The Pickled Liver Pub and Restaurant is a diminutive English type pub in a small crescent of a sub soi off Sukhumvit Soi 11. It has been around for years but for some reason I had never darkened its doorway until recently.

With the Shopper Girl hobbling almost on one foot due to the excess mileage she had traversed around the many of Bangkok’s shopping malls, it was imperative that we didn’t travel too far for our dinner on a very wet Bangkok night not so long ago.

Upon entering through the pub’s heavy wooden door, we found the walls festooned in hundreds of photos of past customers, of what looked like many boozy parties and much merriment. The ceiling is low, the tables and benches are of the heavy wood variety as are the chairs.

It is such a small bar it almost radiates the feeling of claustrophobia. Despite its English appearance and English name, the Pickled Liver is a Thai owned and operated business. All of its staff and kitchen brigade are Thai and basic English is understood by most of the staff.

After lubricating our throats with a couple of schooners for your correspondent and two gin and tonics for the suffering Shopper Girl we perused the menu which had all of the Thai standards on it along with an unimaginative English pub menu.

The Shopper Girl said “Its Friday, so I’m going to order the traditional English fish and chips” whilst your correspondent decided to test the Thai menu and ordered a duck red curry.

With a couple of more drinks swiftly despatched from the bar to our table in readiness for the meal I took the opportunity to scrutinise more closely this hidden from view pub. On this particular Friday night, there were only four others in the bar apart from us and soon after two of those left. The pub had heavy wooden floors, dark wooden walls where there were no photographs, dark tables and chairs and a dark heavy wooden bar.

In this little Soi where the Pickled Liver is located, there are about seven or eight other eateries and we couldn’t help but notice on our way up the sub Soi that some of those were quite full, whereas the Pickled Liver was noticeable for its lack of patrons.

After about 10 minutes our meals arrived, hers on a big oval plate with two pieces of fish and a pile of thick cut chips, a small container of tartare sauce and a very small bowl of salad greens with halved cherry tomatoes.

My red duck curry arrived in a steaming tureen with a bright reddish hue making a striking appearance on top of the ingredients.

Upon first taste it became immediately apparent that the primary ingredient was not duck but chicken. Whether the kitchen made a mistake or thought that the silly old fart wouldn’t notice the difference in the basic ingredient of the dish is hard to say, but as I was on the point of getting the waitress over to take it back to the kitchen, the Shopper Girl said “Oh no, not another confrontation”, as we had had several of those during our long journey throughout Thailand.

So I ploughed on with the dish, which was exceedingly hot despite my request when ordering “porn kin aharn, pet mai day khrup”, which is phonetic Thai for “not so hot”.

It is one of my criticisms of Thai cuisine, in that many of its dishes are so overly spiced that it is almost impossible to determine the taste of the ingredients. I was only able to discern the difference between the duck and the chicken by its texture, certainly not its taste.

On the other side, the Shopper Girl was complaining about the soggy and extra thick batter adhering to her two pieces of previously frozen fish of an indeterminate species.

She also said that her chips were greasy and were overcooked. I took a couple off her plate to road test her “groans” and yes, they were overcooked in that they were hard on the outside and had retained a greasy coating of a very poor quality frying oil on their outer.

She put her eating irons down in disgust after about three mouthfuls of the fish and said “here, taste this then”. The fish had all of the redolence of wet cardboard which led me to believe that the fish had been frozen for too long, possibly past its used by date.

At this stage I had consumed about ¼ of my “duck” red curry but I wasn’t enjoying it. It looked Thai, it smelt of Thai spices, it looked appetising, but in the litmus test of taste it just didn’t do it for me.

The Shopper Girl and I looked at each other, not a word was exchanged between us, but our eyes said it all. We finished our drinks, I then summoned the waitress for the bill, paid up and left. On the way to the door, the waitress ran after us and said “what, food no good”? “You’ve nailed it”, I retorted. “Eh”, with raised eyebrows was her response.

SUMMARY: The Pickled Liver is an English type pub located on the first sub Soi on the left of Sukhumvit Soi 11 after entering from Sukhumvit Road. It is small and its interior is rather dark.

FOOD: 1 x traditional English Fish and Chips with a small side salad; 1 x red duck curry.

