PaiGu

Ah Loy Thai is one of the best rated Thai restaurants in Singapore according to HungryGoWhere, so it definitely merited a visit. The problem was, it closes quite early in the evenings (8pm on weekdays, 7pm on weekends) so it took me two visits before I managed to have a meal there.

Following reviewers’ recommendations, we had their Thai red tea, lemongrass drink, butter calamari, pad thai, pandan chicken and crispy fish.

I could understand why some reviewers wrote that the butter calamari was sin. The calamari was very crunchy and drenched in butter. I thought there was actually too much oil/butter, or perhaps this dish was just too sinful for me.

The pad thai noodles were al dente and cooked just right. They weren’t sticking together in clumps, they weren’t too oily, and they were still chewy. My only qualm is that they added a lot of dried shrimp to the dish, which made it very fishy. I think Asians must like that fragrance, but I don’t.

Pandan chicken was a little over-done. They deep-fried the chicken and leaves together, and some parts were charred. The taste was pretty good, but it would have been better if the chicken was still tender.

The sweet and sour crispy fish had a spicy kick. Reviews had said the fish was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Although the crispy outside was good, I thought this was over-fried as well, as the meat of the fish was not that tender.

The Thai red tea could have been quite nice but it was made too sweet. Service was decent by Singapore standards, although you had to be assertive to get what you wanted (and it is possibly easier to get what you want if you speak Mandarin). Patrons of this restaurant are often warned of the queue for tables and then the wait for the food. Although this place can certainly satisfy my Thai craving, I’m not entirely sure it is worth the wait.

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Thai Thai is a gorgeous, classy restaurant tucked away in the Mandarin Gallery that I discovered one day entirely by accident. It is adorned in regal purple, with colourful pillows and elegant chandeliers.

Adorned in soft pastel tones, comfy high-backed seats, crisp white tablecloths, and with a warm light descending from ornate chandeliers, this intimate restaurant is more akin to a king’s palatial tearoom. Source: Time Out

I couldn’t have described it better myself. Service is extremely attentive, among the best I’ve experienced in Singapore. They also happen to have delicious Thai food, the kind that will be featured in recurring dreams afterward (I should know).

Pandan chicken is well-seasoned and very tender. Fantastic with the sweet Thai sauce.

The menu called this “Shrimp with coconut strips” but it did not prepare us for what came out. It was more like shrimp cake, with coconut strands in the batter, but after frying, there was no fragrance from the coconut at all, which was a little disappointing. The shrimp cake was executed well but the batter itself was just average.

Traditional duck in red curry is the dish that I dreamed about after my first visit, and was the object of my return visit. The first time we had it, the duck was tender and succulent. There were also many ingredients in the curry that surprised and delighted us, like pineapples and grapes for a sweet taste. The second time we ordered this dish, the duck was tough to chew and the vegetables in the curry were under-cooked. The curry paste itself was good, but overall the dish was a bit disappointing.

Pad thai came with truly enormous prawns, that were less appetizing in real life than in photos. The pad thai itself was very well executed though, with a harmonious blend of sweet and sour.

Custard with roasted pumpkin and ice cream was a unique dessert that initially surprised my taste buds, but after I got used to the custard-pumpkin combination, I really liked it. The ice cream, on the other hand, was supposedly vanilla but had a very bizarre after taste that made me think there had been an herb of some sort mixed into the vanilla.

Thai iced tea here is the best I’ve ever had. It is vaguely like bubble tea in that it’s black tea with milk and sugar syrup, but it is so much better than that.

This is a rather pricey joint if you have frequent Thai cravings like me, but I would definitely want to come back to try more of their menu. In future, I might only come for dinners as I have reason to suspect their chef skills are better for dinner than for lunch.

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I haven’t cooked once since I arrived in Singapore, not even to make rice (which you all know is like my life line). Apparently, eating out is the Singaporean lifestyle, since food is so cheap and plentiful. There are shopping complexes (with food courts, cafes, and restaurants) and hawker centers (outdoor food courts) everywhere. Literally, everywhere.

I have been eating all varieties of Asian food, from Indian roti prata to Singaporean laksa to Korean spicy soup to Chinese dim sum. And while I may have died and gone to Asian culinary heaven, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. Some of the longest lines were in front of the fish and chips joint, or the McDonalds, or the pasta place that serves only one type of pasta, or, god forbid, the sandwich shop (I mean, really? Sandwiches?). And that’s when I realized: Western food is really popular here. I don’t know if it’s because people actually think fish and chips tastes better than a bowl of curry, or if it’s because of the Asian mentality that “Western is better.” Probably the latter, I can’t imagine a ham sandwich competing with made-to-order roti prata on any scale.

Lunch/dinner at ThaiExpress, a popular chain ‘restaurant’ in Singapore. It can be found in many shopping complexes.

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