OK so I’m full of surprises. Our best curry restaurant was chosen from a field of more than 20 different entrants. In the previous articles we’ve only highlighted three others. There are many curry places in Pattaya, and the 20 or so we’ve eaten at had been whittled down to 4. If you’ve read the previous articles you can see why we’ve included them – not always for their great meals. We had eaten in grand places (such as the Maharani at the Royal Cliff), we had eaten in places filled with coach loads of tourists (such as the Garam Masala – Soi L K Metro), we tried large and small places, now read about the 4 we selected.

The previous entrants have been:

Now we come to Al Firdous. As with other places I’ll describe how to get there first. Go along Second Road from the traffic lights at Pattaya Tai. Walk away from the centre of town towards Jomtien and go along the left hand side. Walk past the school and immediately the school finishes, there’s a road on the left. This is signed Soi 16 (although the locals tend to call it Soi 17, confusingly and incorrectly). If you get to the V.C. Hotel and the road for Sunee Plaza you’ve gone too far. Turn down there and go no more than 50m and it’s on the right. Again if you get to the old man with the fireman’s helmet, he sits next door.

This is a tiny, single unit restaurant, half based on the pavement, kitchen in the road (almost) type of place. The staff are friendly and although a little chaotic, that just adds to the charm. There were 4 of us went that particular night and we only just got a table. There were people everywhere. Service was OK, but one felt the staff were under pressure and allowance was made for that. Still we weren’t in a rush and didn’t have to wait too long.

OK now to the food. The onion bahjees, our staple starter were dry (not greasy) and tasty. The sauce added all the extra flavour we needed and they filled a hole. Two dishes came out and we felt the portion a little meagre, but OK. When the second two dishes followed a few minutes later, we realised they were cooking as fast as they could, but with the limited facilities two was the most they could do at a time. Double the quantity was a really good sized portion and was OK.

I didn’t see a keema mutter on the menu, so had chicken vindaloo. Really nice. Not a lot of chicken, but just enough. The potato was spicy and the flavour good. The highlight of the meal though were the breads. Cooked almost in front of us in the oven on the street. It was all interesting to watch. So for a great meal, interesting surroundings, and a little flavour of Thai/Indian culture we voted this one a 9 1/2 out of 10. 1/2 point going for the wait – but that wasn’t their fault!

So a winner! And possibly a surprise one. I hope you’ll try it and enjoy – and let me know what you think.

Nicky