PJ's Steak and Rib Grill
19/35 Sukhumvit Soi 31
Bangkok
Tel: (02) 259 9138

Many people will remember PJ from his various bar-related roles. His first being Boss Hog’s whipping boy when he ran Big Dogs and then later, Bully's.
Finally he left the ungrateful Hog and joined the No Name Group as manager of Lucky Luke's. Unfortunately LL turned out to be a challenge too far: in making the bar successful PJ also made himself ill.
While spending long hours sitting drinking with customers makes good business sense it also keeps the doctors, and all too often the undertakers, rich.
Thankfully, PJ recovered from a stroke and took up a position helping out at the Old Dutch. By then the No Name Group, realising they had diligent and caring manager on their hands, decided to move into the restaurant (as opposed to bar) business proper and bought a defunct Italian restaurant and re-branded it as a steak and grill house called PJ's.
I have been a few times to the place since it opened, but this time decided to really test it by taking a large Scot on the way to a crash diet in the oil fields.
The menu is as the name suggests and strong on grills, but there is also a good starters section and plenty of Thai dishes. PJ suggested various specials but in the end we stayed with the menu.
As the first course we had garlic prawns and green mussels. Garlic is clearly the strong suit here: not only were the prawns covered in garlic butter and chopped garlic, but the mussels were much the same. And if that wasn’t enough, a whole roast garlic was put in the table.
This is what I would call comfort food. Not very sophisticated and I suppose downright old fashioned in this era of rocket and jus with everything. But both of us thoroughly enjoyed it.
We had a small slab of ribs between us as a middle course. These had the meat literally falling of them and came with a spicy BBQ sauce: again simple, easy and tasty.
For mains we decided, predictably, on steak, with the Scotsman going for the rib eye and I for the New York Strip. I know the selection of steaks for both taste and texture is taken very seriously and these were what I'd call “proper” in that they had real taste and enough chewiness to make certain the chewer knew he was eating a steak. Sometimes steak is tenderised to nothing.
My one disappointment was the vegetables that while decently al dente were buttered and garliced. I think I would have preferred a little rocket and maybe just a plain jus!
So, PJ's is exactly what it says it is: a good steak house with some interesting starters. It's a little old fashioned maybe but, hey, so am I, and I rather like it.
PJ's is about simple food not presentation.