Jai Thai

Heard good reviews from my sis who tried the Bugis branch, so we decided to try the outlet here with the rest of our family. Parking is limited and we had to make a reservation - we were informed that they'll hold the reservation for only 5 mins Anyway, ya the restaurant was pretty much packed subsequently. I only took one photo- as usual, it's a challenge to take photos of dishes while dining with the family

The dishes are all priced really cheap, with no gst charge. Service leaves much to be desired as they are understaffed. We went on an ordering spree and pretty much ordered too much food LOL. We had 11 small dishes and the bill came up to $70 for our table of 6.- Phad Thai
The phad thai just tasted so-so. But for $5, guess u cannot expect too much.

Mixed platter - Spring rolls and prawn cakes were pretty good, will recommend to order these items separately instead of the platter as u can do without the deep fried bean curd pieces.

Green curry chicken - Curry too watered down and mild. Chicken pieces were ok. Perhaps better to give this a miss.

Beef soup - Tasted more chinese than thai, had some tender braised beef, tendons and beef balls in it. Average dish.

Tom yam seafood - Quite a spicy and sour concoction with some fish, prawns and squid. Can try this if you like your tom yam fiery.

Deep fried fish fillet with chill sauce - Tasty fried fish pieces drizzled with sweet-hot that chili sauce. Not bad.

Steamed tofu with chicken basil - I liked the chicken basil in this dish. A generous amount of basil was used to fry the minced chicken in a spicy sauce. A really huge slab of steamed tofu was given underneath the basil chicken. We underestimated the size of the dish

Pandan chicken - Tender, well-marinated chicken pieces which had some sesame seeds coated on the outside of the meat. One of the best dishes here

Fried kang kong - Spicy, ok dish but quite a small serving.

Broccoli with chinese mushroom - Normal-tasting.

Pineapple rice - Rice was too soft and there was hardly any pineapple inside. Not recommended.

If you choose the items carefully to your own taste, then this can be a value-for-money place to try.

2013-02-03

SGD 12(Dinner)

Digging in at lunch time.

Parking at Clover way is a challenge.

But for food, will attempt.

The prices for the food here are wallet friendly for the most part.

The chicken green curry I ordered was much too mild for me.

And honestly too watered down.

But his order of a basil minced pork with rice was a winner.

Darn.

Should've made that my order too.

Full on spices and so savoury it needed rice.

More rice from me thankfully.

SGD 5(Lunch)

See the full review at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com

Prices here at Jai Thai are ridiculously cheap, which explains the prevalence of cash-strapped school-going boys from the nearby Raffles Institution. One of the most value-for-money Thai restaurants ever. The restaurant is starkly decorated. Clearly, the focus is on the food. At Jai Thai, you get rustic, homestyled cooking, like what you'd eat if you visited your Thai penpal's home for dinner.

We were there at 5.50pm on a weekday, and they were completely occupied by 6.15pm. P.S. They open at 6pm. Reservations are advised and so is car-pooling (Jai Thai is a few doors down from Rubato so they both have the same parking woes).

We had:

1) Deep Fried Seabass with Pepper & Garlic ($18): possibly the cheapest fried fish ever. This was surprisingly fresh (especially in light of its price), and well fried, with crisp skin and moist flesh. Chopped garlic cured with lime and soy and interspersed with pepper provided the barest of seasoning. We'd much prefer the fried-to-a-golden-crisp type of garlic seasoning, but this wasn't half bad. Because the garlic was cured with lime, its characteristic sharp pungency was removed

2) Tom Yum Soup with Prawns ($6): not as spicy as it looks. The tom yum spice paste is very thick though, so you get lots of pounded spice bits stuck between your teeth. This was also a tad too oily for our liking, even if the heads-on but shells-off prawns were sweet and fresh

3) Fried Chicken with Basil Leaf ($5): lightly spiced and fragrant, with the use of basil. Although chicken breast meat was used, they were moist and tender

4) Mango Glutinous Rice ($4) - juicy ripe sweet mangoes and soft sticky glutinous rice further sweetened by warm coconut milk: very good, exactly like what you'd get in Thailand

5) Tako ($2) - a cool chestnut-based Thai pudding. The top layer is a creamy sweet coconut-milk and rice flour concoction, while the bottom layer is a water chestnut and corn kernel interspersed sticky clear rice flour pudding. Sweet, creamy and soft, while at times crunchy, this was a refreshingly delicious treat to end the meal

My family visited the Jai Thai restaurant at Bishan, as suggested by my parents. Apparently, they enjoyed the food at their East Coast outlet so much that they decided to return for more.

Since we were around the area, we stopped by the branch at Clover Way for dinner.

