Poseidon is a name well known to students of Greco-Roman history, even if
just for fathering 56 children with some of them, such as Pegasus and Atlas,
still everyday names in the western society. Jomtien’s Poseidon restaurant
will also become an everyday name in the Pattaya society, if Kim and Pascal
Schnyder have anything to do with it, having taken over the lease of the
restaurant three months ago.
Poseidon
is in the Jomtien Complex, that large and once deserted building opposite
the Hanuman statue, and is easily found by taking the entrance closest to
the Thepprasit Road end, where you will find the restaurant (and its
eponymous hotel) as the first enterprise on your right.
Even just standing outside, the restaurant gives off a ‘classy’ ambience.
There are six tables outside (but undercover) and eight inside in the
air-conditioned section. The tables are covered with heavy linen starched
tablecloths, and quality glassware and cutlery is featured. The interior
area also features a large semi-circular sit-up bar, featuring a huge ice
bucket with many bottles of the wines by the glass. And overseeing it all is
the Korean dynamo Kim Schnyder, the wife of well known restaurateur Pascal
Schnyder (Casa Pascal), and some of the staff have also been transferred
from Casa Pascal. There are also small table cards advertising feature menus
at Casa Pascal, and the tie-up between the two is quite obvious.
The menu, although differing from Casa Pascal, also shows Pascal’s
influence, with items such as pea soup with smoked duck breast and bacon;
and grilled prawn, rock lobster and Alaska scallop on pan-fried egg plants
and tomatoes, served with rice or potatoes or oven roasted rack of lamb
Provencal with gratin potatoes and ratatouille, all sounding very much like
Casa Pascal menu items.
One
area that is totally different is in the breakfast menu, Poseidon restaurant
being open from 8 a.m. to service hotel guests and others looking for a good
early breakfast.
There is also another differentiating factor - at Poseidon, the prices have
been kept low, with the majority of the cold and warm appetizers below B.
200, even with items such as oven-baked burgundy snails in herb butter (6
pcs) for B. 180. Even the main dishes are in the majority under B. 400.
Despite the breadth and complexity of the menu, this is not an expensive
restaurant. There is also a full Thai menu.
The wine list confirms the level at which the prices are pitched, with most
bottles between B. 1,000-2,000, and the choices coming from both the old and
new worlds. By the way, I can very much recommend the 88th Drop Cabernet
Merlot, a good full-bodied red.
Before our choices arrived, we had a wonderful chicken wonton soup amuse
bouche. Different and certainly whetting the appetite.
For starters I had ordered the steak tartar, prepared at the table and
served with toast (B. 195). A bit of theatre always making any dinner just
that little more special, and it was a superb starter. Madame went for the
Scandinavian Platter with smoked salmon, graved lax, smoked fish, shrimp
cocktail and herring (B. 210) and was more than happy with the range of
flavors and textures.
For mains, I went for the fresh, whole rainbow trout, pan-fried with roast
potatoes (B. 395) and this was excellent. Completely boneless fillets. Well
done Poseidon kitchen. Madame had ordered the prawns from the grill (B.
390), plump and juicy and very enjoyable.
We did even manage to share an amaretto ice cream tart with Baileys and
whipped cream, but this was sheer indulgence to an extreme degree!
We left Poseidon very impressed. It has taken Kim and Pascal Schnyder three
months to get the restaurant functioning the way they want (and to their
exacting standards), but this restaurant is now ready to hold its own in the
upper bracket of restaurants in Pattaya-Jomtien. And yet the pricing levels
are very much lower than most in this bracket. And ‘late news’, a very
inexpensive set menu is also being introduced. Highly recommended.
Restaurant Poseidon, 413/3-5 M12, Thappraya Road, Jomtien Complex, telephone
038 303 300, fax 038 303 336, open 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. seven days.
On-street parking.
Vietnamese Asparagus and Crabmeat soup
Somewhat different from the Thai variety, this soup
however does have the spiciness expected. You can add or subtract more
chilli if required, but the recipe will produce a dish that the expat palate
can handle, as the chilli is used more as a garnish.
Cooking Method:
Boil the stock in a deep pot and add fish sauce and white pepper.
Cut asparagus into 6 cm lengths and add to the stock, along with the
crabmeat.
Turn down the heat and simmer for two minutes, then whisk the egg whites and
stir into the soup, forming white threads in the soup and cook gently for
another minute. Place in serving bowl and garnish with the spring onions and
chilli.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Chicken stock
1,000 ml
Fish sauce
2 tspns
White pepper
¼ tspn
Canned asparagus
9 spears
Crab meat (shredded, tinned) 200 gm
Egg white
3 eggs
Spring onions chopped
2
Fresh red and green chilli chopped
