We were supposed to go to Sukhumvit soi 38 night market but it was raining that evening so we detoured to Joom Zap Hut (Terminal 21). Joom Zap Hut is a place for Thai hotpot. It’s a chain restaurant available at major shopping malls. The difference between Chinese and Thai hotpot to me is the soup base and sauce. Chinese soup bases can be herbal, chicken, Sichuan, mushroom, and some places may have laksa, porridge, milky fish, bak kut Teh (like Jpot). Sauces in Chinese hotpot are mainly soy, chili paste, shacha paste, sesame oil, chili oil, garlic oil, with coriander, sesame seeds, and garlic. Some also add additional cut chili. Thai hotpot sauce is more tangy and spicy. If I recall correctly, there weren’t any choices for soup base.

The restaurant was spacious and quite packed on the hotpot side. This picture was taken at the bar-b-q plaza side. It’s joined with Joom Zap Hut but patrons having BBQ were seated at the BBQ side.

Mascot of the restaurant

The menu was in English but we were with some Thai friends so left the ordering to them. We had a mild tom yum soup base (soup did not have strong tom yum flavor nor was it spicy or tasty). There were also condiments for the sauce/ soup – Chinese parsley (which I did not fancy), fried onions (which I’m not too keen as I only consume if it’s home made), sesame, chili flakes, and ground rice powder (love the rice powder).

Personally I found the entire meal to be average. Side dishes were pretty decent (we had seafood spring roll and grilled pork jaw which I loved). Pork balls and squid were good. However, the soup was quite bland, the beef looked a little stale on the edges, vege which looked like water spinach (kang kong/ morning glory) was tough.

However, good company made the meal pleasurable!