The Sportsman keeps it simple, yet special
The Sportsman Pub and Restaurant in Soi 13, between Beach Road and Second Road, is one of the longest-running British-style bar-restaurants in Pattaya. Among the myriad of reasons for its success are food quality and portion sizes, staff attentiveness, hands-on management, and ambience.
The Sportsman is rated at number nine of 803 restaurants in Pattaya by Trip Advisor (as of the beginning of April this year). That’s a high ranking in anybody’s language. The place has gained strength and popularity ever since it first opened in 1997.
One of the reasons for its success is simply consistency. There are three key days which feature meal specials, while on the other four days the pub promotes drink specials.
On Wednesdays the daily special is a burger and chips, with a San Miguel for just 195 baht, available all day and all night.
O Fridays the food special is an all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, salad buffet, available between 6:00 and 10:00pm, for just 249 baht per customer.
The traditional Sunday all-you-can-eat carvery still remains, at 425 baht and available between 12:30 and 8:30pm. The carvery is often rated among the best in Pattaya. There are always two soups, five roast joints, a special steak and kidney pie, Yorkshire pudding, and all the other elements one would expect of a carvery.
The daily specials for the drinkers consist of Mondays which feature pints of Heineken at 99 baht, all day and all night; Tuesdays are pints of Guinness at just 170 baht, again, all day and all night; Thursdays it is Tiger Draught pints for 99 baht and on Saturdays the special is pints of Thatchers Gold draught cider at 160 baht.
For non-alcoholic drinks, the Sportsman has introduced both 80-baht milkshakes, and protein shakes in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours for just 99 baht.
The Sportsman has served traditional, hand-made meat and fruit pies since they first opened. Using only the best ingredients, their so-called Bowmans Pies have proved extremely popular. So much so, Bowmans Pies was established as a separate entity to promote and distribute this quality product to supermarkets around Pattaya and into other parts of Thailand.
The Sportsman also started and continues to operate the Door to Door home delivery service, thereby offering its best meals to customers who would like to partake at home, or at their hotel.
The Sportsman weekly free-entry quiz is held every Thursday evening, starting at around 9:00pm. There is a free (Bowmans) pie and chips for all contestants at the end of the fun quiz, and a rollover jackpot question. Everyone is welcome, and you can either set up your own team, or join in with another group.
There is a good quality pool table and seven large wall-mounted TVs scattered about in good viewing locations showing all sports as well as news channels.
