We
gave chef and owner Fredi Schaub one night’s grace to get Bruno’s
running smoothly and arrived for a meal on the second day at the new venue.
Like everyone else who was familiar with the ‘old’ Bruno’s, we walked
in and were amazed - the ‘new’ Bruno’s Restaurant is exactly the same
as the ‘old’ Bruno’s!
The bar is on the left, the refrigerated salad bar is on
the right, the toilets are on the left, the lights are the same, the decor
is unchanged, the ‘monastic’ painting of the late Bruno Forrer and Alois
Fassbind is in the same pride of place. What’s more, the waiters are the
same, in the green jackets and white pants, smoothly coming through the
identical in and out doors from the kitchen areas. You sit on the same
chairs, looking around the ‘same’ room! Only the location has been
changed.
However,
there are some other changes, and these in the main relate to the hours and
the additional menus. Yes, Bruno’s is now open for lunch, which is served
between noon and 2.30 p.m. According to Fredi, lunch is a completely new
menu with selected light dishes, suitable for middle of the day. For
example, there are seven choices of Italian pastas, all around B. 210,
covering risotto, spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli, tortellini or penne.
The lunch menu begins with Cold Appetizers (B. 160-320)
which does include Norwegian smoked salmon and a beef carpaccio. Hot
appetizers are next (B. 180-240) with crabmeat spring rolls served with a
spicy tomato and light curry sauce looking interesting.
The next page has Soups and Salads (B. 130-250) with a
truffle cream soup with parmesan puff pastry at the top end and a Spanish
gazpacho chilled soup at the bottom.
Mains and Seafood dishes are next (B. 240-380) which
includes baked snapper fillet on mushrooms and spring onion in white wine
sauce served with crispy potatoes at the low end. The charcoal grill items
are next, ranging from B. 290 for plakapong, pork chop or chicken breast,
through to imported US angus sirloin steak at B. 780, all coming with a
choice of sauces. There is also a page of Thai favourites, with most items
around B. 170.
In addition, there is a rotating three course set menu
(with choices in appetizers and mains), for B. 370, which on the day we
attended included such delicacies as shrimps with mango in a curry flavoured
sauce, tenderloin of beef on gratin potatoes with green asparagus and
Balsamico sauce or oven baked parrot fish.
We enjoyed the food at Bruno’s Restaurant (as we always
have done, I must add - the mussels were superb), and the pleasant ambience
of the previous venue has been brought over, lock, stock and barrel. The
welcoming faces of the familiar staff are all there, as is Fredi, striding
through the dining area with his quizzically raised eyebrows. Everything you
enjoyed before has been reproduced here, but the ‘big news’ covers the
expanded dining hours.
With lunch now on offer, complete with its own dedicated
‘light’ menu, there is the opportunity for business folk to enjoy this
new dining opportunity. The rotating set lunch specials also offer
relatively inexpensive dining in five star surroundings.
Bruno’s Restaurant has always been given our top
accolade of very highly recommended, and the ‘new’ Bruno’s, now open
for lunch as well, continues the unbroken run of very highly recommended
reviews. Do try it (for lunch too) and be hit by d้jเ vu as
well!
Bruno’s Restaurant and Wine Bar, 306/63 Chateau Dale
Plaza, Thappraya Road (on run down the hill to Jomtien), telephone 038 364
600-1, fax 038 364 602, email [email protected], web site
www.brunos-pattaya.com
