Robin Hood’s Carvery Cuisine

Whichever way you look at it there comes a point, somewhere around a Sunday as it happens, when nothing but nothing will do apart from a good old-fashioned roast dinner. It is a timeless classic and thoughts of gravy, mashed potato, roasties and veg cut through the cultural cuisine time continuum of Bangkok to arrive in hungry thoughts every week without fail.

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The Robin Hood is also a timeless classic; a British pub that is all lamps and dark wooden floors and furniture. Stepping inside is like leaving Asia and walking into a Dublin brew house or a London inn when it is cold and raining outside. The atmosphere is inviting and so too it turns out is the food.

The Sunday carvery at 495 baht for adults and a couple of hundred baht for kids is reasonable enough and the buffet style carvery is the only way to eat a Sunday roast. The roast lamb is tender, the pork has a good layer of crackling and the beef, although not a stunner is good with the gravy which is meaty and gives the roast meaning. There’s a lot to fit in here: peas; carrots, broccoli and cauliflower gratin, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes and of course, the stodgy carbohydrate of the Yorkshire pudding.

Potatoes and something resembling bread are as essential to the British meal as rice is to a Thai meal. Imagine eating green curry without the rice or a roti? Bumped up either side are a salad and soup starter and an apple crumble. The gratin, veg, meat and gravy demand seconds. The mash wasn’t the creamiest and could have done with another dollop of butter and you won’t feel like pinching roast potatoes from your neighbor's plate.

The Yorkshire pudding is an apparent work in progress, a recipe that is being tried and tested each week but so far is bottom of the carvery class. The menu is cheerful and easy to relate to with some surprising stunners. The fish, chips, mushy peas and chip shop curry sauce at 330 baht feels like finding the hidden treasure of British cuisine and although the chips are frozen, the fish is terrifically tasty and thoughts of crisp batter and moist, meat will tease you until you return.

The ribs at 350 baht are popular but the sauce is sweet rather than smoky and not as good as the effort it takes to eat this messy meal. But ribs are thrown to the side with abandon when the fish arrives. The Robin Hood has a family friendly Sunday atmosphere and the rest of the week it is low-key and relaxing without any loud people or loud music. The hubbub is lively and genuine and there is nothing theme-pub-like at all.

Brits and non-Brits alike wanting a serving of a robust roast and carvery cuisine, with convivial company, can drop into The Robin Hood any time and pretend that this cozy pub is an oasis from a wet weekend in Blighty.

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