reservation.

Santa Penevil

 

[QuotaMan]

No Hooters? 

That Hard Rock looks awesome, and to me fantastic value for the variety and quantity of foods you can eat. 

 

[Evil Penevil]

21 minutes ago, QuotaMan said:

No Hooters? 

 

Like the Scottish proverb says, "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."  Eating a Christmas dinner at Hooters is a mistake I won't make twice.

Quote

That Hard Rock looks awesome, and to me fantastic value for the variety and quantity of foods you can eat. 

1

Yes, for me it's the best value-for-money Christmas dinner in Pattaya, considering some fixed-plate meals in very cramped and uncomfortable quarters cost more.

Evil

 

[KittenKong]

4 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

 

........

 

My choice has already been made. 

 

I had the Christmas carvery buffet at the Hard Rock Cafe last year and it was excellent.  It had everything you could want in a Christmas buffet and then some.

But it is a bit confusing this year.  Apparently Hard Rock has two Christmas options, the  Santa Rock buffet ...

and a BBQ buffet that's more expensive.

Both buffets are held at the same time on Dec. 24th and Dec. 25th in the Starz Diner, so I imagine the BBQ buffet includes more dishes to appeal to non-Western diners. I can do without BBQ skewers, sushi and tiger prawns on Christmas Eve; I just want turkey, stuffing and other fixings, plus Christmas desserts. The Santa Rock buffet is fine for me. I sent HR an email asking for a clarification.

 

I think some clarification is in order.

The Hard Rock is actually two entirely different outlets: the Hard Rock Cafe situated on Beach Road and the Hard Rock hotel Cafe aka Starz Diner which is situated in the hotel immediately behind the Hard Rock Cafe.

The place you went last Christmas (queue for song) was Starz Diner. I went there too. Whilst the food was not the best I have ever had it was perfectly acceptable, and the meal as a whole was very good value as the ~1300B charge included free-flow wine and beer. And it wasnt the cheapest draught beer either. The selection of food available at Starz was significantly more than that available at the Hard Rock Cafe, and the Cafe meal did not include free-flow drinks at all, though it was a fair bit cheaper.

I was looking forward to going to Starz Diner again this Christmas but the deal has changed somewhat as the free-flow drinks are no longer included, though the price remains about the same as last year.

So this year you have a reduced "Santa Rock" Christmas carvery at the Hard Rock Cafe for 899B: http://pattaya.hardrockhotels.net/offers/santa-rock/

And you have a much more extensive Christmas BBQ Buffet at Starz Diner for 1299B: http://pattaya.hardrockhotels.net/offers/the-great-christmas-charcoal-bbq-buffet/

But neither include free-flow drinks this year: just a glass of mulled wine which I rejected after one sniff last year.

As a result the Scrooge in me makes me inclined to give both a miss as the quality of the food at Starz Diner was not high enough to attract me to pay 1300B there just for that.

 

[Edge]

Jameson's adding a 10% Service Charge I see ....at least they declare it up front.

Are there any others doing it?

[KittenKong]

As a general observation I think that all Christmas special meals are seriously overpriced in Pattaya and have been for years. The same meal at any other time of year would probably cost 20-50% less.

Added to that I dont like turkey at all (surely the most boring meat in the world), so it is particularly pointless for me to pay extra for it just to eat it on one arbitrary date rather than another.

[KittenKong]

6 minutes ago, Edge said:

Jameson's adding a 10% Service Charge I see ....at least they declare it up front.

Are there any others doing it?

 

Many places add either 7%VAT or 10% Service or both, but I think the important thing is that the advertised/menu price should be net. As long as I know exactly what I will be paying before I start it makes no difference to me how the total is arrived at. Most places around town have adopted that technique now.

[Edge]

15 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

Many places add either 7%VAT or 10% Service or both, but I think the important thing is that the advertised/menu price should be net. As long as I know exactly what I will be paying before I start it makes no difference to me how the total is arrived at. Most places around town have adopted that technique now.

Agreed, but Jameson's was the only one I noticed so did I miss some or are some others not declaring it on the published menu?

I did notice that Bruno's says All Inclusive, which I think is what most of us would prefer.

[striderman]

21 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

As a general observation I think that all Christmas special meals are seriously overpriced in Pattaya and have been for years. The same meal at any other time of year would probably cost 20-50% less.

Added to that I dont like turkey at all (surely the most boring meat in the world), so it is particularly pointless for me to pay extra for it just to eat it on one arbitrary date rather than another.

here is an option i came up with last year....................

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, striderman said:

here is an option i came up with last year....................

 

Tinsel is for wimps.

[Edge]

1 hour ago, striderman said:

here is an option i came up with last year....................

Wot no cracker?   

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, Edge said:

Agreed, but Jameson's was the only one I noticed so did I miss some or are some others not declaring it on the published menu?

I did notice that Bruno's says All Inclusive, which I think is what most of us would prefer.

I've seen a few other places that are putting "plus xxx" on the bottom of their Xmas ads but most arent as far as I know. Quite right too.

[CuppaTea]

 

Steak & Co Christmas Menu.

Its up to people to decide if they feel its expensive or not but I'm pretty certain they will be very busy.

