Pepper & Salt on Soi Khao Talo

[bar stool]

I’ve twice been to Pepper & Salt near the end of Soi Khao Talo, which is at least once too often.

Dutch-owned place, snobbish, overpriced for what you get on your plate, way too expensive for Pattaya and even more so for the Dark Side.

Some Dutch and Indonesian snacks, such as “broodje gezond”, “bami goreng” and “nasi goreng”.

Bread has been replaced by “kroepoek”.

They charge 40 baht for a very small plastic bottle of an unknown brand of Thai mineral water (not Minéré, Aura, Mont Fleur, iO or Aquaré).

If you order their lentil soup, you might need a bicycle for riding from one lentil to another.

On the menu is also “beef tenderloin”, but they don’t have the slightest idea what real beef tenderloin or “filet pur” is.

What you get at Pepper & Salt is more like a shoe sole.

(That being said (local) beef tenderloin is much cheaper in Thailand than in Europe because Thai people don’t eat it.)

No choice of potato croquettes or potato gratin.

(Even Den Swiss Restaurant on Soi Khao Noi offers those side dishes, and many more.)

The knives at Pepper & Salt are blunt and the forks clumsy (round handles instead of flat ones).

And one more disturbing thing: they bring your main dish before you can finish your soup.

The place is way too hot, even in winter in the evening.

The only room with air conditioning has a horrible blue lighting.

It’s not a place for late diners: they close at 10 p.m. and from 9 p.m. on staff make you feel unwelcome.

Unsurprisingly mostly Dutch customers.

I saw a dog hanging around in the restaurant: not the slightest idea of elementary hygiene.

Not going back.