Lerk Thai Singapore: A Taste of Siam Thai Cuisine

The busy weekdays end with an unexpected place for dinner last Friday. My wife and I met somewhere in the central business district of Singapore. She was craving some chicken pot from a famous Chinese restaurant on the premises of the International Plaza at Tanjong Pagar.

However, when we arrived in the area around 8:30 PM, we were disappointed to learn that the restaurant was already closed for the day. Have you ever felt wanting something very bad and knew that you can get it but it turns out, due to unforeseen turn of events, you can’t have it all? It sucks, doesn’t it?

Anyway, we ended up traveling the MRT towards Woodlands and trying Thai cuisine for a change. 

First Impressions

The restaurant's location is convenient especially for the busy train commuters since it is situated inside just across the Woodlands station. The place is inside the Woodlands Civic Centre and has a casual ambiance with a hint of fine dining. But I couldn’t say the same for the staff and service as it was below average. 

The Staff

I applauded the staff for immediately guiding us to our table. But the “good” evaluation, for staff that is, stops there. 

One, there was no interaction with customers. You would at least expect the waitress to talk to you and recommend something from their menu rather than just handing it over and leave you pondering. 

Two, asking little favors such as extra table napkins or serving spoons takes an awful lot of time. You just can’t visualize any energy to any of their staff on duty at that time. But they do smile when they chat among themselves at the counter. The only interaction I remember receiving from them was when I asked for the bill.

The Service

There were a lot of vacant tables around and only a couple of tables were occupied. When we were ushered to our table the attention given to us was not satisfactory at all. I mean, the opposite tables have started enjoying their meals so they were left with just us to serve for that night. What could possibly be more important for them to do that they have to leave their customers and just wait for their attention to be called.

Anyway, enough with the complaints and let us now move on to the food review, shall we?

The Food

We first asked for the Po Piah Sod Vietnam which is a Vietnamese spring roll. I am not sure why they didn’t have a Thailand version of this but anyway the Po Piah was really nice. It has carrots, cucumber, peppermint leaf, basil leaf, and generous strands of vermicelli rounded up into a roll. The wrapper used to roll it up was so thin you can actually see through it. It was complemented by a thick peanut sauce topped with grounded peanuts. The flavor bursts with the fusion of the Po Piah and the rich sauce hinted with spiciness. This dish is a definite “must try” for first-time customers like ourselves.

Vietnamese Spring Roll

The Yum Nait Gai Krob looked interesting on the menu so we ordered this. It was actually a bowl of straw and golden mushrooms in a mild spicy dressing and stirred with chicken strips. The presentation was colorful and very enticing. You can smell and taste the oriental goodness coming from the mushrooms. I personally recommend this dish to mushrooms lovers out there.

Yum Nait Gai Krob

Have you ever heard of spaghetti topped with stewed beef? Well, we haven’t so we were curious about this and asked for it to be served to us. They call this dish the Spaghetti Nuer Duey which is a mound of chubby spaghetti tossed with braised beef chunks. I liked this dish as it’s flavorful and the beef chunks were diced big but still tender to bite.

Spaghetti with Stewed Beef

And lastly, we tried their version of lemon chicken cutlet which turns out to be just fine. The chicken cutlet was golden brown but it was not as crisp as we expect it to be. The flavored rice that came together with this dish was a bit oily. You can kill the oily taste by squeezing a wedge of lemon all over.  Zero spice which is why my wife liked this food.

Lemon Chicken Cutlet

Our Take

We were pleased with how fast the food came out of their kitchen and got served to us but then again the service, in its entirety, was really below par. They should make efforts on making interactions with customers to make their experience more personal. Customer connection is an aspect that is equally important with the quality of the food. This yields to patrons wanting to come back for more.

Operations

They are open daily from 11:00 AM until 10:00 PM and accepts all major credit cards, cash, and NETS payment.

Speak Your Mind

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