After we had completed the winery tour at PB Valley Winery, we headed for lunch at The Great Hornbill located at the lobby of the said winery. The Great Hornbill is one of the highly recommended restaurants around Khao Yai. The restaurant was jam packed with tourists enjoying lunch before and after the tour at the time we were there.
THE GREAT HORNBILL
Moo 5, Mittaphap Road, Tambon, Amphoe, 102/2, Phaya Yen, Pak Chong District, Nakhon Ratchasima 30320, Thailand
There were three dining areas allocated for The Great Hornbill. They had two indoors dining areas and an outdoor one whereby you get to enjoy a large green landscape view while having your meal. All the dishes on their menu came stated with recommended in-house wines to pair with their food.
As we intended to go for an early dinner at Baan Mai Chay Nam Museum & Restaurant in the evening, we ordered lunch in moderation. So, we got two appetizers and a main course to share.
Passion Fruit Juice | ฿70
Cream of Mushroom Soup | ฿140
This was seriously good. It was creamy and you get to bite into mushroom chunks at the same time. I liked that it wasn’t creamy with excessive of cream content. The garlic bread was spot on as well and paired so well with the soup.
Avocado Salad | ฿280
avocado and zucchini salad with crab stick, shrimp roe and creamy dressing
Sister went clean eating with their Avocado Salad and requested for the dressing to be served separately. The greens were fresh and crispy at the same time. All the greens were locally home grown.
Phad Thai Goong | ฿280
fried rice noodle with prawn, egg, bean curd, bean sprout, red wine Phad Thai sauce and grounded peanuts
As Mom is a noodle person as compared to rice, we got her Phad Thai Goong to which she couldn’t finish. Both Sister and I helped ourselves with the large prawns on her palate. LOL! The large prawns were fresh. The flesh were juicy and yet tender at the same time. The main highlight of the Phad Thai Goong was the red wine Phad Thai sauce in my opinion. It was spicy enough for my liking. We got to bite into halved grapes in the noodle. The texture of the rice noodle was well done and had the slightly chewy texture which I love.
After we were done with our late lunch, we left to look for our driver and moved on to the next attraction of the day. On the way to The Chocolate Factory, our driver dropped us off at local produce market. All the produces were homegrown. They even have a kiosk selling ice-creams which I did not get around to try them as we just had our lunch at The Great Hornbill.
This was what I bought from the local produce market. It was the colors of the bread which caught my attention. It was retailed at ฿80 per packet if my memory serves me well and it came along with a small container of complimentary Thai Milk Tea Custard Spread which was more than enough for the six slices of bread. For your information, the purple colored bread was made of sweet potatoes and pumpkin for the yellow one. We had them for breakfast the next morning and they were good with soft and fluffy texture.
We moved on to The Chocolate Factory after the local produce market. The place was so crowded with several huge tourist buses parked at the roadside. We didn’t buy anything from The Chocolate Factory as we are way past the age for chocolate craving. LOL! However, we witnessed a bit of how the chocolates were made.
The chocolates looked so good but the pricing was steep as well! We toured The Chocolate Factory for a short bit before returning to the car for the last destination of the day – Baan Mai Chay Nam Museum & Restaurant for dinner. The place is famous among the locals and foreigners. You get to see antics which you probably had never seen before. What’s so special about the said restaurant aside from the antics bit is that you get to enjoy dinner with a river view in spite that the color of the river may not be appealing at all!
BAAN MAI CHAY NAM MUSEUM & RESTAURANT
21, Mittaphap Road, Tambon Pak Chong, Amphoe Pak Chong, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30130, Thailand
PS: Baan Mai Chay Nam Museum & Restaurant is a non-Halal restaurant as pork and liquors are served.
You can choose to explore the place before or after meal. The place is extremely spacious with different antics at every corner of the place. Even the washrooms were decorated with a magical feel. They were not like the typical washrooms you had seen in the other restaurants.
“Marilyn Monroe” with flying dress at the entrance into the restaurant. A part of the restaurant was decorated to be an arcade whereby you get to play with the games stationed.
Before entering the restaurant, we got a table number from an usher located before the entrance. That piece of paper is a printed number of your table. We got Table 28 but it was occupied at the time we got to the table. So, we moved to Table 26 instead.
Without further ado, let’s get started with the food pictures.
Anything served at Baan Mai Chay Nam Museum & Restaurant is chargeable. They charged ฿30 for a bucket of ice. Mom actually requested for a few pieces of ice cubes to cool down her burning tongue but the waitress came with a bucket instead. Both Sister and I ordered this glass bottle of Coke to share as it looked so old school as compared to the tin ones that we were accustomed to.
Tom Yam Goong | ฿200
First dish to arrive at our table was their Tom Yam Goong. It was extremely spicy for our taste buds. They were generous with the shrimps. The shrimps were fresh too. Despite the spiciness which was beyond my regular threshold, I find it addictive and kept going back for me in spite of the coughing after every few slurps. LOL!
Fried Rice | ฿150
fried rice with shrimp/pork/crab/chicken/gourami fish/fermented pork
The restaurant serves Fried Rice in three sizes – small, medium and large. We went for medium as large would be too much for the three of us. We had our fried rice with pork. The rice was well flavored with the “wok hei” that I love. However, it was tad bit oily for my liking. The pork slices were extremely tender.
Prawn Cake | ฿150
It was Fish Cake which we ordered but it was Prawn Cake which arrived. At first, we thought that their version of Fish Cake was different compared to the regular ones that we got from the night market. The filling was sweet (not sugary kind of sweet), soft and juicy.
The Prawn Cake paired really well with the sweet chili sauce dipping. Despite that Mom always complained about mouth ulcers for having deep fried food, she couldn’t help herself and ate quite a fair share of the Prawn Cake. So, you know they were good!
Deep Fried Pork Belly with Basil Leaves | ฿180
I was looking for Thai Basil Chicken but couldn’t seem to find this specific dish on their menu. I asked the waitress what dish do they have that comes with basil leaves and this was one of those which she recommended. It was good in spite of the oiliness. The sauce was slightly spicy but the aroma from the basil leaves was good!
This fluffy little creature greeted us shortly after we walked out of the restaurant. The owner even tied tiny knots of ponytails on the top of her head. She doesn’t seem to be shy among strangers and even walked to strangers waiting to be petted. She would take a few steps forward every few minutes with four legs sprawled on the floor like the picture above.
So, this pretty much summed up our second day in Khao Yai. Do stay tune for our last day in Khao Yai.
DAILY SNIPPETS OF LIFE 