This week we stepped out of Pattaya and headed down
Sukhumvit Road to Ban Chang to find the Kiwi Pub and Restaurant. Taking the
Sattahip by-pass meant that it took a little over 30 minutes to get to the
main street of the town, through the first set of traffic lights and do a
U-turn at the second set, and find the small soi just before the Suzuki
dealers. Up the soi 50 metres and it is the last shop-house on the right.
The Kiwi Pub and Restaurant has no pretensions about what
it is. It is a bar in a country town that does food as well as drink.
Period. It is in a single shop-house, with the sit-up bar along one side, at
which one can eat, as well as a few tables at the rear with wood slab bench
seating. A New Zealand flag and the obligatory photograph of the All Blacks
are on display to show the origins of the name. On our evening it was also
well stocked with ex-pat gentlemen with accents that came from all over the
world. It is an ex-pat hide-away (but hidden no longer after publication of
this review!).
Chefs
Nida and Lee.
We were met by Pete and Chris, husbands of the dynamic
duo in the kitchen, Lee and Nida, who gave us a little of the history of the
establishment. It had originally been built as a restaurant, then became a
bar, and now, under their trusteeship has settled into being a bar and
grill.
The menu is a simple laminated affair and begins with
five all day breakfasts from B. 70 through to B. 140 for the Big Kiwi
breakfast, which will turn you into Jonah Lomu!
Burgers and fries are next (B. 50-180) with most styles
of burger, including a Kiwi burger built on ham steak and a fish and chips
which has the annotation “only when available as our chef will only cook
fresh from the sea.” One presumes that what is meant is that the fish is
fresh from the sea, not the cook emerging from a twilight dip!
Five different sandwiches are on offer (B. 80-120)
including “the original hot Kiwi steak sub” which has imported NZ steak
in a hot bread bun. These are followed by numerous choices from the BBQ
grill, all served with salad, chips and bread and butter. These range from
B. 120 for a spaghetti and meat sauce “el Dante”, which may be a New
Zealand interpretation of “al dente” but might on the other hand refer
to Dante’s Inferno (I didn’t ask, some of these EnZedders can be quite
large), through to many imported NZ steak items with the tops being the
T-bone at B. 295.
There are some home made pies (B. 90) and desserts (B.
65) and another separate menu with Thai favourites generally around B. 80.
We decided to have some of the local fish and chips, with
the plakapong fresh from the local Pala Beach. The chips are the big chunky
ones (none of these fiddly french-fries here) and the batter on the fish was
excellent (and we were told, a secret recipe). Naturally there was vinegar
and other sauces as requested. Our other dish was a new sausage one, with a
beautiful tomato and mushroom sauce. Again, it passed the taste test, and
was also a hefty serving. We were filled to capacity, without any doubt.
We were actually very pleasantly surprised by the Kiwi
Pub and Restaurant. It has a very welcoming feeling (in the Thai style) and
very good ‘pub grub’ (in the EnZed/UK style). We were assured that the
Thai food was also good, but we did not try it on our evening in Ban Chang.
It is the kind of place you could drop into on the way back from Rayong and
have a jar or two and a damn good feed. It is not the place to take grandma,
who could find it a little too noisy. For what it is, a good inexpensive fun
time eating out, probably best appreciated by solo males.
Kiwi Pub and Restaurant, Sukhumvit Road (behind Suzuki), Ban Chang, 038
602 877.
