Dining Reviews

Praça Hua Hin restaurant review: First of all, Happy Hour Asia favours the fact that its breachfront restaurant, described as a ’Thai Izakaya’, fully seems to follow trend-setting The Standard brand’s approach of being other things than orthodox. Brining a ”modern twist” to Thai cuisine takes some courage, in particular when doing it in Thai people’s very own favourite holiday destination! But a brand like The Standard can do this with some ease, as guests coming to The Standard are probably more open-minded expecting non-confirmity and being surprised – but not without reviewing it with their discerning local tastes of course. As for tourists from overseas this will just be an alevated discovery of the Thai cuisine they to a large degree already love from the outset.

A ’Thai Izakaya’´is probably new to many though, and it is the Thai version of Japanese Izakaya, which means a “stay-drink-place” (an informal bar concept similar to for example Spanish tapas bars) – a spot where to grab a drink, settle in, and get comfortable. And the restaurant name Praça means plaza, and is presented as ”Hua Hin’s most stylish beach bar and restaurant – where street favorites meet refreshing boozy concoctions.”

So at Praça, The Standard Hua Hin hotel, guests are presented with reimagined street food favourites with a modern twist, and combined with cocktail pairings – a hard-to-find combination in the past, but now less surprising given the strong influx of bars and cocktails into the hotel scene in Southeast Asia in recent years! But reimagined Thai food paired with drinks is, at least for Happy Hour Asia, what makes it really interesting here.

Praça is open for sunset and dinner situated right by the beachfront and adjacent to the pool area on the premises of this downtown Hua Hin hotel. If arriving after dark reaching the restaurant is a short walk through and passing by the The Standard Hua Hin’s lobby and accommodation wings, on walkways passing through grass lawns with lots of lush gardens and very large old trees. It feels like being on a discovery visit into a hidden dreamscape.

The hotel have beautiful buildings with exteriors that certainly conform to Hua Hin’s signature Euopean/colonial summer house architecture – and that just feels so right, being in the spot that the hotel is, an area full of old world charm

Small and cosy, Praca is mostly al fresco, enclosed by green bushes, under huge old pine trees and with an original heritage veranda house as focal point (opposit the ocean as backdrop). It comes with wodden shutters and interiors. Between the elegant cottage and the beach is a platform with dining tables under thatch umbrellas.

Being offered a round white-grey table (decorated with a mushroom-shaped table lamp) on the porch (with pillars and vintage lamps) gives a bit more light to take photos, and where ceiling fans gives a bit of breeze in the warm tropical night – while mosquitos are also kept at bay with natural lemongrass kindly distributed by the waitress.

One type of chair on the porch comes in this of vintage style wood handicraft, with back support resembling a large leaf, or, if you like, one of thos vintage wooden fan blades.

Other seating choices include a double-seater beige rattan sofa and also some white-pink lovely, female retro seats by a round marble table. This is absolutely a cool juxtaposition of vintage and retro (particularly on the retro front The Standard brand is reviving these 50s/60s design to great effect)!

‘You Need A Drink’ the menu tells me, and where the cocktail is in the same menu as the food, indicating that, indeed, drinks are an essential part of the experience here. I certainly do (need a drink), having spent many hours travelling during the day. And here the discovery truly begins, since no less than four cocktails can be included in the ’Praca – Thai Izakaya Discovery Set dinner’ package!

The cocktails also pay homage to unique ingredients found in Hua Hin and to start it all off it feels appropriate with something that includes pineapple, a fruit (along with coconut) extensively grown in the area: ’Holy Basil’, along with Raku gin, holy basil, galangal and lime. It turns out be according expectation – a refreshing beach gin drink!

Anyone curious – like Happy Hour Asia – on experiencing the actual drinks mixing up close, can walk into veranda house, where the bar takes centre-stage, decorated with a sea shell-inspired oval ceiling chandelier and rows of bottles behind and top of the bar counter. The interior comes with a tilted bamboo ceiling mat, blonde wood details as well as white wall planks.

The cocktail (and a few mocktails) menu comes with an intriguing list of Praça’s very own cocktails, and makes for bit of a guess work and curiosity regarding which drink might work well with certain dishes. Or else they can always be in-between dishes drinks.

Folling the gin drink, the first two dishes from the Thai Izakaya Discover Set are Esan tuna (Larb tuna tartare, black rice crackers) and Rak Bua Tod (vegetarian dish with fried lotus roots, nam prik ong dip sauce). The Thai take on a tartare is excellent in taste and texture and come with these tasty crackers. The fried lotus roots is tasty, with slight sweetness, and constitutes a great snack/tapas dish!

The next drink is quite ”plain” and turns out to be a great cleanser in-between dishes: ’Cheeky Monkey’ is its playful name – and based on the mild and popular whisky Monkey shoulder, with peanut butter and sesame salt.

The next two dishes brought to the table (one can of course also opt to have them all at once for sharing within a group of guests) are: Nuea Yang Yum A-ngoon (Spicy grilled beef salad, fresh grilled pickled grapes) and Krapao Taco Moo (Minced pork, crispy shell, holy basil). Adding pickled grapes is to this mouth-watering Thai dish with its distinct spice taste from fresh corander is very clever and makes into one of those dishes with a modern twist indeed. And the same goes for Krapao moo as tacos, with its dried holy basil leaves. So yummy!

Let’s now opt for something tasty and interesting as cocktail pairing! ’Rose Tinted Dreams’ seems very appealing and made with the interesting vodka Haku (Japanese and filtered through bamboo charcoal, with an “unparalleled soft, round, and subtly sweet taste”), blended with rosella and cherry blossom syrup, dragon fruit, lime soda. It comes out rosy red and with floating mini cubes of the fruit. Verdict: a very refreshing combined with and after consuming spicy food!

The last two dishes become three, because Praça serves an additional dish not included in the set, namely a second version of a bowl dish, which is Khao Pad Tom Yum Hoi Shell (Tom Yam fried rice, Thai scallop, salted egg). The Scallops makes this into a top of tops fried rice! Then, Moo Ping Bo Larn (Coconut crusted pork skewer, shallots, apple ajard, praca chili sauce) is grilled pork on a bed of sauce (served on a shiny greeen round plate), where the pork taste is top notch!

Finally, a Pad thai Hoi Tod Bo Larn (the famous stir-fried rice noodles, crispy Thai oyster, tamarind – chili sauce dish) comes served on a red plate, with the red chili sauce in a mini plate. What stands out here is the crispy oyster.

The last cocktail choice for the dinner falls on ’Ruby Sunbird’, made with Plantation original dark rum, Campari, pineapple and lime, served in a tropical style wooden cup.

In conclusion, the set is highly and happily recommended and with an innovative and impressive cocktail list to explore.

Praça is open daily, with drinks 4:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m., and last order 11:30 p.m; food 5:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. and last order 9:45 p.m. Enjoy cocktails or wine on the veranda from late afternoon and continue with modern Thai cuisine – a showcase for Thai dining at new heights and in a super relaxing summer vibe setting.