Had pleasant dining experience at Nara Restaurants in Bangkok and Singapore but this visit made me decided to boycott this Nara outlet for good. The restaurant was busy when we visited at lunch but it was certainly not understaffed. So there was no excuse for the lack of hospitable service usually extended to customers at Thai restaurants. We had to ask twice before we were served iced water and when we asked for chilli sauce and sliced chilli padi the  waiter brought the condiments without providing any saucers. Always ready to put up with crappy service if the food is good, we remained in good spirits but we're let down huge time.

The set lunch remains at $13.90++ but now does not come with soup or salad and a choice of beverage. A scoop of mango salad or pomelo salad for $3.90++ and a scoop of ice cream for the same add on price. Here is their signature Nara Thai Boat Noodles (see self explanatory photo) which was served with a deep fried chicken wing hacked into four pieces. If Nara Ion had a change of chef or the recipe for the dish that made the restaurant famous had recently been tweaked, it was a change for the worse. The soup was clear and tasteless. The pork balls were replaced by frozen fish balls that had a faint fishy smell. The minced pork had not been marinated, was overcooked and appeared as unappetizing clumps. Even fishball bak cho mee from a hawker stall or cooked by China staff at a food court looks and tastes better than what I was served at Nara Ion. I will leave it to my makan kaki to review his set lunch of Thai fried rice and his side order of pomelo salad. The side dishes are not worth the trouble, neither was the so called Boat Noodles that I was served that weekday.

Gong Cha has launched a limited time summer offer of Lychee Milk Tea at $2.50. Visited at off peak time of 4pm when there was no queue, but waited about 7 minutes for drink to be assembled. Although I asked for 50% syrup/sugar level the drink tasted overwhelmingly sweet - so saccharine sweet that its taste exceeds the regular 100% sugar levels of Gong Cha's other types of milk tea. Not worth trying as the tastes of neither the tea nor milk could be discerned - just an excessive overload of lychee syrup. Overrated as the bubble tea chain's summer special.

This Coffee Club outlet is far from being the best place to chill. Neither conducive to conversation or people watching. The cafe has no windows and most patrons have no views, unless you manage to get one of the five tables at the far end of the cafe which overlooks the lobby of Swissotel The Stamford. The tables at this Coffee Club are arranged less than an arm's length fom one another so much so that one can hear every single word uttered by those seated at the neighboring table even if they were speaking in hushed tones. Service is rather slow and inattentive.

The entree menu here is less extensive than other Coffee Club outlets. Some popular items like pork ribs and slipper lobster linguineare not available at this branch. The day we visited both seafood entrees - fish and chips, and shrimp crusted salmon filet - were not available. So most of the choices left were pasta dishes. Hete is the pesto fish and clam chowder linguine $16.20++. The pasta was a little overcooked - turned out a tad soft rather than al dente. The clam chowder was bland and way too watery, and there was only five of the tiniest clams I've ever seen. There were two chunks of white fish that was totally bland and tasteless - obviously fish that had been in the freezer too long and not marinated prior - almost like eating microwaved fish. The handful.of mesclun leaves topping the dish was also out of place. Thumbs down!

The Phad Thai or Thai style stirfried rice stick noodles ($10.50++) is one of the staple dishes by which to judge the quality of a Thai restaurant. Siam Kitchen's version is on the pricey side but it came with a fair amount of seafood - shelled shrimps, s pringy squid & slices of deepfried dory fish. What would have been a promising dish was marred by the chef's tardiness:
1) the dried rice sticks should be soaked in water till soft and drained before being stirfried. At this outlet the noodles were not soaked and rehydrated prior to frying so the noodles were hard and undercooked.
2) the noodles are fried with fish sauce to produce a non spicy dish that is suitable for kids, with chilli flakes and sliced birdseye chilli served on the side, leaving it to the diner to customize the dish to his desired level of spiciness. But the chef at thisbranch added chilli directly to the noodles during the frying process, and had too heavy a hand at it, so we were left with teary eyes and numb tongues after just a mouthful and had to reach for iced water straightaway.
3) chef forgot to add chopped preserved radish which, along with the fish sauce, define the taste of Phad Thai.

'The Kitchen' is the name of the bright and airy food court at Star Vista. Operated by Koufu, the food court has about ten stalls sellingbeverages, desserts, Chinese economic rice, vegetarian food, Japanese food, Korean food, Thai food, nasi padang, etc.

The Thai food stall has several set meals priced at $6.80, $7.80 & $8.80. Drinks served in 500ml cups eg lemongrass drink, Thai iced tea, cost from $1.50 upwards. Each set meal comprises rice with a meat/fish dish, a vegetable dish and either curry or tom yum soup. I picked the $7.80 pineapple rice set meal with thai style fish, which was, based on the wall mounted, lighted signboard, suposed to be served with stir fried thai kailan & green curry. After paying for my order I stood at the counter for nearly 15mins waiting for my order to be assembled.

The pineapple rice was served with several chunks of deep fried, battered dory fish with thai style chilli sauce poured over them, a small portion of hastily blanched shimeji mushroom drizzled with oyster sauce and a small bowl of green curry.
(see photo). I enquired about the kailan but the stallholder explained that they had none left & proceeded to serve the next customer.

Though I did not complain, I was dismayed with her for not telling me at point of order & prepayment that they had run out of thai kailan, and for not offering me an alternative choice of veg such as stir fried eggplant or thai salad.

Pineapple rice and green curry were ok. I've had tastier versions at other food courts eg Food Republic at comparable prices. However the thai style fish was a disappointment - batter was too thick so cant taste the fish, while the mushroom was tasteless so I left them uneaten.

Overpriced and substandard food that was not worth the wait.

Should have paid a little more to dine at Porn's Restaurant which was offering $9.90+ weekday set lunch of a rice dish with a canned soft drink - better food quality, service & dining environment.