Interesting that the owner has said only 20% of people opt for the Christmas Dinner historically at his place and the other 80% go for the regular menu.

Got to be a reason for it as I would have thought in most places the percentages would be reversed and the 20% would be Thai partners opting for Thai food.  .

Personally I feel that any Christmas Menu should be of top quality, huge portions if not an all you can eat buffet, and at a minimal profit level and places to make their real money from booze sales and have enticing special offers on cocktails, wines, brandies and liqueurs to tempt people. Extra charge for a good cheese board and glass of Port would be another thing to make money from.

After all its Christmas and with New Years Eve its one of the times most people drink and drink and drink

Saying that though I've never worked in or owned a restaurant so maybe it  wouldn't work and maybe in Pattaya most people would order one bottle of water or a soft drink only.

 

[Petesie]

Booked and paid for the one above and looking forward to it. 

[DaveLock]

40 minutes ago, CuppaTea said:

... Interesting that the owner has said only 20% of people opt for the Christmas Dinner historically at his place and the other 80% go for the regular menu...

Could that be because as it's not an xmas traditional dinner anyway, so most say screw it might as well have whatever?

The only thing traditional on that menu from my many years of xmas experiences is the xmas pudding. Have had turkey before for xmas dinner so give half a credit for that but only as an addition to roast beef, ham, chicken - never instead of. The rest is as traditional xmas as an easter egg.

Traditional xmas menus are simple and very popular, I honestly don't why restos go out of their way to screw it up. In this case the ingredients and preparation for a traditional xmas menu probably would have been cheaper and easier than what's there.

[striderman]

i saw a 1 lb /454 gm  xmas pudding for sale in friendship this week .....................969 bht

[Soda11111]

I had to Google , Christmas pudding.  They don't have that in the states, never seen it anyways. It seems to resemble fruit cake. Is that the same? Just wondering?

[Marcus85]

3 hours ago, Petesie said:

Booked and paid for the one above and looking forward to it. 

3 course?

[Soda11111]

44 minutes ago, striderman said:

i saw a 1 lb /454 gm  xmas pudding for sale in friendship this week .....................969 bht

That is about the same price of good quality fruit cake in the US.  Does it taste similar? Sorry to ask a stupid question, but I really don't know. 

[sauvignon]

I also went to Hard Rock cafe last year - very good value, the food was good quality and plentiful. Some live music, good service.  I thought they would raise the prices this year but they haven't. That being said, the complimentary mulled wine was indeed shocking (as noted by Kitten Kong)  Best used as disinfectant :-)

I'm going somewhere else this year, just to keep a rotation system going. 1200-1400 bht seems to be the mid-range price for family style hotel/restaurants.

Lower prices for small soi pubs. Higher prices for showy hotels.

[striderman]

3 hours ago, Cheetos said:

That is about the same price of good quality fruit cake in the US.  Does it taste similar? Sorry to ask a stupid question, but I really don't know. 

no idea i have never eaten either of them. ever.

 

the only fruit i do i do is grapes..............................after they have been fermented into wine and then either red wine or champagne

[davidge]

4 hours ago, Cheetos said:

That is about the same price of good quality fruit cake in the US.  Does it taste similar? Sorry to ask a stupid question, but I really don't know. 

It’s made with suet not flour. You can get vegetable suet if you prefer. Lots of dried fruit etc, soaked in Brandy and left to mature. Generally moister than cake and richer/more filling.

I make a mean Xmas pudding - but not this year.

[spider0064]

A long time since I were there for xmas and will miss it again this year but some great choices around.

Well I'm arriving 28th so looking forward to NY so so much and all that my bring

 

[Evil Penevil]

4 hours ago, Cheetos said:

I had to Google , Christmas pudding.  They don't have that in the states, never seen it anyways. It seems to resemble fruit cake. Is that the same? Just wondering?

 

3 hours ago, Cheetos said:

That is about the same price of good quality fruit cake in the US.  Does it taste similar? Sorry to ask a stupid question, but I really don't know. 

They are very different in terms of preparation, ingredients, taste and history.  Both are heavy on dried fruits that have been soaked in brandy or rum.  They use some of the same spices, but that is where the similarity ends. Christmas pudding is boiled or steamed for 7-8 hours, while fruitcake contains flour and is baked.

U.S. fruitcake is much closer to the U.K. Christmas cake, although the North American version is almost never iced.  Christmas cake and fruitcake share a common heritage, but pecans and walnuts are major ingredients in U.S. fruitcake- hence the phrase, "nutty as a fruitcake."

Fruitcake dates all the way back to the days of the Roman empire, while Christmas (plum) pudding had its start in medieval times. 

One thing that sometimes confuses Americans is the word "pudding."  In modern American usage, pudding almost exclusively refers to a creamy dessert like chocolate or tapioca pudding.  In the U.K., it has a much broader (and older) meaning which can apply to both savory and sweet dishes (black pudding, plum pudding, Yorkshire pudding, steak-and-kidney pudding, as well as U.S.-style dessert puddings).  

Traditional Christmas pudding:

As served at the Hard Rock last year:

U.S. fruitcake:

Santa Penevil