Barracuda Beer Bar

Naklua Road, Pattaya

NESTLED in between tailors’ shops and Russian restaurants sits Barracuda, a welcoming, laid-back beer bar.

It’s a reassuringly honest, walk-in place where a central C-shaped bar is the dominant feature, or maybe it’s the girls who wait the other side of it.

Service is friendly and beer is cheap, 70 baht for a bottle or 35 baht for a Coke. If you can contend with the endless stream of locals trying to sell you DVDs, cigarette lighters, and other tat, then you can easily spend a contented hour or so here. Not only are the girls friendly, they have an impressive array of liquor, and know their JD from their Jameson. Behind the street-side pub is a secondary bar, with a red-baize pool table in one corner. If you’re feeling brave, then you can challenge one of the girls to a game, but be warned: they practise a lot!

Many drinkers choose to start their evening here before moving on elsewhere, but it really livens up later on and you can usually find English-speaking comrades with which to down your Beer Chang.

Incidentally, Barracudas are thin, attractive creatures that are capable of snaring prey several times their own size. Just a thought…