It’s a sure bet. You won’t be taking any risks here. With three separate menus offering innovative International cuisine, succulent seafood BBQ and traditional Thai in a laid-back beachside restaurant with
professional friendly service that’s centrally located in Chaweng, there’s just about everything that you could possibly wish from a Samui dining experience at The Beach Club.
Buri Rasa is one of Chaweng’s loveliest boutique resorts. It’s conveniently
situated in the middle of Chaweng Beach and is tastefully designed as a
leafy lane leading through a quiet hamlet of attractive cottages down to the
sea. And it has a deserved reputation for being one of the island’s friendliest
places (and with so many great places on Samui, this is a real accolade).
But, most importantly, it’s the home of The Beach Club restaurant.
Of course, you can reach it directly from the beach itself, where you’ll
see tables and chairs and bean-bags temptingly set up along the whole
30-metre beach frontage under the palm trees and extending around the
chic bar area and open kitchen to the main restaurant structure. And this
building is completely open on two sides allowing the cooling sea breezes
to waft through aided by swirling overhead fans, with the other two sides
having attractive louvred shutters, giving a Continental touch to the whole
affair. Hanging lanterns and discreet spotlights gently illuminate everything,
whilst spacious seating and attentive uniformed staff add the final touches
of elegance and style. But, although this is a lovely restaurant, most diners
opt for the outdoor beachside tables – and who can blame them!
No risks so far with the location and ambience, and that guarantee of
satisfaction carries on into the food. The Beach Club offers several exciting
set menus in three individual types of cuisine. Firstly, there’s the ‘Betelnut
Dinner Menu’ presenting three 2-course sets, each course with a choice of
four dishes. As an example, for the ‘Betelnut Royal Set Menu’ you could
select the delicious Sesame Crusted Salmon Katsu with wasabi aioli as the
appetiser, and the outrageously tasty Australian Lamb Rack with green
beans, curried potato mash and white balsamic for main course.
Then we have the ‘Thai Dinner Menu’ which, again, presents three
2-course set meals including the ‘Sensation Thai Set Menu’ where you can
choose between two appetisers and four mains. A recommended pairing
would be the authentic Tom Kah Gai – chicken soup with lemon-grass and
coconut milk, and the traditional Thai favourite Pla Pad Klern Chay – stirfried
fish with celery, ginger and soy sauce served with steamed jasmine
rice. Both are great examples of how real Thai cuisine should be. (which is to be expected here considering that the highly acclaimed Thai chef, Khun Kanchana Ubolsootvanich (Khun Tim) is in charge of the kitchen brigade at The Beach Club).
“... but, although this is a lovely restaurant, most diners opt for
the outdoor beachside tables – and who can blame them!”
Next, we have the ‘Beach Club BBQ Seafood Selection’ which has two
sets for one and two sets for two. The ‘Seafood BBQ Set 3’ (for 2 persons)
includes a whole Phuket lobster, six tiger prawns, four New Zealand green
lip mussels, one fillet of snapper, one local calamari, one crab and two Surat
Thani oysters all served with either steamed rice or baked potatoes, a side
salad plus sauces and dips. Phew! There should be enough there to keep
you going for a while.
And, finally, there’s the ‘Beach Club Cold Seafood Selection’, offering
three seafood platters all served on ice with French bread and a side salad
plus dips and sauces. Again, there’s a wide variety of seafood on offer, this
time in two ‘Seafood Platters’ for one, and one ‘Seafood Platter’ for two.
What with the lovely beachside location, the excellent cuisine and the
second-to-none service, The Beach Club certainly delivers the goods and
the only surprises are good ones. Especially the one that comes when you
receive your bill and discover that not only is it incredibly low for what
you’ve just had, but that there are no surcharges added for tax and service
either!
It would be hard to find another beachside restaurant of this calibre
in Chaweng that offers such terrific value-for-money which makes it even
more highly recommendable than it would be anyway, and is definitely
well worth a visit. | 
