Well, our second restaurant on Pratumnak Hill starts our curry review off. Over the next 4 weeks we will be looking at 4 very different curry places. Of course there are many more in Pattaya, but this is our pick – each for a different reason. We start with Nawab. Chosen, well … you decide why!
Nawab is a big place, mainly outdoor (or under “thatched” roofs), it’s not a place to go to in the rain. OK they do have some seating under a more substantial cover. It’s right on the corner or Pratumnak and Soi 5, hard to miss. I have been there many times and particularly like the seats at the far end of the restaurant, on the platform. You can watch what’s going on (and the waiters are cute enough to warrant watching.)
The food is good. The flavours are right and the price is right, it’s just not very spicy. Ask them to make it VERY spicy and it’s medium strength. We’ve had this on many dishes and on many visits, so it seems not to be a one off. (Of course when you go, the chef will have changed and the curry will blow your head off!).
So what do we like. The onion bhaji are good, 100B for a reasonable portion. We tend to mix starters and bhajis and samosas make a good combo. In fact everything comes in reasonable portions – almost too large – EXCEPT for the main dishes, which are average portion sized. Almost a disappointment! The chicken tikka masala at 170B is good value as well. I always go for the hotter and slightly less usual dishes. The mutton karahi at 230B is on the top end of their price range, but one of my particular favourites. And it comes on a sizzling hot pan. The keemae mutter is also pleasant.I prefer bread to rice and I love the garlic paratha. Very garlicky and very tasty. Adds a nice flavour to a curry without blowing you out with the quantity you can sometimes get with a nan.
The menu is in English and Russian. I’ve seen that creeping in and it was the case at Le Stroganoff last week. It’s repeated here. Still, I guess the restaurant has to cater to its clients.
You can easily get out of here with a bill under 500B a head, even having had a starter and soft drinks. On my ranking it scores around a 9, 2 points being lost for the lack of heat. Nothing else really detracts from it. One bonus point has been added for the service from the staff. After all this is a gay newsletter, and with the staff they have there, what do you expect!
