Golden Orchidee — Restaurant in Pattaya City

I have been intending to visit this place for a while. The reviews are good and it always seems busy when I go past. However, last night I finally got to go with a group of friends for a birthday celebration.

The menu is a disorganised joke. Some parts are only in German, other parts have limited English translation, and other parts have Thai. Despite being a group of various nationalities and languages, none of us can speak German or Thai. In Pattaya this is rarely an issue as the default language for "foreigners" is typically English. Yet the numskull that's opened this establishment has decided that English is not of any significant importance. Hence the reason s/he doesn't hire staff that speak English. They are also unfamiliar with the menu. Needless to say, there was lots of goodle lens translations, time, stress, and confusion.

The result was no better. The order was wrong, and one of our party didn't get a meal at all, so had to wait for his while we all ate. By the time, he wasn't particularly looking forward to it anyway, as all our dishes were appalling: dry, salty, tasteless garbage. Even the rice was poor and was so soggy, it resembled a risotto.

All in all a...

Arrived around 7pm on a Thursday night and both indoor & outdoor areas were full. I was lucky to be able to get the last available table inside, this place is very popular and for good reason.

The house wine is a good quality and not the typical boxed wine served elsewhere. It’s a very acceptable Italian red

Prawns in garlic & chilli butter, sizzling when brought to the table. Very good flavours. Surprised to receive toasted bread with this dish, I’d assumed it would come with a crust baguette slices or similar. Interesting option

Pork tenderloin for main course, and it was perfectly cooked. The pepper & mushroom sauce was extremely tasty. Little croquettes were perfectly crispy on the outside but fluffy on the inside. I found the carrots over cooked but the broccoli was perfect.

They almost got a 5*, except for the main course came out before I had finished my starter. I should expect the front of house to manage that, usually I like a gap of 15-20 minute between courses but I expect they have many customers who impatiently expect the main to arrive within seconds of finishing...

I was expecting better after being recommended this restaurant by my neighbour. We asked for a menu in English as neither of us are German. Finally we received a photocopied piece of paper with English words scribbled in pen in which to order. The schnitzel I had was tasty, and well cooked, however I noticed that my schnitzel was about 1/2 the size of my dining partners and for that matter every other one I saw in the restaurant. The Pepper sauce did not seem to have any pepper in it, but maybe that was an oversight? - dining partners mushroom sauce had piles of mushrooms in it. Maybe I just caught them at the wrong time. Would love to give them another try, the staff all seem friendly and the food I'm sure will be...