Video
Read full review
2012-11-24
23 views
On a random Saturday afternoon, we decided to head to Ah Loy Thai. My friend had recommended me to try out as they are famous for Thai food, so we decided to head there for our today's lunch. We arrived with an empty stomach, famished and astonished to find ourselves in a queue and all the tables were fully packed in the 2 shops which this restaurant occupied. While waiting in the queue, I decided to surf OpenRicers reviews to see what are the special or yummy dishes from this restaurant & had s
On a random Saturday afternoon, we decided to head to Ah Loy Thai. My friend had recommended me to try out as they are famous for Thai food, so we decided to head there for our today's lunch. We arrived with an empty stomach, famished and astonished to find ourselves in a queue and all the tables were fully packed in the 2 shops which this restaurant occupied. While waiting in the queue, I decided to surf OpenRicers reviews to see what are the special or yummy dishes from this restaurant & had shortlisted 4 dishes from the 20 reviews that I had read. They are the glass noodle, Pineapple fried rice, pandan chicken and tom yum soup. Hence we placed order for this 4 dishes while we are still waiting for our seats. Luckily we only waited for 20 minutes as the owner skipped the huge group of 6 people before me and instead ushered the both of us to our seats first.
The restaurant decoration has a very Thai feel to it, with the walls decorated with famous Thai people and also there were a couple of certificates hanging proudly on their wall. I guessed the owner must have received a lot of recognition in the culinary world when he was younger.
Well, a good thing is there is no GST or service charge for this restaurant. But I have to place my order and made payment at the cashier first before they serve your food. I felt that the price of each dish was pretty reasonable. Here's the receipt for my lunch:
Here's our drink, Thai Red tea, which cost $2.20. Very smooth and fragrant. Although she found it was too sweet for her liking, but I like. Haha...
Here's our first dish, Seafood Tom Yum soup., which cost $7.50.
Wow... The Seafood Tom Yum soup was simply awesome and mind-blowing. Very yummy!!! Very aromatic!!! And the taste of the Tom Yum is simply delicious. The soup had a nice balance of sour taste & spiciness. Not forgetting the generous serving of prawns in this dish and also the huge slices of squids & oyster mushrooms. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 as mediocre and 10 as very yummy, I would personally rate this dish as a 8. Ah Loy Thai tom yum soup tasted much nicer than the Tom Yum soup I tried at Porns. I would definitely order this dish again on my next visit.Here's our 2nd dish, Fried Glass Noodle, which cost $7.50.
This was another very yummy dish. As usual, the restaurant gave a generous serving of prawns and eggs too. The fried glass noodle was very aromatic and very yummy!!! Smooth, silky noodle, coupled with the other ingredients, made me slowly savored this dish. Even my girlfriend liked this dish very much. I would give a rating of 9 for the Fried Glass Noodle. While we are happily tucking into our 2 super yummy dishes, I suddenly spotted something special in my fried glass noodle. I am actually surprised to find that the chef had mixed baby shrimps into it and they are crunchy too. I seldom see chef mix baby shrimp into fried glass noodle and this is my first time seeing it. Here's the photo:
Can you see the baby shrimp mixed together with the prawn? Aren't they cute... My next dish, Pineapple Fried Rice, was a total disappointment. As usual, the chef added a lot of prawns and egg into this dish.
I just felt that the Pineapple Fried Rice was not worth the $7. Firstly it doesn't taste like fried rice nor does the pineapple taste stands out distinctly. Instead what I felt for this dish is that it has a wide mixture of taste and I can't really identify it as a fried rice. Both of us had difficulty in finishing this dish but I endured and finished it up, so as not to waste the food. I won't order this dish on my next visit again. Very disappointing...Luckily, the restaurant "redeemed" its reputation in its next dish, Pandan Chicken, which cost $10.
Honestly speaking, I do find that the Pandan Chicken was a bit pricey. $10 for 4 pieces only? That worked out to $2.50 for a small piece of chicken. Expensive... I can get a plate of chicken rice for each piece of pandan chicken. Haha. But nonetheless, I must admit that this dish was yummy too. It was much more aromatic than the Tom Yum soup or the Fried Glass Noodle. Also the chicken was nicely marinated and cooked. The tenderness of the chicken meat was just nice and certain portion of the meat is crispy while certain portion of the meat is tender. I wonder how the chef did this? I guess maybe it's because of the pandan leaves that distribute the heat unevenly throughout the meat. So certain portion that faces the heat became crispy while the top is tender and soft. Amazing skill... Overall I think this dish deserved a 8.I almost forgot. We almost fainted when the cashier told us to be prepared to wait for 40 minutes before our food is served. Being so famished, we waited in anticipation for our first dish to be served. Luckily it didn't take as long as 40 minutes. I think our first dish arrived around 20 minutes later. So it wasn't so bad but in total we waited for 40 minutes for our first dish (20 minutes in the queue and 20 minutes from placement of order). But both of us felt that this 40 minutes wait was indeed worthwhile, except for the disappointing pineapple fried rice. Both of us will definitely visit this restaurant again. I am looking forward to trying out their other dishes. But for my next visit, I have to be well-prepared for the long wait and not turn up at this restaurant with a famished stomach.
Overall decoration of this restaurant: 7 out of 10. I think they could have done better in their decorations. But I am not too particular over it so long as the food served are yummy.
Accessibility: It was pretty accessible. It was located at Shaw Towers along Beach Road and we walked from Raflles Shopping Centre. But I reckon it will be much nearer if you walk from Suntec City to this restaurant. For people who drive, they can park at Shaw Tower carpark but I am not sure what's the hourly rate.
Service: 7 out of 10. Both the boss and lady boss were very friendly and they even promptly helped to clear the empty plates and also asked us politely whether there are any dishes that wasn't being served yet.
Overall satisfaction: 9 out of 10. I would definitely visit Ah Loy Thai restaurant again. If my friends ever ask me for yummy Thai food recommendation, Ah Loy Thai would definitely be on the top of my list.
Post
