For breakfast, lunch and dinner
by Miss Terry Diner
Eating out in Pattaya is tending to become more
specialized. Particular cuisines, open for dinner or breakfast only, and so
it goes on. However, sometimes it is good to buck the trends, and the Hongsa
Kitchen on the right of Pattaya Second Road (around 100 meters past the Hard
Rock Hotel and the Grand Sole) is one of those. Open for 18 hours a day (8
a.m. until 2 a.m.) seven days a week, and promising Thai food, Isaan food,
Chinese food and European food. That is certainly some promise!
Built
in a double shophouse, the walls are lined with wood planks, the tables are
made from cartwheels and the chairs decidedly rustic. The overall impression
is definitely ‘country’ and not city slickers. Along the back wall is the
bar area and there is a pool table tucked away in the back corner. Around
fifteen tables inside, and another three outside, so they are not too close
together. It was not air-conditioned, but the overhead fans were enough to
keep the air circulating while we were there for lunch. The cutlery was
serviceable, and the plates were not melamine.
The menu is huge, with 70 beverage items before you even get to the Thai
food section which has another 100 items, and there is still the others to
go. Local beers are 60-70 baht for small bottles, and perusal of the many,
many pages of Thai items, each with an accompanying photo page, showed that
most items were under B. 100, whilst the most expensive were whole fish,
cooked in various ways for B. 280.
Breakfasts for the early risers were B. 90-150, lunches B70-190 and covered
sandwiches, burgers, satays and an interesting Indonesian fried rice.
Tired yet? There’s more! Now comes dinners with soups and salads, less than
B. 90 and followed by sections covering chicken, pork, beef and fish. Again
these were reasonably priced items, with a Weiner Schnitzel B. 240 or a
Cordon Bleu Chicken B. 280.
Finally there are a couple of pages of BBQ items, including ostrich and
crocodile. Whew! Talking with the owner Wassana Nuandang, she told me that
the chef had been with them for 10 years at their previous restaurant, and
had come over with them when they opened up the Hongsa Kitchen about six
months ago.
The young service girls were attractively attired in matching shirts and
aprons, but did seem just a little nonplussed at times.
We
had come at lunchtime and chose some deep-fried spring rolls, a Pad Thai
Goong and the Indonesian fried rice with pork satay and salad. The spring
rolls came with an interesting dipping sauce, slightly spicy and very
flavorsome. The spring rolls were also not too fatty or oily. A good start.
The Pad Thai was the next for us to try and had the sen lek noodle (AKA sen
jun in some regions of Thailand) and plump prawns and was a good standard
Thai dish, complete with the crunchy peanut. It was also served with two
containers with a mild chili sauce and some dark soy sauce.
The final item, the Indonesian dish certainly was interesting. A fried egg
on the top of the rice a la “American” fried rice, with two skewers of pork
satays covered in satay sauce, but large pieces of cubed pork, not the usual
flattened meat that one sees in Thailand and Singapore. Again this was a
filling dish, and we certainly had enough for lunch for three people.
Hongsa Kitchen did live up to its promise. It can produce several different
styles of cuisines, in ample portions (for 18 hours a day it seems). The
multilingual menu, with photographs, does mean that the venue is suitable
for everyone including Thais/expats and visitors. It is budget priced and
clean. Worth a visit if you are in the vicinity and feeling peckish!
Hongsa Kitchen, 370/11-12 M9, Pattaya Second Road on the right outbound
between Central Pattaya and North Pattaya (after Hard Rock Hotel on the left
and Grand Sole’ Hotel on the right), telephone 038 361 876, email
[email protected]. Open seven days, 8 a.m. until 2 a.m. Park behind
Grand Sole.
