“I’m proud to have introduced Norwegian food culture into Thailand,” says restaurant owner Linda Eiksund.
For a decade Aquavit has been served in Linda’s Restaurant in Pattaya. On Christmas Eve 2015 they will cheer in the Norwegian schnapps to celebrate their tenth anniversary of the restaurant. Combining two symbolic days requires a great celebration, and with space for 200 guests, the culinary landmark in Thailand will do its best to satisfy their guest as they have been doing since day one.
“Our birthday is on Christmas day, and we will celebrate together with our customers with birthday cake and sparkling wine.” And of course, a lot of traditional Norwegian Christmas dishes!
Linda Eiksund is half Norwegian and half Chinese, and lived 20 years in Norway. She wanted to present her beloved Norwegian cuisine to Asia. On Christmas Eve 2005 she opened her restaurant at Jomtien Beach in Pattaya.
“For me the highest pleasure is to present the Norwegian dishes for others. We were very lucky with the restaurant from the beginning, and we achieved popularity from both the Scandinavian and Thai society here”.
Opening a restaurant was not even on the drawing table when Linda moved to Thailand 11 years ago.
“When I moved to Thailand I told all my friends and family that I was going to retire and be a normal housewife”.
But after one year, Linda established what is now one of the landmark restaurants in Pattaya.
“I realised I was too young to only go shopping and doing house works. Even though the world’s economic future looked quite downhill, I wanted to do something. I wanted to give people the chance to taste Norwegian food”.
Linda’s Restaurant was born, and has since then continued to find pleasure in giving their customers higher standards as they could improve as time went by.
According to Linda it is specially the Thai ladies who love the Norwegian menu at Linda’s Restaurant. The Norwegian salmon is their number one favorite. Linda agrees with them.
“Honestly, no doubt my favorite food is Norwegian food. Nothing beats our Fresh Airborne Norwegian Salmon from the Norwegian Fjords”.
The menu is based on the mountains and fjords of Norway and consists of every specialty and festive dish from the cold country in the North. Over the years she has established a more modern menu considering the constant development of new recipes, and added both Thai and international dishes. However it is still the Norwegian dishes such as “fårikål”, “lutefisk”, lamb meat and “pinnekjøtt” that are bestsellers.
In addition to fulfilling guests’ craving for a Norwegian dinner the restaurant also arrange small and big parties as well as Christmas arrangements and traditional ”julebord”.
Linda loves to celebrate all the typical Norwegian holidays and festivals, which makes the restaurant a great place to gather with good friends, family and the marvelous Norwegian cuisine. Linda’s appreciates the many years of making hungry guests happy and satisfied, and the tenth anniversary is set to be a huge feast where they will show their gratitude for the last decade.
“Without the great help from my staff and friends around me it would not have been possible to have achieve where Linda’s Restaurant stands today. Together we will continue to improve the restaurant as we have always done”.