COST: Fish & Chips 210 baht ($AUD7.77) Red Duck Curry (180 baht $AUD6.66); 3 x schooners Heinekin at 110 baht each, but discounted at “happy hour price” of buy two get one free, 220 baht ($AUD8.14); 3 x gin and tonics @110 baht each ($AUD8.14) on the same happy hours basis as the beer. Total: 830 baht ($AUD30.74).
SCORE: Ambience, 4/10; food 2/10; value for money, 2/10; service 7/10. Total: 15/40.

VERDICT: In this part of Bangkok, there are many bars and pubs exuding the outer appearances of watering holes from the Old Dart. Some are very good, some are middling good, some just OK and some are far from acceptable. Unfortunately, I have to categorise the Pickled Liver into the last category. Thus, it was not surprising to us upon reflection later that evening that the Pickled Liver was struggling for patronage whilst other eateries in the immediate vicinity were doing much better, despite the dearth of tourists in Bangkok at that particular time.

CONCLUSION: If you are heading for a meal or an evening in an English/Irish pub in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok, you can do much better than the Pickled Liver Pub.

NEXT WEEK: At the request of Roving Rabbit, I review the Rosiabeng bar and restaurant, once again located in Sukhumvit Soi 11.

Some of the Fodors.com regulars seem to live at this place. I never did think that many of them had common sense or taste!

Well that surprises me that the Fodor.com crowd would rate this place at all. Either that, or we had the misfortune to dine there on an "off" night. However, with only four patrons in the bar, it could hardly be suggested that the kitchen was struggling under the pressure.

One of the French chefs I worked under in my youthful days once commented "being a gourmet doesn't equate to having good taste". Looking back after all these years I think he had a point.

Just as in the world of fashion, most people like what they are told to like.

You mentioned the spice factor of the curry. That's probably the key. Most Thai food "experts" insist that hot equals good. They turn up their noses at "dumbed down" Thai food. I remember one review of a popular LA Thai eatery mentioning that their pad see ewe was the spiciest they have found.

This place has been referred has LA's best Thai eatery. My wife and I found it simply awful. When I panned it on a local chow board, I was informed that living in Bangkok, Thailand, is no basis for opinion. Silly me!

Here is a great little video about gourmet dining: The Best!

Well you are definitely in my camp Curt. As I have mentioned occasionally, when the basic ingredients cannot be determined by taste because of the overpowering use of spice, the dish is ruined. I concur with you about the arrogance of some posters who use the put-down "dumbed down food".

If they read their history of Thai cuisine they would realise that the Siamese concocted the use of multiple spices after the Portuguese merchant ships traded spice and other ingredients with them in 16th century.

The base ingredients of Thai food in that period of time were of such poor quality, that the Thais jumped at the chance to mask the taste of their food with a heavy useage of spice.

Spice useage, to my way of thinking, is an enhancer, not the be-all and end-all of the dish.

When I lecture in Melbourne, I emphasise to the students that adding any spice, or salt or juice is to heighten the taste and complement the taste of the base ingredients - not to disguise them.

Thanks for the entertaining review, Emdee; sounds like a place to avoid! I shall add it to the reviews archive on the sticky at the top of the Thailand forum.

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Thanks Emdee. I walked past this place last Sunday and i'm happy now that I kept walking. We decided to try Bo.Lan as both the guys who own this place had worked in London for David Thompson and Dylan was a friend of my daughter when she worked in London- unfortunately it was closed on Sunday so we ended up at MBK and tried the 5th Avenue food on the fifth floor of MBK, as you now its a bit more upmarket than the food court on the next level and i'm pleased to report that the food was quite good and the prices okish. (Singha beer was 150 bt for a large bottle, but beautifully cold)The only surprise is the 5% service charge tacked on at the end of the bill. The lip stick lover was happy with her meal so that was a plus...............

That is a surprise. The actual government "service charge" is set at 10%. That probably means that this charge was simply added income, pure and simple. Was the 7% VAT added?

Hi Curt

Not sure about how the VAT was done as I haven't kept the receipt. However I do recall the service chage at the bottom of the bill equated to 5% of the bill.

Roving Rabbit,

I will post a review of the 5th Avenue sometime over the next three months. We went there for lunch one afternoon when we couldn't get a table on the 6th floor food court. More expensive it is, but there are some benefits which I will outline when I post the report.