Tawandang German Brewery

The hall is built like a German bier-keller scaled up to Bangkok size: long tables, a stage at one end, the brewery's copper tanks behind a glass wall on the side. Three core beers: the Tawandang Weizen (Bavarian-style wheat, banana-and-clove, hazy, in a 0.5L tall glass), the Tawandang Pilsner (4.8%, clean), and the Tawandang Dunkel (5.2%, malty and smooth). All brewed on-site, all served properly cold.

The kitchen is enormous and does both German sausages and the kind of Thai food you would want with a German wheat beer — sticky rice and grilled chicken, fried morning glory, the spicier Issan dishes. The live-music programme runs every night with a thirty-piece house band that plays a mix of Thai pop, German oompah covers, and rock-and-roll. It works better than it should.

Tawandang is the right destination when you want the largest-scale Bangkok-beer-and-music experience in a single room. Groups of eight, two hours of music and food, three rounds of the Weizen. Reservations are essential on weekends; the hall fills by 8pm. Cover only on visiting-act nights.