PASTA E BASTA Italian Restaurant - Best Italian Food in Rayong with Original Carbonara!

PASTA E BASTA is an authentic Italian restaurant owned by a true Italian gentlemen and guys, who would’ve thought that you could find the most incredible traditional recipe carbonara all the way out here in Rayong? I certainly didn’t!

I was on a weekend trip to visit my girlfriend at her workplace in Rayong, with Rayong being a beachside town, I was totally expecting to gorge myself on endless amounts of fresh seafood, what I didn’t expect was my girlfriend bringing me to this little hidden Italian gem.

Oh, and don’t worry, I did get to eat plenty of mouthwatering seafood at the relaxing beachside Cher Cher Seafood Restaurant.

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Specialty Meats and Italian Authenticity

condiments and sauces — *All the sauces you can imagine, plus their homemade dry chili infused olive oil*

PASTA E BASTA is well known amongst the local community for two things:

Their incredibly delicious and authentic homemade Italian food
Their homemade cured and smoked meats like their heavily advertised Italian sausage, and their Capocollo, their cured pork neck

You can be guaranteed that every single dish at PASTA E BASTA follows an authentic Italian recipe, which is quite rare to find in Thailand as most Italian restaurants here alter their recipes to fit the Thai palette, or have recipes that don’t resemble real recipes at all.

An example that I would like to point out is PASTA E BASTA’s “Original Carbonara”. You might be familiar with Carbonara that has cream added, especially here in Thailand, but did you know that true Carbonara is made from raw egg yolk and no cream? Yep, PASTA E BASTA offers the original Carbonara recipe, although the cream-ed version is still there if you want it (which you don’t).

What I find interesting was despite being an authentic Italian restaurant, when I visited, none of the patrons were westerners, let alone Italian. I found it quite strange to be honest, I noticed that the diners there were Filipino, Chinese, and of course Thai, but there were no westerners to be found…

PASTA E BASTA Menu

PASTA E BASTA’s menu is huge and it doesn’t help that there aren’t any pictures, so if you don’t know what a Pasta Amatriciana looks like, well then too bad, the only way to find out is to order it and see for yourself.

Some of the things you can find on the menu are:

Pastas (of course)
Pizza (duh)
Steaks
Salads
Cured Meats
Charcuterie Boards

There is a lot to flip through.

Pricing

To locals, the price might look expensive, I thought so too but don’t worry as the portions are big, seriously a salad could already fill you up. You can expect to pay around 300+ THB for a plate of pasta but prices can go up to 800+ THB for the steak or a charcuterie board full of cured meats.

For the quality and quantity, I’d say the price is completely fair.

Unassuming Complimentary Bread

Alright, we didn’t order the bread, the bread was complimentary. Ok, so why am I reviewing bread? How good can a simple piece of bread be?

The bread is f*cking phenomenal.

I don’t know if it was because I was hungry and I have been waiting for about an hour for my food but the complimentary bread at PASTA E BASTA is amazing. It’s served with butter for spreading but I enjoy eating it with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The bread had been toasted a little bit to give the outer crust a little crunch, while the inside is warm, soft, and chewy. It’s similar to a baguette in taste and texture.

Heck, I think this bread is better than the bread you find at 80% of the bakeries in Thailand.

Imagine that, my palette is so simple that I am impressed by a piece of bread.

This meal is off to a great start.

Homemade Smoked Ham Salad

We’ve come to our actual appetizer, the homemade smoked ham salad. A base of bright green lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and onions are topped with layers of beautiful smoked ham. All of it is finished with a special drizzle of a sweet and sour salad dressing.

The salad was refreshing, I especially liked the sourness in their dressing. Many of you might know that I don’t like raw tomatoes, but I can get behind these cherry tomatoes, so juicy with just the right level of tart.

The ham left me a little bit disappointed however, I was more wowed by the quantity they gave rather than the flavor. I found the taste quite bland and mild, not a lot of smoke-y or salty flavor you might expect from this kind of meat. The ham was meaty though, giving it a satisfying chew.

Homemade Italian Sausage and Cherry Tomato Pizza

For someone who doesn’t like raw tomatoes, I sure am eating a lot of them today.

There were so many pizza options to choose from, but we narrowed it down to the Italian Sausage and Cherry Tomato. Being a fancy restaurant outside of Bangkok, I was half expecting the pizza to be one of those tough thin crusted dough disks that tastes like it comes from the freezer isle.

But no, the pizza was the real deal! The crust was crispy, and crunchy from the oven, while the dough gives a little chew.

I like how they were generous with the tomatoes and how it was thrown in after the pizza had been cooked so the tomatoes retain their freshness.

The pizza was delicious, my favorite pizza outside of Bangkok, in fact maybe my second favorite pizza of all time. My first spot, of course belonging to Ranee’s in Bangkok’s Khao San Road.

Original Carbonara (No Cream)

Finally we come to the reason why I am even writing about PASTA E BASTA, the Original (or traditional) Carbonara.

As mentioned before, traditional carbonaras are made with egg yolk, no cream is used. Although the recipe isn’t wholly traditional as PASTA E BASTA uses bacon instead of the traditional pancetta, but I can understand that that ingredient can be hard to find especially outside of Bangkok.

The original carbonara was extremely flavorful and despite having no cream, very creamy. I think the pasta noodles are store bought, but honestly it’s so good that it doesn’t matter.

Scattered throughout the carbonara sauce are slices of garlic that give the dish a wonderful aroma, extra olive oil is also drizzled on top for an extra aromatic punch.

I love the bacon here as well, they’re very meaty pieces and not too salty, the flavors are all well balanced.

I love the carbonara so much that I used the bread to mop up all the sauce, no sauce goes to waste!

Conclusion

Pros

The menu is large, so many things to try and so much variety in the dishes.
The portions are large, the salad can feed 2 people.
Price is very affordable and fair for the quality and quantity of food you are getting.
Homemade dishes, especially the Italian meats
The pizza dough is light, airy, and chewy. It’s hard find this type of quality pizza in Thailand.

Cons

Walk in only, no reservations. Be prepared to wait if you come during peak hours.
Long wait times for food, there is only one chef.

Overall I highly recommend you give PASTA E BASTA a visit whenever you are in Rayong. Not only will you be met by the best homemade Italian food you’ll find in Rayong, you’ll also find that the portions are large and the prices are affordable. The menu is also massive so you’ll never run out of things to try.

The quality at PASTA E BASTA is immaculate, I appreciate their use of fresh ingredients and and their dedication to producing everything from scratch such as their cured meats.

The only downside to PASTA E BASTA is that they do not accept reservations, and that the food took quite a while to come out, the waitress told us that there was only one chef working in a restaurant where all the tables are full.

PASTA E BASTA | 9 / 10

Phone: -

Location: 32 14 Adulthamprapas, Tambon Pak Nam, Mueang Rayong District, Rayong 21000

Opening Hours: 4:00PM - 10:30PM | Mon - Sun (Closed Tue)

Pricing: 250++ THB | $$$

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