Tawandang German Brewery
462/61 Narathiwat Road,
Rama 3, Yannawa
Bangkok 10120
Tel: 02-678 1114/6
Website

The popularity of large venues catering to thousands of guests is not new to the City of Angels. In the good old days most popular among them was a row of seafood restaurants that stretched out into the Chao Phya River where one could enjoy some properly chilled liquid refreshment accompanied by an assortment of Thai spicy salads while watching the sun go down. It was indeed a memorable experience to sit there sipping a cool drink of choice while watching a succession of boats lazily glide by. However, with the infinite wisdom of modern urban planning, these have all now been replaced by condos.
The brew pub concept first arrived in Bangkok in the early 90's with the establishment of Paulaner on the basement floor of President Park in Sukhumvit Soi 24. Immensely popular when it first opened, it gradually withered and disappeared after a few short years. This was unexpected as Paulaner had everything going for it; good home brewed beer and authentic tasting German brauhaus style cooking, particularly the sausages, the making of which was carefully overseen by an army of imported German experts. The location was right and the prices, although slightly expensive in the day, were bearable. The only thing the venue lacked was entertainment, more importantly the kind of entertainment that keeps Thai people coming back time and again for more.
That brings us to the subject of our visit to one of the few remaining brew pubs that is actually making beer on the premises, Tawandang near Rama III Road . Established six years ago in 2000, Tawandang is a large venue and you guessed it: is very popular with the locals due primarily to the right kind of entertainment. There are three types of beer brewed on the premises, Lager, Dunkel and Weizen. In the true spirit of doing in depth research for you our dear readers, there was no choice but to try them all. They are available in containers that range from 0.33L to 5L. The lager was uninspired and forgettable while the weizen can best be described as a distant cousin to it's teutonic forebearers. The dunkel was reasonably palatable and did a good job of washing away the taste of the not-so-authentic tasting German sausages. In a word the beers were rough. Not necessarily bad, but don't expect to be whisked away to beer drinking heaven when you order one either.
On the recommendation of a rather attentive member of the 300 strong waiting staff a plate of German sausages was ordered from the house specials menu. Five different sausages with names like Nurnburger and Bier Knacker arrived promptly and although the taste was not offensive in any way, it sure as death and taxes wasn't anywhere near authentic German. But then again if you've never tried authentic German sausages and your best reference is cheese bites from seven eleven, how would you ever know the difference? Besides, after downing a few Dunkels such minor details could easily be overlooked. The sauerkraut was surprisingly good and I was assured by the same attentive staff member that all condiments including the ketchup and mustard were made fresh in-house. The mustard was actually very good and did it's best to lift the somewhat bland taste of the sausages up a notch. Once again they were not necessarily bad, but you won't be whisked off to German sausage heaven either, if there even is such a thing.
The entertainment at Tawandang has for many years focused on Bruce Gaston and the Fong Nam band. Cleverly mixing traditional Thai and modern western music while ensuring a good supply of the latest pop hits in between kept the crowds coming back week after week. Fong Nam have now been moved to the new Tawandang out in the boonies and the current roster features over half a dozen singers that come out and do one song at a time. The backing band is large, they have two percussionists not just one, and despite an unsatisfactory mix were very entertaining. The range of music took us from 'sipping ripple wine down in the lightnin' bar' to a Thai country style tune called 'Shake Your Breasts A Lot'. I'm not making that up either, and the girl who came out with two enormous rubber breasts strapped on to what one can only assume were her own not-quite-making-the-grade pair proves it. Besides we all know it would be completely illegal for her to actually show her breasts on stage here in Thailand anyway, right?
The various singers were all talented with good strong voices that suited the style of music they performed. The girls wore tiny skirts and showed enough bare waist and navel to be considered on the cutting edge of modern Thai fashion by the mainly conservative middle class audience that filled the cavernous room. The younger guys had the right haircuts that made them look like Japanese cartoon characters whereas the Thai folk and morlam singers looked either like poor country bumpkins or successful country bumpkins. Make no mistake: this was a good show. The delivery was akin to being in the ring with Mike Tyson in his prime, but without the risk of having your ear bitten off. The audience was not allowed a moments rest and the amount of dunkels being downed did their bit to contribute to the party atmosphere where safety in numbers and being surrounded by friends led to more than one young lady being filmed and projected onto the big screen while doing dance moves I'm not so sure her parents would approve of. In other words, despite the slight disappointment in the not so authentic German taste of the viands and brew, I had a blast watching the people genuinely having dunkel inspired fun and could not help but laugh in wonder at the play list and the way it was put together. If you want to impress that special local young lady or gent look no further for dinner and entertainment under one roof. Get the Dunkel going and you might even get lucky.