DINING OUT - ENTERTAINMENT

Khun John’s Lakeside Restaurant - and you don’t have to go by boat

by Miss Terry Diner

Around the Maprachan Reservoir is a winding road running around the perimeter (runs to the left off Siam Country Club Road, after the Horseshoe Point turn-off on the right). About eight km after the turn-off look for a large sign on the right showing you have come to Khun John’s Restaurant (formerly known as Siriporn Restaurant and one that we reviewed over two years ago).

The “ranch style” building is set back from the road, with parking in front. At one end is a glassed-in air conditioned section, while at the other is an open sala style complete with bar and overhead fans, and the kitchen facility, run by “Bird” is in the middle. The staff are all young and enthusiastic and decked out in tropical uniforms. English is not all that well spoken, but restaurant owner Prasan is totally bilingual.

The menu is in Thai and English. It begins with beverages and small bottles of local beer are 45 baht or large at 80. From there it is into several photo pages, so you can use the choose and point method of ordering if needs be. Most are around 80 baht and include soups such as the well known tom kha gai or a shrimp soup with vegetables. There is also a spicy seafood salad and a country style red curry pork.

After the photo pages there is a page of shrimp and fish dishes (B. 100-250) with the shrimps (prawns) done in various ways and fish likewise.

The next page covers squid, crab and shellfish, mostly around B. 80, other than the crab dishes which are B. 250-350. This leads on to a page of assorted dishes, mainly stir-fries and generally B. 80 and then another page of fish dishes (B. 80-200) with plakapong and sea bass predominating. Finally there is another photo page with “finger” snacks (B. 80) as appetizers or as something to nibble on as the sun goes down over the reservoir.

Prasan does not have a wine list but has some Spanish wines (B. 650-850) and the white was perfectly pleasant and the slightly sweet taste fits well with Thai food which tends to be spicy. By the way, you can order the food “mai pet” (not spicy hot) if you like, but if you want the ultimate fire ask to try Prasan’s “Da Bomb - Beyond Insanity” chilli. Madame, who was Thai, took enough to cover the end of a toothpick and proclaimed it nuclear!

We had a number of dishes, in company with Prasan and a friend of his and began with a goong chai nam pla (raw prawns with garlic and sauce and is hot) and a white snapper done in garlic and pepper, which had thick fillets of fish and was excellent. For rice we chose chef Bird’s fried rice with chicken, and there was plenty of chicken meat in our servings.

The next dish was one I picked from the photo pages, a larb moo yang which is the northern larb style dish with slices of BBQ’d pork added. This was my dish of the night, all crunchy with lots of lemon juice. Loved it.

A deep-fried tarpian fish was also on our list; again a crunchy form of seafood and the final choice was fresh oysters on ice eaten with green vegetable and deep fried garlic. Prasan also had crab sticks with wasabe, which I just had to try, being a sucker for the addictive wasabe as any regular reader will know!

The Dining Out Team was staggered at just how this establishment has come on in the past two years. The enlarged facilities are good, the place is spotless and the food is excellent. The one factor that has not changed is the prices - still very, very reasonable. This is the ideal restaurant to show overseas visitors just what real Thai food is like. We loved the ambience and had a most enjoyable evening there. Highly recommended. Do try it, you will not be disappointed.

Khun John’s Lakeside Restaurant, 24/1 Moo 4, Tambon Pong, telephone 038 733 505, open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.