Review from Mia: Bangkok Jam @ Marina Square

Actually, review on Poulet at Bugis+ should come before this. But I've decided to do Bangkok Jam first because this is actually my second time dining at Bangkok Jam, albeit at a different branch. I apologise beforehand for the lack of pictures for this post because I didn't intend to do a review on it, since I've already been there once (PS new wing) and the experience was, well....mediocre. Mediocre service (even at a less packed dining time of 5pm and most of their crew was idle), mediocre food (had their Pad Thai & special item Earl Grey Milk Shake then) Nothing good, nothing bad.

Not blog-worthy.

But this time round at Marina Square, the level of service & food seemed to make a turn for the worse. Was actually reluctant to dine at Bangkok Jam, but since YS kept suggesting we go there as they have a shorter queue compared to Hi Fu Mi and the others (with the exception of this sorry looking cafe called Addictions, which was empty) and I sensed that she was eager to try it, I agreed.

There were two couples in front of us in the queue, and from the outside I can easily notice that the restaurant is horribly understaff. There're dirty tables left uncleaned, along with a few empty tables staring invitely at us to just walk straight in and take our own seat as those particular few servers just threw us a blank stare as they zoomed by to tend to other seated customers. Finally, one staff dressed in white oversized chef coat came out to ursher us to our respective tables. Or perhaps, their resturant manager dress up like a chef unlike other servers in black? I doubt so.

Anyway, YS and I ordered similar dishes. Seafood in Red Tom Yum for her (plus an additional sunny-side-up), Clear Tom Yum for me, and we both ordered iced Thai Milk Tea. Our orders took roughly 20 minutes to arrive, yes for a soup dish it is friggin long waiting time. Never mind, see how our (or rather my) food was served.

Let's not even complain about the tiny bowl of soup (with exactly 2 small pieces of fish, 2 squids, 2 shrimps ONLY) selling at $7.90 (a total ripoff, yes!). My main focus was, where are my utensils and serviettes?! How do you expect me to eat? Soup with that black mini ladle and rice, with my hands?

Now, obviously not very happy, I reminded the waitress about the missing utensils, and also our missing drinks (which restaurants serves drinks later than cooked food, and mind you ours took 20 minutes to come!) YS also took the chance to remind her that her red tom yum has yet to be served, to which the waitress interrupted curtly, "I can speak Chinese."

YS and I exchanged glances of bewilderment before she turned back to the waitress and told her again in English, that her red tom yum wasn't served.

Seriously, what has your customer's language abilities got to do with the orders not served?

And yes, we do speak Mandarin too, but sorry to say YS doesn't speak it well.

After a few minutes, YS's red tom yum was finally served and our utensils handed over by the same waitress, just as YS pulled out a strand of long hair from her bowl of rice, to both of our horror. The waitress immediately apologised and snatched up the bowl of rice, saying she'll change it for us. She returned shortly after with a bowl of rice that seemed to be 'disrupted' instead of how it looked like in a pretty dome shape. I really hoped that they didn't just pul the hair out and re-served it to YS.

And yes, with our food served, we finally started eating our dinner. The first sip of my clear tom yum brought a frown to my face. It wasn't spicy at all. NOT ONE BIT. Previously when I visited the PS branch with Ade and Boon, Ade had red tom yum and she liked it because it's spicy. I remembered Boon commenting that the clear tom yum will be even spicer, for that's how it's supposed to be, because clear tom yum is cooked with chopped chilli padi. Then, I asked to try YS's red tom yum to compare. Hers was much more spicier than mine.

Clear Tom Yum is spicier then Red Tom Yum. Really?

Oh, nevermind! Being really hungry, we just gobbled down our food quickly. I shan't give much comment on the food because it really isn't fantastic. The ridiculously small serving aside, the fish definitely wasn't fresh as I can taste the fishiness even when it's cooked in Tom Yum soup. The squid was overcooked, hence tough and rubbery. Shrimp was too, but at least not as horrible as the squid. And when we're both halfway into our meal, YS exclaimed, "Where's our milk teas?"

Ahh, yes! Our milk teas weren't served. So once again, we desperately raised/waved our hands at the pathetic few servers, only to have the chef coming to tend to us again. It took a couple more minutes after he has left our table before he returned with our milk teas.

Which really isn't fantastic. It's just a tinge sweeter with a slightly stronger tea fragrance as compared to any other milk teas.

And back to my clear tom yum, I finally realised the reason why it wasn't spicy at all when I polished it off (not because it tasted heavenly please, because it's really a tiny bowl!)

There's only a pathetic 1/3 piece of a chilli padi inside the entire bowl of soup. How to make it spicy?!

I remembered when I told Sa I enjoyed dining at Porn's (Pornsak's Thai restaurant), she scoffed that I have no taste for Thai food.

I don't blame her for being overly critical. She hasn't tried Bangkok Jam.

Till then,

Mia