Read full review
2021-05-30
1708 views
Summary: Good North Eastern Thai food place. If you're looking for high quality food (that comes with higher price of course), this is the place for you.The Goods: Good quality & authentic tasting food, with a bit of twist. Good fit out and also good service.The Bads: The aircon is very hot, and a bit pricy. I personally think the music is a bit too loud (but probably not for the other target customers).Damage: the two of us ordered 3 dishes to share, and no drinks (just tap water), the bill cam
The Goods: Good quality & authentic tasting food, with a bit of twist. Good fit out and also good service.
The Bads: The aircon is very hot, and a bit pricy. I personally think the music is a bit too loud (but probably not for the other target customers).
Damage: the two of us ordered 3 dishes to share, and no drinks (just tap water), the bill came to HKD412 (no service charge but I decided to give HKD20 as tip), that's HKD206 per person (not including tip). Although I will note that we were pretty full afterward.
As a Thai, I've been asked by my expats friends a lot if this restaurant is any good. It's been 5 years that I kept telling myself it's too expensive for me (I think Thai food should be affordable), but I finally gave it a try. It was a hot and sunny Saturday and so the walk from Sheung Wan station was not at all pleasant. Thinking my hot journey is finally over, the air-condition in the restaurant couldn't keep up with the blazing HK temperature! It was not hot, but it should be colder than that (I honestly was almost sweating). Think it's the problem with open kitchen that keeps drawing in new air from outside through the restaurant that's the culprit.
The fit-out is nice and has rustic feeling. Tables are not cramped together. The music and its loudness level made me feel like I'm in a bar situation, a bit loud but not to the point you can't talk. Also probably because my table is right next to the speaker. I checked out their website before going, and if you do, I will note that their 'lunch' menu is actually weekday lunch as that menu isn't anywhere to be seen on my visit (Saturday). Another note is that I find their menu very hard to read because there isn't an English name, and names spelt in English with Thai pronunciation aren't easy to read too as it doesn't conform to what we usually spell.The staffs was nice and service was good although I will note that not all of them are Thai. That's not a problem though as long as the food is good.
What we ordered
We went with Gai Yang (grilled chicken) at HKD158 as the main protein. It was great! The chicken thigh came boneless and it's a very big portion (2 thighs). The chicken is tender and juicy (super authentic grilled chicken is usually a bit chewy - just a matter of preference). Overall it's taste great and authentic but It's a tad too salty but not that much, and came with the spicy tamarind sauce (my fav). If anything I would really recommend this one.
Gai Yang (Grilled Chicken)
$158
44 views
0 likes
0 comments
As another main, we ordered Khanom Jeen Nam Ngiao (Northern Thai round rice noodle) at HKD128. Again, the portion is huge. I think this alone is enough for one, although I would recommend sharing; they did give us sharing bowls. This dish is perhaps a bit adventurous for non-Thais (in general not specifically this one). I would say it's pretty good in its own, although there's something that isn't quite the same as authentic dish. I think it has a bit too much shrimp paste which makes it too salty, has fried garlic (I think) which is a bit unusual, and a little too fatty - overall these make the broth a bit too powerful, a bit too powerful if you have this one dish by yourself. The noodle is the Chinese 米粉 (Mai Fan) which is a lot smaller and gives dryer feel than what we normally use. I would say the noodle part is what disappoints me the most; this category (Kanom Jeen) has very distinctive noodle texture that is missing in this one.
Khanom Jeen Nam Ngiao
$128
69 views
0 likes
0 comments
Lastly, we ordered a Stum Poo Pla Rha (papaya salad with salted field crab, and fermented fish) at HKD98. This is another great dish. The waitress had to confirm with us if we're ok with spicy, which we said yes (of course!), and it came pretty spicy. I think you can order non-spicy too. Just a note, this dish is a lot saltier than what you normally might think of papaya salad, as it has fermented fish sauce. This fermented fish sauce has very unique taste and odor, which might be a bit challenging at first, but most people like it. Anyways, back to this review. It has all the expected flavour but with an additional pickled garlic - a bit unorthodox as this is normally used in Chinese food. This gives slightly milder taste and depth to flavour, but it covers the sharp taste of chilli/lime/fish sauce combination. Although I think it taste good, it's probably not so much for my taste, but it might be for non-Thais.
Stum Poo Pla Rha
$98
82 views
0 likes
0 comments
We also ordered Khao Niew (sticky rice) at HKD28. but it's quite standard so I'm not touching on it. With all these, the 2 of us were very full, so you could have opted for only 2 orders of mains for two. With that in mind, it's not too expensive (HKD150 pax), although I still prefer to go to a cheaper option (see my other reviews). I'm not surprised that ONLY expats friends asked me on this restaurant, as it is definitely catered towards the target group (with taste / price / fit-out etc). If you're ok paying more for higher quality food and better ambient, this is the place for you.
Post
