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.