The restaurant on its own was quite hidden, especially so at night. But surprisingly, the place was packed with people.

We managed to get a table quite instantly.

After much deliberation, we finally narrowed down our options to six dishes. We ordered a small portion each of Pineapple Fried Rice, Olive Fried Rice, Squid with Black Pepper Sauce, Stir-Fried Bean Sprouts with Salted Fish, Seafood Tom Yam, Deep Fried Chicken and Spicy Black Pepper Beef.

Being run by a group of people from Thailand (evident in the layout and decor of the restaurant as well), the food was definitely authentic. I particularly loved the squid and beef, which were very well prepared. I thought they could be a little more generous with the Tom Yam and the chicken would have been better if it were slightly more tender.

The service was much to be desired. Then again, it could be due to how busy they were. They got our orders wrong, then they came to tell us they ran out of white rice, and they kept ignoring us when we called for their attention.

2012-01-21

SGD 8(Dinner)

Popped by Jai Thai for a quick and inexpensive Thai fix on a humid Sunday evening. Just a quick reminder, the place is rather smallish and parking lots are very limited (driving is probably the only way you are going to get there unless you don't mind walking quite a fair bit from the main road), so either get there early (6pm) or late (after 830pm).

Thai Prawn Cake - Having grown a little weary of the usual Thai fish cakes, we opted for the prawn cake, which came looking like deep fried fish fillets - golden brown on the outside and oozing a generous amount of oil. Health concerns aside, the prawn cakes had a mild prawn taste with minimal flour. Huge portions were also a plus.

Deep Fried Beancurd - Normal stuff you can get almost anywhere. Palatable but probably not worth another mention.

Pandan Chicken - 3 huge piece for $5. Now that's a steal, especially when the chicken was nicely marinated without being overly oily. Tender and tasty flesh coupled with an easy to remove pandan leave wrapper, what's not to like

Pineapple Fried Rice - As per my first visit, the pineapple fried rice wasn't too much of a crowd pleaser. The rice was bland and the only taste stemmed from the meat floss.

Phad Thai - I am actually a big fan of phad thai but Jai Thai's rendition wasn't anything I would term as fantastic. For starters, the fish sauce was overly generous, resulting in a mildly nauseating taste that didn't sit too well with me (but if you like fish sauce, then this might work for you). The noodles came across as the moist kind, whereas I prefer the drier versions. Ingredients were a little lacking but at $5 a pop, no complaints really.

Stir Fried Kailan - Some people might argue that vegetables with holes in them are considered pesticide free. I never quite took to that theory but still managed to polish off the kailan, which was stir fried with garlic. I love my vegetables.

Crab Vermicelli - I thought this dish was a steal at a mere $12 that included two reasonably sized pincers sitting on a bed of vermicelli. The crabs were relatively fresh but the vermicelli was almost soaked in oil towards the bottom of the pan.

Dinner, including 2 chendols and a glass of lime juice, set us back by $45 - A very reasonable price for the huge variety and acceptable quality of food. Service was acceptable this time round even with the eatery operating at full capacity.

We didn't know about this small little restaurant until my dad's friend brought us here! Lucky that we reach quite early around 6pm+ for dinner, if after 7pm, there's quite a lot of people and there's queue!Fish cake -appetiserprawn cake - appetiser

i personally found the prawn cake taste better than the fish cake. Taste good and slightly crispy.Mango salad is quite spicy but still within acceptable range for me. Nuts and bean sprout serving quite generous too.thai spring rolls is just ok for mefried mixed vegetables is a bit oily for me.

Basically their dishes are quite small in portion, however if you are looking for cheap and reasonably good thai food, i suppose u can try out this small restaurant.

2011-11-27

SGD 10(Dinner)

The thai food here is comfort food for me.

Most of the dishes served here showcase simple flavours, casual presentation and great value. Just like eating at someone's thai kitchen really.

One of my favourite things to order is the pineapple set rice. For just $8 one gets pineapple rice, and sampler portions of green curry chicken, spring rolls, pandan chicken, fried fish with thai chilli sauce, a drink and agar agar for dessert. Great value yes? And the food tastes good too, being appetizing but at the same time wholesome. Nothing is overly greasy, nor overly salty, not to mention the curry sauce has all the gritty bits that herald homemade varieties of this popular thai dish.

Other items to try are the tom yum soup (non clear variety) and the baked tang hoon with slipper lobster or crab claws. The latter offers great value. at less than $20 one gets to enjoy super tasty tang hoon with a decent serving of crab or slipper lobster.

Another great dish is the basil chicken, which balances the flavour of the spice very well.

SGD 10