Friday September 24 -
Queen Victoria Inn’s Carvery
A value for money family event
The Queen Victoria Inn on Soi Yodsak (Soi 6’s
“real” name) is a well established traditional English Pub, with its own
restaurant serving high quality ‘pub grub’ and these days having its own hotel
rooms as well, following the recent refurbishment, repaint and refit. One most
noticeable feature is the new lounge meeting room, with a nook upholstered in
red.
The rest of the Queen Victoria Inn is as you
remember it, done out in a typical English pub decor, with maps, old
photographs, horse brasses, old timbers and even a collection of tea pots!
There is a central sit-up bar and along the walls overlooking the soi (and its
wonderful sights) there is alcove seating for four to five people. On each
table is a sparkling clean woven basket with very clean (and filled) bottles of
malt vinegar, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce, Coleman’s mustard
and
Adjoining the
central bar is the carvery area, complete with dedicated carvery chef. A hot
station has the meats, and alongside are the Bain Marie hot containers for the
vegetables, while on the other side is the cold station with the prawn
cocktails.
The very happy and obliging young service
ladies were resplendent in snappy white shorts and tops. I was told that at the
weekends the bar staff wear ‘sporting’ outfits, with Guinness outfits on
Fridays, Tiger outfits on Saturdays (from Tiger beer, not from the striped
animals that inhabit Indian jungles) and the footy whites on Sundays.
Being a pub, selling ales is the primary
business, but they are not selling these at a premium. In the draft beers,
Heineken pints are B. 140, Guinness B. 160, Kilkenny B. 180 and their latest
addition of Strongbow Cider on tap is B. 190.
The Sunday Carvery costs 290 baht and
includes soup, prawn cocktail, carvery covering roast rib of beef, roast turkey
(you don’t have to wait till Xmas), roast pork and roast ham. The vegetables
include creamed cauliflower, mashed potato, roast potato, carrots, peas,
Brussels sprouts and cabbage. There is also Yorkshire puddings (and you don’t
have to come from Yorkshire to enjoy them) and stuffing for your turkey. And I
almost forgot – there’s desserts as well with apple crumble being on offer on
the Sunday we went along.
I began with the soup, which one of the young
ladies brought to our table from the hot-pot tureen. This was a ham and pea
soup which was very flavorsome and was presented in a large English style soup
bowl, with a ‘proper’ soup spoon! Thank you Queen Victoria Inn. Some French
bread accompanied the soup, plus one of those fiddly foil butter pats that I
hate, but that is a personal view, not shared by everyone.
The prawn cocktail was also brought over and
was a very acceptable example of the genre with fresh lettuce, nice dressing
and correctly cooked prawns. Unfortunately mine came with a spoon that I
usually see in sugar bowls, making it difficult to extract the lettuce. I did
mention this and they said they would look into the cocktail fork supply. (So
next time you go and you get a proper cocktail fork, thank the Pattaya Mail
and Miss Terry Diner!)
I tried all the roast meats and they were
correctly roasted, and the vegetables not overcooked (the peas were delicious).
It was a fine Sunday roast dinner, just like my Mum used to do.
Desserts? Sorry, there was no more room!
We enjoyed our Sunday lunch, and so too did
the many people we saw that Sunday, including a couple of families with
children of all ages. One such was Malcolm and Christina Bowden from the
Charity Club of Pattaya, with Malcolm saying (unasked), “We come here most
Sundays. It’s such good value.” At 290 baht the Dining Out Team could only
agree. Definitely worth the trip one Sunday. Highly recommended.
Queen Victoria Inn, 437/137-140 Soi Yodsak (6),
Pattaya, telephone 038 425 418, email queenvictoriainn@ hotmail.com, website
www. queenvictoria-inn.com. Street parking. Sunday carvery from 12.30 p.m.
until 9 p.m.