Dining around the Ambassador

Atrium Japanese chefs.

A couple of months ago we went to the Ambassador City and enjoyed ourselves in their Italian restaurant Pasta Pasta with Chef Claudio. However, F&B director Prayoon Chaitosa suggested that we should return and overview rather than ‘review’ some more of the outlets at this amazing property. I use the word “amazing” without reserve, as the whole Ambassador City has changed so much from the veritable mausoleum of a few years back, to a modern thriving, vibrant complex today. At 4,000 rooms it is also the fourth largest hotel in the world, and as you can imagine, to feed a potential 8,000 people needs more than one food outlet!
As a meeting point, Prayoon suggested we meet at The Oyster Bar, which is a circular wooden building close to the sea, two storeys with the first being a true oyster bar and the top one being a lookout and a great place to get sunset shots, while enjoying the oyster shots from downstairs! There are 12 different ways of presenting oysters in the menu, with most in the shell and 95 baht per piece.
From The Oyster Bar, it was a very short step to Pasta Pasta where irrepressible chef Claudio insisted we try his specials, including European trout. With Claudio’s enthusiasm how could we pass this by, so a stopover was made to sample Claudio’s December creations (such as a seafood combination in basil, lemon and white wine at B. 600).

Beer Fest seafood.

From there we ambled over to the Beer Festival, with several stalls set up and preparing and selling all types of different cuisines, from Japanese to shish kebab, German pork knuckle, seafood and Russian items and everything in between.
From there, we literally just crossed the roadway to another of the Ambassador City’s buildings, housing the Atrium restaurant on the first floor reached via escalator. This restaurant is techno-glitz, complete with a soft jazz trio (Lazuli from South Africa) on a raised and revolving dais in the center of the area. Along the perimeter on one side are five kitchens covering Steak, Japanese, Chinese, Salads, and Thai. Despite the glamorous surroundings, The Atrium is not expensive either. For example, US tenderloin with a pepper sauce was only B. 700, and the wine we drank was a shiraz cabernet called Charlotte Street from Reynella South Australia and was B. 1,300. Other dishes we ate in The Atrium included a sliced pork in hot pot and a Pad Thai Gai, and both were excellent.

Pasta Pasta seafood.

As it was getting late by this stage, and we were certainly not going home hungry, but were not ready to leave as it had been such an enjoyable evening, we wandered back across the road to the Espresso Terrace on the ground floor of the Oyster Bar for a nightcap before heading home. Thank you Prayoon!
No hotel in the world can have all things for all people, but the Ambassador City comes close. With the Beer Festival you have the al fresco open air dining, with The Oyster Bar you have the sunsets, with Pasta Pasta you have traditional Italian, with the Atrium you have a sophisticated night club ambience and the Espresso Coffee club makes a wonderful nightcap. And it doesn’t stop there as there is a Chinese restaurant which we did not experience as we just plain ran out of time and space for any more food, as each outlet wanted us to sample their cuisine of which they were obviously very proud.

The prices in any of the outlets are in no way over the top, and the Dining Out Team suggests you pop down to the Ambassador City and try for yourselves. We do not believe that you will be disappointed. And if you are unsure of where to eat, I suggest you do a “dine around” such as we did. You will not be disappointed. You will also find that the Ambassador City is not as far away as you think. It only took us a leisurely 15 minutes from East Pattaya to the Ambassador City.
Ambassador City Na Jomtien, 21/10 M2 Sukhumvit Road, open 7 days, telephone 038 255 501, website www.ambassadorcityjomtien.com,  plenty of secure parking.

Eskimo Spicy Tuna Salad

You do not need to be close to the North Pole to enjoy this salad. This is one recipe that not only provides your family with a nourishing salad, but can help with future health. Tuna fish has the essential Omega-3 fatty acids for a healthy heart. After all, 5,000 years of Eskimo cuisine can’t be wrong!

Ingredients	Serves 3-4
Tuna meat, cut in cubes	200 gm
Lime juice	1 tbspn
Chilli powder	1 tspn
Sugar	1 tspn
Fish sauce	1 tbspn
Roasted ground rice grains	1 tbspn
Shallots, fresh, chopped	5 bulbs
Lemon grass, sliced and fried	3 stalks
Garlic, chopped, fried	2 cloves
Coriander, chopped	1 tbspn
Kaffir lime leaf, chopped	1 tspn

Cooking Method
Quickly cook the tuna meat in the wok, or use tinned tuna after draining for a while. Mix sugar, lime juice, chilli powder and fish sauce. Then add ground rice, fresh shallots, tuna meat and mix well. Add coriander, roasted garlic, kaffir lime leaf, and mix and toss gently. Top the salad with fried lemon grass. Serve with fresh lettuce leaves and other seasonal vegetables such as string bean, cucumber and basil leaf.