Source: Quandoo
Hey Hive!
Since I've been sharing a lot of our favourite takeaway foods we've been trying during the lockdown, I thought I'd do something a little different today and write about a place we tried post-quarantine.
It's been quite a few months now since Singapore has been out of lockdown, or what our government has termed "circuit breaker", so restaurants have been opening up and allowing in-house dining again. And since we had some vouchers to use, we brought a couple of friends to this restaurant in town called Bangkok Jam!
Source: EatBook.sg
Unfortunately it was a Saturday night at the time and it was pretty packed but we didn't have many other choices since everywhere else in the mall (Plaza Singapura) was full/more expensive so we put our names down and went to the supermarket for a bit while waiting.
After about 20-30 minutes, we got the call that our table was ready and headed back to the restaurant to take our seats.
The interior of the restaurant was actually quite pleasant. The natural wood furnishings paired with the black metal chairs and overhead lamps in the open overhang gave it a modern aesthetic.
The restaurant however, like a few others in Plaza Singapura, is very open in that people walking around in the mall can see you eating from above. There's even an escalator right beside the restaurant. I guess the location gives it more exposure since you'll definitely come across it but the privacy of patrons is compromised slightly compared to other conventional restaurants.
Regardless, we were really hungry and there weren't many other choices since it was really crowded so we made do.
I didn't take a picture of the menu but here are some pics:
Source: OpenRice
Source: blog.myfatpocket.com
They have quite an extensive menu; ranging from soups and salads to various meat, seafood, and vegetable dishes to straight up rice and noodle meals. We decided to get mostly rice and noodles since those were cheaper (and most likely heartier).
After we ordered, we had to wait quite a bit for our food to arrive. Unfortunately, I think they were understaffed because of how crowded it was; there were only 3 servers for quite many tables and customers, and on a weekend no less. So the service was a little wanting, but eventually (and thankfully) our food came alright.
One of my friends ordered the Stir-fried Kway Teow with Beef (or Phad Si Yew Gai):
My other friend ordered the Egg Noodles with Crab Meat & Bacon (or Ba Mee Poo):
Sean ordered the phad thai:
And since Sean got something with noodles, I decided to get the Shrimp Paste Fried Rice (or Khao Kluung Kapi):
All the dishes looked really good and tasted alright I guess. I can't really comment on the kway teow or the egg noodles but I would imagine it tasted pretty average, like what you'd expect. Nothing spectacular.
I did try Sean's phad thai and it tasted a little sweet for my liking. There was a hint of spice but I think it was something in the sauce that made it sweet. It was alright though. I think this was only my second time trying phad thai so I'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like so I can't really judge. Sean said it was average for phad thai, and pretty different from the one he tried in Thailand last time tho.
I did prefer my fried rice to his phad thai, but even then it was only okay for fried rice. It wasn't the shrimp paste that I was expecting, and the chicken was cold and braised for some reason. The rice was alright though, and there was some crunchy stuff at the side that I guess was supposed to be fried shrimp.? Mixed with the rice it was pretty tasty. Not what I expecting of shrimp paste fried rice but not too bad regardless.
Overall, I think this meal was pretty alright. The portions were a little small though. And because we were really hungry it didn't really satisfy us.
Sean and I did, however, eat there again because we got a birthday voucher to use. And I'm sad to say that our second experience was worse than the first, unfortunately.
We cane on a Friday evening this time, and as expected on a weekend, the service was just as bad. But okay at least we didn't have to wait too long for a table since it was just the 2 of us this time.
Ordering however, took quite a while since they were understaffed yet again and it looked like there was only 1 working tablet from which you could order. So there was just 1 dude walking around to all the tables taking orders.
So after we finally got our order in, we waited for our food. Thankfully it didn't take too long; about 10 minutes later our first dish came - Stir-fried Kailan with Roasted Pork (or Phad Kana Moo Daeng):
We decided to order a couple dishes and 2 bowls to rice to share this time since we tried the rice and noodle dishes last time.
We wanted some meat for our other dish as well so we ordered the Grilled Marinated Chicken, served with Bangkok Jam Signature Salad (or Gai Yang Samoon Prai):
It looked alright, but there was a strange odour emanating from the dish. I'm not sure what it was but it smelled...unpleasant. And unappetising. I wanted to investigate so I tried the chicken first. It smelled and tasted like chicken, albeit dry and tough.
So I tried the salad next. The leaves tasted alright, and the dressing was a little sour but still edible. I then concluded that it must've been the dressing that was causing such an odour. I'm not sure what they put into the dressing exactly, but something was off. I wouldn't say it was spoiled, because maybe it was supposed to be like that, but it was weird.
I'd say for a signature dish that was barely edible it was really disappointing and kinda telling of this restaurant. That dish ruined the meal for both of us. The kailan was fine though. The roast pork wasn't crispy anymore since it was drenched in the gravy but it was still alright.
But man, that chicken dish ruined this restaurant for me. And with the bad service, I think we're definitely not eating at Bangkok Jam ever again. It's been a while since we've eaten genuinely bad food because we're quite accommodating and affable and our tastes are quite simple. But this was too much even for us. We didn't complain because we're not those kinds of people. So we're just never gonna go back.
Sorry for the long post. But thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
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deco is nice but food is meh
Very good and tast meal. Enjoy your meal.
thanks for reading @mehmetfix! ^-^