COCONUTS HOT SPOT – A trip to the zoo is good fun, but how about a trip to the zoo after a few brews? A Lad Phrao bar named Alpaca View offers an experience similar to this, and as a result, it’s quickly becoming a go-to drinking spot for farm animal enthusiasts and itinerant partygoers alike.
The resort-style experience Alpaca View specializes in is similar to Swiss Valley in Ratchaburi or Sheep Land in Khao Yai. The property is massive by Bangkok standards and its facades are defined by faux-country Americana flourishes. For sanitation reasons, the farm animals are kept a safe distance from the eating area, but they’re within earshot, and their hoots, howls and growls serve as a constant reminder of their presence.
Come with your family for dinner, or late at night with friends to have a few brews and chuckle at goats making human-like noises. The bar officially closes at 1am, but there are reports of it staying open until the rooster gives a wake-up call. Recommended dishes include the kung rad sauce alpaca (unpeeled shrimp with a spicy-sweet sauce), or the salmon zap ver – a comically named, smoked salmon dish awash in spicy seafood sauce. The German pork leg at is done right, but make sure you have a big appetite before ordering.
The drink selection here isn’t anything special; Alpaca View offers the usual too-sweet cocktails, local Thai beers, Heineken, Hoegaarden and Hoegaarden Rosé. There is one beer in particular to stay away from, however: The “Holland Beer” on tap does not exactly do justice to its namesake or “European” heritage. It’s actually a locally produced beer that falls short of its Dutch forebears.
These minor shortcomings, however, are easily overlooked when it sinks in that you are in the presence of alpacas. And even if Alpacas don’t ring your bell, there are plenty of goats, sheep, rabbits, ducks, horses and pigs on hand to whet your pastoral appetite.
Alpaca View often hosts mini-concerts, featuring the likes of Tha Endorphin and Nuvo. Keep an eye on the venue’s Facebook page for opportunities to indulge in a late night trifecta of jamming out, drinking, and petting sheep.
FIND IT:
Alpaca View is located on the soi known as “Wang Hin,” off of Kaset-Nawamin
