Many times, when we see the word 'Thai food', we naturally think of street food and hence, very inexpensive, cheap food. However, Cha Thai is here to debunk this by bringing to us the best of fine Thai food.
Cha Thai's founder, Leah, was trained in culinary schools in both Thailand and France, and hence is able to bring together the best of both the East and the West, by adapting the West's technology with the East's traditions, to bring Thai food to a whole new level. Using premium quality ingredients with traditional (but not authentic) recipes cooked with modern cooking techniques, Cha Thai is able to bring out a new dimension in the taste of Thai, so that their patrons can experience the best of Fine Thai food. For instance, all their meat are sous vide before cooking, and takes a lot of time and effort to prepare in order to ensure that the meat is always tender.
Hot Salty Plum Drink - $2.50
Well, somehow it naturally registered as 'sour plum' instead of 'salty plum' and I got a little shock at first sip. It was indeed, salty plum and not sour plum, alright. It's a little of an acquired taste and might need a few sips to get used to. You know those 'sour plums' you popped into your mouth and immediately think, "what kind of sour plum is this? This should be salted plum!" Yeah, this drink tasted exactly like that.
Not bad, but takes a while to get used to it.
Green Tea Latte Smoothie (Middle) - $4.50
Love, love loveeeee this! I highly recommend this drink for all green tea lovers out there. Milky, slightly sweet, strong tea flavour with the distinctive bitter aftertaste, this is a definite must try! But take note of the huge serving. You might be full from just this smoothie alone.
Crispy Prawn Cake - $15
I know this sounds pretty pricey, but these prawn cakes were all made from scratch (thus the irregular shapes) using tiger prawns! You can expect a mouthful of springy tiger prawn flesh with a fresh sweetness that's well flavoured to taste. Crisp on the outside, yet tender and juicy on the inside.
How can you not like this?
Creamy Crab Roll - $15
Thick, creamy crab sauce served with crispy fried springroll skin that's light as air. This is the perfect appetizer to kick off your meal.
Lemongrass Prawn Salad - $28
Once again, tiger prawns! The prawns were fresh and succulent (and fat, too!) and topped with a generous serving of lemongrass minced meat that tasted rather similar to the flavour of basil minced chicken. A little salty on its own, but would have been a perfect match with a bowl of white rice.
Signature Tiger Prawn Panang Curry - $28
Creamy, slightly sweet and a little spicy, and stuff full of fresh and juicy tiger prawns! The sweetness in the curry gravy doesn't just come from the fresh prawns, but also from the lychees as well. The yumminess from the fat juicy prawns aside, I still found it a tad too creamy and not spicy enough for me though.
Tom Yum Vegetarian Dumplings - $18
Not acutely sour nor tongue burning spicy like the usual tom yum goong, the first taste was even slightly sweet and very pleasant. And the spiciness comes shortly after, so do take note to sip at your soup in case the spiciness might be too much for you. The handmade dumplings, didn't taste very vegetarian (the distinctive raw vegetable taste) as well, so feel free to try this out even if you tend to avoid eating vegetables.
Saute Kai Lan with Roasted Pork - $16
The kai lan were fresh (obviously from the jade-green colour you see) and saute just well enough to retain the vegetable's crisp texture and yet remove the bitterness. The fresh vegetables were also a good balance to the otherwise oily (fatty pork belly) roasted pork that was extremely well flavoured and tender.
Garlic Chicken with Bird's Chilli - $18
The best choice of food for those on an #eatclean diet. HAHA!
The chicken bits were all chicken breast meat so while they're not the toughest chicken breast I've ever eaten, they're also not the most tender piece of chicken meat you can get, Stir-fried with a generous dose of chopped garlic, this is a must try for those garlic lovers on a healthy diet. The bird's chilli can get really spicy, so do avoid biting on them.
Simmered Pork - $22
This feels a little like the saute kai lan with roasted pork, but with the ratio reversed. The kai lan here is still fresh and slightly crisp, while the simmered pork packed a lot more of the savoury flavour and tenderness in comparison to its roasted counterpart.
Premium Giant Tiger Prawns Claypot Glass Noodles - $159
Tiger Prawns Claypot Glass Noodles (for 4 pax) - $55
Note: Giant Tiger Prawn is about 34 - 40cm
The glass noodles were springy and flavourful and topped with another 5 fat juicy tiger prawns. Though recommended for 4 pax, you can still gather more folks to share this pot of glass noodles so as to free up more tummy space for the other dishes.
The springiness of the glass noodles combined with the savoury, slightly spicy flavour might be addictive, though.
Pad Thai - $22
By this time, there was definitely a tiger prawn overload. So the 2 tiger prawns were sadly ignored at the table while we went for the noodles.
The rice noodles was chewy and flavourful and I liked how they placed the beansprouts, chopped peanuts and leeks (I think?) at the sides so you can choose to mix them in or not.
Charcoal Toast - $8
This is DA BOMB!
Pardon me if I sound like I'm over-reacting, but you absolutely have to go try these out for yourselves! The toasts were extremely crispy and yet fluffy at the same time and its toasted fragrance paired with either the pandan or the milk tea dip, just taste heavenly and extremely addictive. Most of us were already entering foodcoma / waving white flag by the time desserts were served, and yet we were all eyeing for second helping for this toast because it just taste so good!
And for the rest of the dishes, which I (sadly) didn't get to taste due to limited stomach space.
Pomelo Salad - $16
Top right, clockwise: Red Ruby, Sweet Corn Herbal Jelly, Melon Sago, Emerald Jade (Green Ruby) - $8 each
