For sea, service and food with soul
The Bay Italian restaurant in the Dusit is arguably one
of the best venues in Pattaya for dining. Right out on Dusit Point you can
sit and look across Pattaya Bay to Pattaya itself, now taking in the
“Hollywood” style illuminated sign saying “Pattaya” (just in case you didn’t
remember where you were).
The
restaurant is very modern, with a long sit-up bar along one wall and glass
sides everywhere else. You can dine in behind glass in the air-conditioned
area, or outside with the sea breezes. The choice is yours. We decided to
dine in and were joined by the Dusit’s energetic PR lady Cristina. We were
also greeted by the Bay’s Italian chef Giuseppe Zanotti, who was seen all
evening flitting between tables to inform the diners of the concepts behind
his individual dishes.
Now having been at The Bay for 14 months, Giuseppe has really found his feet
and the new menu has 31 new items, plus culinary revamping many of the
others that were retained. There is even a section indicating Italian food
for Thai tastes. For Giuseppe, his dishes are not merely nourishment, but
objects of creativity.
You know you are in a five star environment from the minute you are greeted,
to being sat down at your table by the waiting personnel in the long black
European aprons, to the theatre with your chosen bottle(s) of white wine
kept cold in a glass ice bucket. It is special treatment and you are made to
feel special.
The wine list is comprehensive without being over the top. Italian labels
predominate, but there is also the Dusit’s own range of wines, priced around
B. 1,200. On Giuseppe’s recommendation we drank the Albizzia Chardonnay
Toscana 2003 from the Marchesi de Frescobaldi cellars and it certainly went
well with our selection that evening.
We began with an Antipasto Emiliano with mixed cold cuts of hams and salami
accompanied by artichokes, champignons and onions in Balsamic vinegar. Right
from the first course, the presentation of the food was superlative. Believe
me!
Our next course was Giuseppe’s award winning black ink angel hair dish,
which is brought to the table looking like the hanging baskets toted by
women around the streets. The basket is made of Parmesan cheese in which is
the black ink angel hair pasta, with sautéed broccoli, white asparagus with
a white wine clam juice sauce and a large sea scallop on top. In our minds
there was no doubt as to why this dish won the first prize at the recent
International Food and Hospitality Show awards in Bangkok. Appearance,
presentation, taste and texture makes this dish truly magnificent.
We tried the sea bass fillets with saffron sauce, tarragon mashed potatoes
and sautéed black wild rice as our main course, and again we were not
disappointed. Full flavored, and yet ‘light’ in the stomach, and we loved
it.
We finished with an amazing dessert contrasting the smoothness of a
blueberry panacotta against the tartness of a sherbet. It had been a
momentous occasion!
Listening to Giuseppe describe the dishes is pure poetry. The unmistakable
‘Italianesque’ English waxing lyrical over such ingredients as the
Australian-sourced brown wild rice, or his way of making the
Pumpkin-Amoretto using macaroons. You feel like shouting “Bravo” when he is
finished. It had been yet another wonderful performance from a chef who
wears his heart on his sleeve. Producing food that has his very soul all
through it.
It was a superb evening at The Bay Il Ristorante Italiano and surprisingly
relatively inexpensive for such food in the ambience in a five star hotel.
You can expect to pay around B. 1,000 per head for food (wines extra) and
have an amazing Italian meal. Highest recommendation possible.
The Bay Restaurant, Dusit Resort, 240/2 Pattaya Beach Road (enter from the
Dolphin Roundabout intersection of Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya North Road
and Pattaya-Naklua Road), Pattaya City, telephone 038 425 611, fax 038 428
239, email [email protected]. Open seven days, 11 30 a.m. until 2.30 p.m.
for lunch and 6.30 p.m. till 10 p.m. for dinner, but The Bay is used for the
superb Dusit BBQ on Saturday evenings. Secure parking in hotel grounds.
