I’m lucky enough to get to visit Thailand a few times a year, in large part due to the fact that I’ve lived nearby in Cambodia and now the Philippines over the last few years. But it’s no exotic white-beach vacation when I visit because I usually just hang out with my two good buddies who live there in Jomtien.
Jomtien, only an hour and a half easy drive from Bangkok, is a quiet and slow-paced suburb of Pattaya, known as the Las Vegas of Thailand and one of the craziest party places on earth. But Jomtien, where both of my friends live, is a family-friendly community that spans a good 3 miles or more along the beach.
My Experience at Coffee and Sweets in Jomtien
So anyways, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of cafes and restaurants just in Jomtien, but my one buddy is such a creature of habit that he likes going to the same coffee shop every single morning. My other friend and I always joke about it, but once he finds a spot that he likes, he’s adamant about going there daily.
“This is the best curry in the world,” he’ll say as he drags us back to the same Thai café for lunch every day and orders the same thing, or “This all-you-can-eat sushi is too good to pass up!” You get the point. I think it’s a regimented thing since he’s a retired professional martial artist, but either way, he drags us to Coffee and Sweets in Jomtien every morning – and that’s not a bad thing.
This high-end coffee shop is located right along the beach road approximately in the center of stretched out Jomtien. So it offers a tremendous view of the line of planted palm trees in the boardwalk across the street, and then the beach and the ocean beyond.
It’s a really beautiful setup, and you can watch tourists walking their families to and from the beach, people splashing and playing in the ocean joyfully, foreigners jogging and walking up and down the boulevard, and local Thais pushing their carts or sitting in the shade selling beers, seafood, beach umbrellas to sit under, and the works.
So the view from Coffee and Sweets is the best part of the experience of going there, and they maximize it by having a great outdoor sitting area.
Out front, covered by a shade awning, they have three escalating wooden decks with nice white wooden tables and benches, as well as several chairs. They all have outdoor cushions, which makes it really nice to sit there and relax, but I do wonder why they don’t turn the tables perpendicular to the beach (they’re set up parallel) so both parties can get that nice view of the water.
When it comes to the coffee and…ok, the coffee and sweets, this café earns a solid B I’d say. They do have good lattes and cappuccinos and the like, and also mixed fruit smoothies. But the coffee is often not piping hot, and the smoothies can be a little sugary, so you have to be careful that they don’t add sugar or use syrup – a hard task with the language gap. They do display cakes and muffins and the like, but I haven’t tried them yet. But they do also have basic Thai food, and I’ve tried a few things and it’s not bad – but you can get better traditional Thai elsewhere. Their Western breakfasts are pretty good, too, but order a scramble or over easy egg because they won’t poach them right. Coffee and Sweets is also a little pricier than you’d like, but all of that is overlooked when you can sit outside and enjoy the terrific view.
Try it out day after day like we do with my friend and tell me what you think! Is it All World status?
About Norm Schriever
Norm Schriever is a blogger, Amazon best-sellling author, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. His work appears in the Huffington Post, Business.com, Good Morning America, The Anderson Cooper Show on CNN, NBC, MSN, Yahoo, Hotels.com, and media all around the world.
Norm grew up in Connecticut and graduated from the University of Connecticut, where he was never accused of overstudying. After expatriating to Costa Rica in 2011, he started traveling the world and documenting what he saw. He now lives in Southeast Asia, writing his heart out and working with local charities.
