Thirst for Thai- quenched!

Ever since we moved to the Kingdom, there’s been one major issue - not being able to find a good Thai place to eat! We’ve certainly seen names of Thai dishes adorning menu cards of different restaurants, but any place that doesn’t serve Kang Kung (morning glory) or any of the traditional Thai curries should think twice before calling itself a Thai restaurant.

After many disappointing Thai meals, our yearning for good Thai food bore fruit! Pattaya Restaurant was recommended to us! A good friend from the US who’s been in this city for over 3 years favoured us. The fact that this gentleman has worked in Thailand for a good 2 years purely confirms his authority to comment on Thai food. So this weekend, wife and I decided to try out some Thai fare at Pattaya.

Pattaya Restaurant is situated off Sari Street in Salama district. The first look at its signboard and we knew we almost found a treasure. In addition to English and Arabic, the name was written in Thai too. We’ve been around Pattaya and Bangkok well enough to recognize Thai script!

Once in, we found the ambience very basic – minimalistic, inexpensive, non-exotic – which in my book reads, authenticJ Out of plain curiosity, I decided to check out the singles’ section – it was merrily occupied with happy diners relishing their Thai delights. Though I didn’t see such happy diners in the family section (all cabins!), the aroma exuberated warmth. Most of the cabins had curtains drawn which gave me the impression of them being occupied. The tempting smell of food spoke likewise. 

The aquarium in our cabin provided the much needed calm to peacefully enjoy the meal. The fish tank was nice, but I was rather amused at an Egyptian painting decorating the interiors of this Thai restaurant.

Once settled in, we went through the menu card. The menu was interesting. Rather than listing all dishes in some particular order, bold pictures of the dishes were highlighted with the names. I’d say this is somewhat unique only. This is not very uncommon in Jeddah. The menu had the usual Thai suspects - prawn balls, chicken satay, green curry etc. Tofu was conspicuously missing! On enquiring, the server patiently took us through the vegetarian options. “Kang Kung,” he said and I broke into a wide grin and ordered one instantly. Wife decided to give the food a generic oriental touch and ordered the vegetable spring rolls. The server informed us that their specialty was the prawn soup, served in a special Thai vessel, enough to serve 4. (Image from the internet below, looked the same on the menu).

Unfortunately since we were not accompanied by any of our friends, we vegetarians had to give this a miss. A surprise on the last page was the Som Tam (the quintessential raw papaya salad). We ordered one and asked the waiter to make ours without the prawns. Some extra peanuts instead of the prawns were requested. While waiting for our food and deciding on the main course, we were given a portion of rice crackers with my favorite Thai chili sauce.

The spring rolls and the morning glory arrived fresh. The spring roll was surprisingly good and tasted very fresh. It had the right mix of the veggies and the outer crust was nice and crispy without dripping oil. The morning glory (Kang Kung) was very good, rejuvenating rather! Fresh greens cooked in the right amount of soya and water. Tasted divine! For me, this was enough, I needed no more food, I could keep munching on this all through the meal. But well, that’s not how it works, isn’t it? So we ordered Thai green curry  with vegetables and a portion of jasmine rice.

The papaya salad arrived along with the main course. The papaya salad was no great shakes, I have had better. The papaya was very finally shredded; as opposed to coarsely grated I’ve had hitherto. In all the places where I have enjoyed the papaya salad, the shreds of the papaya have been quite thick and crunchy. The green curry was good. It had the perfect mix of coconut milk and Thai fish sauce and again the veggies were quite fresh. The jasmine rice was just passable and failed to do justice to the green curry.

The place was very calm and quiet; I and wife enjoyed our meal in the quite confines of a fishy cabin with a flowery lining (excessively flowery curtains)! We decided to give the desert a miss as we were quite full by then and opted for the green tea instead. The meal cost us SAR 80/ USD 22, which was quite a steal. So if you are yearning for some good Thai food, think no more and head towards this small Thai wonder off Sari Street! You sure won’t regret it!