The Pattaya Hilton Hotel produced a daring experiment for the food and wine lovers of Pattaya - a dinner featuring five meats, five mustards and five merlots.  To my knowledge this has not been tried before by any of our up-market restaurants, and at the reception F&B manager Simon Bender was rather quiet and Chef Supoj was even looking a little apprehensive, while the Flare restaurant manager K. Sunny was literally trembling, at the beginning of the night.

Hands up all those who remember the rather tired El Toro Steak House.  Well you can put your hands down, El Toro has well and truly gone, but in its place is a new venture called “My Corner” which has so much going for it, we could not believe it at first.

It is hard to believe that the Casa Pascal restaurant is now 11 years old, especially when I can personally remember the opening.  However, 11 years it is, at the same location next to Ruen Thai in the soi opposite the Dicey Reilly’s Pub in front of the Pattaya Marriott Resort and Spa.

It was during the week of madness called Songkran that I was unable to find a restaurant to review formally (or perhaps even reluctant).  Many restaurants just close the doors, like Louis Noll’s Mata Hari for example, while others were just too difficult to get to, being surrounded by gun-toting “gangs” ready to douse the hardiest of spirits.

What is an “icon”?  Always difficult to define exactly, but can refer to something which has made a lasting mark on a culture.  With that definition, then the letters “BJ” are iconic in the Pattaya scene, with those who have long memories remembering Bill Jones whose bar gave birth to Soi BJ in Walking Street something like 41 years ago.

The restaurant business is one of the most hotly contested areas in Pattaya.  With the hotels pushing their own outlets to their guests, the more pro-active ones are trying to attract the Pattaya residents as well.

The second Pattaya Gourmet Festival was held at the Amari’s Mantra restaurant between March 17-22 and featured five international chefs spanning Chinese, English/Greek, Australian, French and German nationalities, resulting in a wonderfully different culinary experience for the diners.

Pattaya now has two Coffee Clubs, reflecting the growth of this restaurant concept.  Interestingly, it originated in West End in Brisbane, Australia in 1989 and I have dined there in its early days.  Little did the owners, or the diners, imagine just what a success this was going to be.

Churrasco is probably not a cuisine that comes readily to mind, but comes from a South American dish of steak skewered and barbecued over a wood or charcoal fire.  The origin of the name itself is South American Spanish from Spanish dialect churrascar ‘to burn’.

Some observant readers who drive down Third Road alerted the Dining Out Team to the fact that there was a new Indian restaurant in town called Baadshah (which incidentally means “King”).