by Miss Terry Diner
The Hard Rock Hotel is the new kid on the block, but
its food and beverage people are anything but novices. Miss Terry recently
had the good fortune to dine at the Hard Rock Hotel’s Starz Diner, in
the company of their PR lady SuSu, the assistant F&B director Amorn
and the executive chef Bryan Cheong.
Bryan explained the idea of the food, which he said was
a blend of international tastes, taking a Mexican-American concept, a
Japanese influence and using local Thai fresh products. Certainly sounds
“international”!
Starz Diner is in two sections and has an outside 55
seat area overlooking the Hard Rock Hotel pool, and an inside 315 seat
section complete with an open plan display kitchen. In theme with the
hotel, Starz Diner is bright and glitzy, rock and roll guitars and drum
sets on the walls, a giant mural of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road,
purple ceramic tiles and stainless steel everywhere, chrome and plastic
seating, plus a guitar group providing soft background entertainment music
of the 1950’s.
The restaurant offers nightly different rotating
buffets, ranging between 500-600 baht (children half price) as well as a
full a la carte menu which starts with sushi and sashimi (B. 90-480) and
then 8 Japanese items (B. 175-375) with tempura items, teriyaki and
several other “yaki’s” I was unsure of!
Next up were California-Italian selections at around B.
175 including steamed NZ mussels with basil, lemongrass and white wine.
There are 5 soups and salads (B. 120-180) with a most interesting wild
mushroom cappuccino with shiitake powder and pesto crostini.
A
page of pastas and pizzas is next (B. 170-250) and it is worth noting that
Starz Diner has its own pizza oven to make these while you wait. Burgers
and sandwiches follow (B. 155-235) and then a page of main courses (B.
290-550) with grilled chicken and beef items as well as lamb and BBQ pork
ribs.
There is a page of Asian selections around B. 150
including their “in house” smoked pork and vegetable spring rolls.
After that there is a page of market priced seafood done how you wish:
steamed, grilled, wok fried or oven baked with a range of sauces. Then
there is a page of wok fried items at around B. 150 with a black pepper
beef catching my eye. Desserts follow to make it a fairly comprehensive
menu.
With our Dining Out team of four people, I chose the
buffet, being an Oriental one that evening, and let chef Bryan choose the
a la carte dishes. As with all buffets, do take time to wander around
because there are certainly some new and diverse dishes on offer. On our
night there was an Ayam Goreng Berempah, a Malaysian deep fried chicken,
an asparagus crab meat soup, and a Tauhu Sumbat which is a stuffed crispy
bean curd, as well as other Japanese (with wasabi - yippee!) and hot and
cold items.
The house white wine is a Highcliff Australian
Chardonnay and I stayed with that for the evening - at B. 160 per glass a
bargain. (B. 800 for a bottle.)
The first dish I tried was the Tauhu Sumbat, very nice
(and filling) and then a jellyfish salad with sesame dressing (piquant)
and a Norwegian salmon with capers, the cold water salmon having a much
stronger taste.
The next couple were chef Bryan’s choices, the house
smoked pork and vegetable spring rolls which were again a different taste
and a crispy soft shelled crab salad that was just sensational. Space
precludes my further elaborations, but rest assured that everything was
definitely ‘more-ish’.
The evening at Starz Diner was certainly “fun” and
the food items on offer are definitely not the ‘tired’ old items that
are unfortunately so commonplace. It is not an inexpensive place to eat,
but with the range on offer and the new tastes, it makes for excellent
value. I enjoyed it very much, I am sure you will too. Highly recommended.
Starz Diner, Hard Rock Hotel, Pattaya 2 Road (next to
Montien), telephone 038 428 755, fax 038 421 673, all cards accepted.
