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2013-09-14
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A few days ago, Nara Thai opened at the level B3 of ION Orchard and being a lover of Thai food, I couldn't wait to try as it is touted the most popular Thai restaurant in Thailand serving up authentic food. I've been around Singapore and Thailand for Thai food with my godsis who is half-Thai and I do enjoy some of my favourites like green curry chicken, Tom yum seafood soup, Phad Thai and Deep fried Seabass with Thai Chilli sauce. Since the branch of Nara Thai at Orchard ION is the first one ou
Since the branch of Nara Thai at Orchard ION is the first one outside of Thailand, I headed down for lunch on the second day of opening. Located right between Itacho Sushi and Asian Kitchen, the exterior of Nara Thai is pretty exquisite with an overall black setting with golden yellow interior decor which is the royal colour of Thailand.
Coming to the food, we ordered the D'oeuvre Nara ($17.90) to nibble on for the start. It comes with 3 skewers of grilled chicken and topped with sweet peanut gravy, 3 pandan leaf chicken, 2 slices of fish cakes and a little pomelo salad in the middle. My guest and I enjoyed the pandan leaf chicken as it was very juicy with some charred bits that has a smoky aroma. For the chicken skewers, I thought it tasted quite close like our satay just that the gravy is more diluted and sweeter. As for the fish cake, it exploded with a strong hint of tom yum but I found it a tad tough and dry to my liking. Pomelo salad looks good with prawns and peanuts to give it a good balance of sweetness and bite.It came with a saucer of black sweet sauce to dip with the meat but it was just too sweet to begin the meal with. Having some sweet Thai chilli would definitely make the meal more appetizing at the start.
I am a big fan of Phad Thai and I couldn't resist order the Phad Thai Prawns ($15.90) for my main course. It came with a generous number of huge prawns, grounded nuts on the side, bean sprouts and bean curd. Having tried many good ones in Singapore and Thailand, my expectation for this for high but to my disappointment as the Phad Thai was way too sweet. I love the moist texture of the rice noodles but it seems to taste more like a dessert with too much sugar added into it. Sadly to say, this is nowhere near authentic as those by the streets of Bangkok would easily have been than this and oh, way cheaper too!
My favourite dessert besides Red Ruby, that is the Mango Sticky Rice (Large - $9.80). It came with 2 glutinous rice balls and sweet mangoes which were neatly sliced. The warm and sticky rice were topped with a luscious layer of coconut cream not for the faint-hearted. Order this at your own risk if you don't have a sweet tooth.My lunch was simply sweet, sweet and sweet. The flavours of the dishes were very one-dimensional. Hopefully, they can improve on the food as days go by. Service was very poor too as they did not serve us ice-water upon seated and I have to ask for it. The service were horrible too as we already have finished our main course and started on the Mango Sticky Rice but our appetizers were nowhere in sight.
If you are in Orchard road and craving for Thai food, any Thai Express outlets would have been better in terms of food and service.
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