Pattaya Has Been Resurrected
Pattaya Oriental Restaurant
30 Adeola Hopewell Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
FOLLY: I was very disappointed when someone tweeted last year that Pattaya had gone out of business. See, I really like Thai food and Bangkok had never quite down it for me so I really wanted to come here.
NOSA: Well, not me sha. I'm not the biggest Thai food fan because I can never pronounce anything on the menu. I always get the same thing too. Pad Thai and some form of ribs. In fact, last time I was at Pattaya, I told them to get me a burger from Lotus.
FOLLY: I had so much gladness in my heart last week when someone casually mentioned to me that Pattaya had just re-opened.
NOSA: Pattaya did some big renovating in the period they were out of commission. The space is a lot less cluttered, which I'm a fan of. The old Pattaya was a lot tighter and felt like they wanted to squeeze as many tables in as possible or something. Not this one though.
FOLLY: Nosa left me to order because he was too tired to "deal".
NOSA: Like I said, I can't pronounce anything on the menu and that's too much stress for me.
FOLLY: To start we had the Chicken Wings and the Pork Spare Ribs. The sauce on the ribs is choice of chilli or sweet and sour, and I went with the latter.
NOSA: The ribs came out a little cold so we had to get the waiters to reheat it a little bit. Thankfully, they didn't make a fuss about reheating because the ribs were really nice.
FOLLY: It would definitely have been a shame if we had to eat them cold because I enjoyed them so much more after they heated it up.
NOSA: The ribs were real tender, but not a lot of fall-off-bone to it. If we're being honest, you're not going to get fall-off-bone tender ribs in the appetizer section of a Thai restaurant menu. That's too much wahala for an appetizer.
FOLLY: The chicken wings were not really wings like that as you can see from the picture. They were also stuffed like an escalope, and at the same time pretty dry. Luckily, we had the pepper sauce from my friend's order of spring rolls that we used as a dipping sauce for this.
NOSA: Yeah, the wings were a lot bread-ier than I imagined they would be. Thought we'd be getting sticky wings or something.
FOLLY: Same here I was expecting sticky wings. The stuffing thing is mentioned on the menu though but somehow it didn't register at the point of ordering.
NOSA: I didn't read the menu so I guess it's my fault. The wings were a little dry and they should definitely come with some type of sauce. The chicken itself isn't bad, it just feels a little incomplete without something to dip it into. Like, bread without tea for you razz mandem out there.
FOLLY: Nosa disagrees, but I prefer the pad thai here to that at Bangkok, not by a long shot but I prefer it.
NOSA: Yeah, I think Bangkok's Pad Thai is a lot better. You just don't like Bangkok's because I annoyed you when we went to Bangkok and you've attached that annoyance to Bangkok.
FOLLY: LOL
NOSA: Meanwhile, can someone more cultured than I am explain why Pad Thai always has peanuts in it. Like, not in it "in it", but in the or corner of the plate.
FOLLY: The shrimp in this were also tiny but that's forgivable.
FOLLY: As for my drink, I had the Pattaya Sun which is a simple mix of Malibu, pineapple juice and grenadine. My original drink was so inexplicably strong that I had to ask for it to be remade because I couldn't deal. I still couldn't deal after it was remade but manage, I did.
NOSA: The Long Island's at Pattaya are quality and pretty cheap by Lagos standards.
POSTSCRIPT
FOLLY: The drinks may be cheaper than at most places, but once they slap you with that 20% service change when your bills arrives it stops being cute.
NOSA: I feel like this meal passed me by. Nothing really stood out to me or anything, but then again, I'm not the biggest fan of Thai. If Thai food is your thing, you should definitely check out Pattaya.
VERDICT
DAMAGE
Pad Thai - N3300
Long Island - N1800
Pattaya Sun - N1500
Chicken Wings - N1850
Pork Spare Ribs - N3300
PARKING
It's good enough. There's 5-ish spots inside and a couple more outside.