Twenty8 Inn:
by Miss Terry Diner

The Twenty8 Inn had been open for one month when the youthful GM James Moore gave us an invitation to try their restaurant within this Jomtien boutique hotel.
The hotel is in the Soi Welcome Jomtien, on the left hand side of the soi around 80 meters from Jomtien Beach Road. It is easy to find, having a four shophouse frontage and a bright red awning over the open plan restaurant area at the front. The soi itself is a very busy one with many small restaurants on both sides. By the way, the name “Twenty8” comes from the fact that the hotel has 28 rooms, all themed as different countries.
We found it easy to park on the soi, but if there is congestion, the very large car park belonging to the Welcome Jomtien hotel is only 20 meters further up the soi.
The restaurant, which is called the Thai Bistro, is open to the street and the granite topped tables feature comfortable padded chairs. In the center of the area is a sit-up bar with colorful chairs, whilst carrying on through you come to small swimming pool, which restaurant guests, as well as hotel guests can use. A good place for the children to play. Off to the left side is the kitchen, which is behind glass, and is kept spotless. All this is rather comforting for the first-timer’s point of view.
There are three different menus - Western, Thai and Russian, and all offer a reasonable number of choices for the diners. In the Western menu, appetizers are all generally around B. 100 and includes shrimp cocktail, chicken tenders and spicy buffalo wings. Fresh salads are B. 110-120 and feature a chicken Caesar salad.
Being right in the ‘holiday’ area, there are sandwiches (B. 100-130) for those thinking of the beach and even English fish and chips done in beer batter with a choice of French or Belgian fries at B. 115.
There’s pasta (B. 100-120) and then a page of grilled items with most under B. 200, but steaks are at the premium end at B. 350 for the sirloin with baked potatoes and B. 420 for the T-bone.
Wines and beverages are also inexpensive with a bottle of eminently drinkable wine for B. 900 (Cackleberry Shiraz), and others even cheaper, but I know I can recommend the Cackleberry! Wine by the glass can be as low as B. 80 for the Italian house wine, though I would suggest the French wine by the glass at B. 140 a better buy.
The Thai menu has most items under B. 120 and has all the Thai favorites, such as chicken satays and tod mun goong (both at B. 90), or tom kha gai soup at B. 100. Other interesting Thai items included prawn with basil (kaprao goong at B. 140) and beef with oyster sauce (no chilli) at B. 120.
Madame chose the ‘Yum’ prawn salad and judged it to be very ‘yummy’, while I decided on the chicken cordon bleu which came with a very fresh (and delicious) salad and fries, and was a good sized serving.
At the end of our lunch, I wrote in my notes “good well-cooked food and excellent value.” That really sums it up. The venue is family oriented, children are catered for, and it is not expensive. My chicken cordon bleu was not overdone, as is so often the case, and was only B. 155 and Madame’s salad with plenty of prawns was B. 110. You cannot beat that for value, especially as the food was correctly cooked. I was told later that the chef was formerly at a leading Pattaya resort. He was certainly a good catch!
Would we recommend this restaurant to others? Yes we would, and will be back ourselves. So close to the Jomtien Beach, which is also children friendly, it deserves your trying this place. Your stomach will be well satisfied and your wallet will not be hurting at the end!
Twenty8 Inn, 334/41-42 Moo 12, Soi Welcome Jomtien, Jomtien Beach Road, telephone 038 232 834, website www.twenty8inn.com. Open from 7 a.m. for breakfast running through to 11 p.m. seven days and a Sunday Brunch as well.

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Thai-style Spanish Garlic Prawns

Garlic prawns are generally thought of as a Spanish dish, and is the type of food that everyone in the party has to have, with the pungent and all pervasive odour of garlic! This variation is interesting, as the addition of the coriander seems to take some of the pungency away – particularly of the “next day” variety.
Many brands of fish sauce are available at our local supermarkets, but I recommend the Tiparos brand as having a cleaner taste than some of the cheaper ones.

Ingredients                   serves 4 Garlic, crushed                   8 cloves Coriander root minced         2 tbspns Fish sauce                         2 tbspns Brown sugar                       2 tbspns White pepper                      ½ tspn Prawns, shelled de-veined    500 gms Oil for frying

Cooking Method
Remove the shells, heads and tails from the prawns and de-vein. Prepare a marinade by mixing together the crushed cloves of garlic (best accomplished by hitting the clove with the flat side of a Chinese chopper), the minced coriander root, fish sauce, brown sugar and pepper. Add the prawns and leave to marinate for one hour.
In the wok, heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, add the prawns and their marinade and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes until the prawns are just pink. Stir in the juice of a lemon and serve immediately in four small crockery soup bowls, pouring the liquid equally over each one.