This has been one of the family's favourite restaurants for many years. When they started, perhaps 5 years ago, we stepped in because there was a long queue at Crystal Jade. We were delighted with the food. I have blogged about it once. See this entry for my review. The menu has changed somewhat since the last review, so I thought with a recent revisit, I'd blog about them again.
This is another revisit, and like the others, proved to be a joy.
We started with the pomelo salad:
Large chunks of sweet/sour pomelo, mixed in a spicy, salty, sour sauce with a tinge of sweet. Texture variety was provided ably by the cashew nuts and chunks of very fresh prawns. I absolutely adore the mish mash of flavours, and accents. Brings me back to Bangkok, where the Thais love hot spicy, sweet, salty, sour all in one dish. Lovely!
For mains with plain steamed rice, we had the following:
Roasted pork:
When it arrived, it looked dry...I was expecting the luscious char siew by Oversea which I reviewed recently. But on the palate, the pork was anything but dry. It had a beautiful consistency. The dipping sauce was brilliant. Again the blend of flavours and tastes of sweet, sour, salty, spicy were apparent. Below the slices of pork was more groundnuts, and a concoction of small cubed ginger, thai lime, and chilli. Dished on the fresh iceberg lettuce, add the pork, and a dash of the sauce, and its wonderful. Truly spectacular dish.
We also ordered the Thai asparagus:
It is always amazing what a good chef can concoct with basic ingredients. In this case, Thai asparagus. What is different from the European asparagus (like the Konig Spargel I waxed lyrical about in Germany) is the Thai version is thinner, and more crunchy. Perhaps less fibrous than the European cousing. I also feel the funny smell in the pee is also less pronounced with the Thai variety. Anyway, this dish is stir fried, in typical Thai style, with a dash of oyster sauce. Tasty, though if I were to rate this in a spectacular-ness scale, it does not quite make it high up that scale.
Finally the Massaman Beef curry.
Not quite I had expected, as I had "grown up" with the thick, rich Massaman curry from Thangying. This was more like a stew. I suspect the beef is Australian, as it was probably from a less marbled cut like chuck, and was rather chewy and sinewy. But had great flavour. The curry itself was wonderful. Fragrant, mildly spicy though had a pungent aftertaste. Shiok!
For me, Bangkok Jam is a great restaurant. It is part of the Patara chain. The flagship Patara restaurant in Tanglin Mall is quite upmarket and for me is not value for money. The mother restaurant in Soi Assumption in Bangkok is avant garde, but the cuisine is superb. And for me, Bangkok Jam is excellent cooking, with masterful balance of flavours and quite good value for money. Very highly recommended.
Bangkok Jam
1 Kim Seng Promenade, #02-26
p.s. a reader pointed out that I made an error in writing peanut instead of cashew nut for the pomelo salad dish. I stand corrected.
6 comments:
A peanut dressed as a cashewnut? To be a credible foodblogger you should be able to distinguish between the two.
Hey Peter,
I don't know what's the intention behind the previous comment, but you were generous enough to acknowledge it.
I've been reading your blog for over a year now and to date, it is still the best and most objective one, in my opinion, with zero hint of commercialisation.
Keep up the good work.
Are they related to the Bangkok Jam in KL Peter? Tried the food in KL and they were good!
The Tom Yam here is pretty good with their asparagus and the chicken with thai herbs. Though the Massaman curry flavour is not what i would call tasty, my opinion that is.
But you should watch out for the 50% tax on order, was charge 61$ earlier today with food amounting to only 40$ (without tax).
Apart from that the food is pretty good.
Liverpool, I am not sure about Bangkok Jam in KL. But the restaurant reviewed is related to the Patara group.
Hi Vince, wow...that is not right...50% added on? I am sure I have not encountered this before.
I ordered 2 Tomyum 7$ea, 1 Whole chicken with herbs 18$ and then I ordered another kangkong for 7.90$.
After I gave them $50, the cashier start counting on the total (since i added kangkong order after they entered Tomyum chicken order).
The cashier asked me for $11 more after my initial 50$, and I was like, hmmm that couldn't be right I saw the first order is like 29$ with tax, 1 more kangkong wouldn't add up to $61!
So I get the menu and count the total in front of the cashier and recheck the receipt, that's when I saw instead of $17.90 whole chicken, there is 2 $13.90 half-chicken order. That's when i got so sick in my gut and left the place.
One of the bad day probably? but the food is pretty decent (which I am pretty surprised at first too!)
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