PJ O’Brien’s, O’ Shea’s, The Royal Oak and Bangkok Fish & Chips
During this latest lockdown (or call it what you will), we have been doing our best to support local businesses, by ordering takeaway on an intermittently regular basis. Both my husband (Jon) and I, love to cook, but on occasion, like to be lazy, under the guise of helping out the restaurant trade.
We have had a couple of fabulous meals from this group of restaurants, having ordered their Sunday roast dinners and lasagne. The lasagne we still talk about today is an enormous portion, made traditionally with a Thai twist, that took us three tries to figure out the secret ingredient… I won’t give it away here. Try for yourself!
I’ve found over the years of living in Malaysia and Thailand that the Sunday Roast is a Holy Grail, in order to find one that has it all. In fairness, I would have to say, their PJ O’Briens Sunday roast is pretty spot on, with loads of delicious, homemade gravy, a mix of crunchy vegetables, a Yorkshire and potatoes and meat that isn’t mercilessly cooked into the resemblance of shoe leather.
If there were anything I would change, for me, the roasties maketh the meal, and these are not my favourites, but the rest of it easily makes up for it. As an added point to note, everything arrives piping hot, thanks to the care taken in the packaging.
Today’s offerings:
Tuna Nicoise
To kick off today’s offerings, we start with a healthy Tuna Nicoise (THB 295) from the Royal Oak.
The salad comes with asparagus rather than green beans, an upgrade in my view, red oak lettuce, bright cherry tomatoes, a mix of black and green olives, traditional boiled egg and potato, crowned with the glorious tuna, coated in a green blend of parsley and breadcrumbs and cooked to absolute perfection just coloured on the outside and pink on the inside.
Salads are one of my favourite foods, largely because of the dressings, with this one being no exception. Whilst not quite the traditional French style dressing, where white-wine vinegar would be used, the balsamic adds a slight sweetness to the dressing which also balances out the mustard and complements the creamy, sharp feta.
Lamb Kebab and Hand Cut Chips
Since moving to SEA 4 years ago, my life mission is to find the best chippy chips and kebab, so it was with much anticipation we ordered the same from PJ O’Briens aptly named ‘Bangkok Fish and Chips (also available from O’Shea’s).
The chips (THB 140) (cheating as I’ve had them before) are genuine, hand-cut finger length fatties, cooked to perfection. The kebab (THB 249) lamb meat, delicately spiced, is jam packed into the pitta, with onion jam (great for those who don’t love raw onions), fresh tomato slices and iceberg lettuce.
The kebab meat is not quite the greasy chunks of flesh that I’m used to in Blighty, a little more textured but pleasant tasting with a nice blend of spice, balanced well with the salad. Better eaten with a knife and fork as the pitta is quite delicate but not doughy or soggy. Perfect, with an ice-cold beer. Granted, it’s not a Deep Blue, but I’d certainly go back for the chips!
Stir-fried Kampot Pepper Beef
Finally, the stir fried Kampot pepper beef (THB 225) from O’Shea’s comes in a deep, hearty, rich sauce, served with a bowl of jasmine rice, is TO DIE FOR. The peppery sauce is rich and warming with soy sauce, sauteed garlic and onion and red peppers which is full of flavour and plentiful, tender slices of Ozzy beef. This really is a standout dish and one that we agreed we would certainly order again.
Overall, a great example of East meets West and a genuine find for those who are missing their British grub.
Reasons to Order from the above restaurants:
Proper chips; Decent lamb kebab, takeaway alcohol.
Opening hours and phone numbers are found through the links below.
That looks amazing, will have to try that Kampot Pepper Beef!