KHAO by Rama V Fine Thai Cuisine @ Setia City Mall, Shah Alam

Good news for all you Thai food lovers out there! Were you drooling over my post on Rama V yet lamenting its high price tag? No worries now as they have two sister restaurants that offer slightly more affordable Thai fare of superb quality d^_^b  One of them is Fa-Ying at Paradigm Mall and the other is Khao at Setia City Mall.

      

         

Khao

         

Kai Hor Bai Toey + Gaeng Deang Ta-Lay (RM 26.90)

   
This set comes with appetizers, tom yum soup, red curry seafood, pandan chicken, a fried egg and fruits. As you can see the portion is really big and is so totally worth it.
   
The rice is mixed with red husked grains and topped with a sunny side up egg although that can be overcooked sometimes.
   
The appetizers given were fried spring roll, deep fried prawn fishcake and young mango salad. Both the spring roll and prawn fishcake were absolutely crispy, in particular the fishcake. However, all appetizers were average and nothing special.

       

Red Curry Seafood

     
The Red Curry Seafood tasted really good and the chefs did not skimp on the seafood. As you can see from the picture below, there are prawns, squid, fish and mussels and lots of vegetables too. This dish alone would fill you right up and warm your tummy on a rainy day. The creamy curry was thick and fragrant with coconut milk but it was not super spicy.

        

See the generous amount of seafood?

          

Cool flame

     
I like how the flame burns bright blue from the oil contained in a ceramic soup spoon.
       

Pandan Chicken

   
The Pandan Chicken was extremely good, very moist and tender and fragrant - see our review of Rama V for more raves on the Pandan Chicken =D

       

Chicken Tom Yum

     
I wanted the clear tom yum but they only offered Chicken Tom Yum for the set. The fiery red soup was sour and spicy and hit all the right notes and the chefs were also generous with chicken pieces and oyster mushrooms.

       

Gaeng Kaew Wan Kai + Pra Dang Sam Ros (RM 24.90)

   
This set came with the same appetizers, tom yum and fruits but the main dishes were green curry chicken and red snapper fillet.

       

Green Curry Chicken

   
I like the green curry here as it does not have the overpowering smell I dislike (only one other restaurant serves it like that which is Chakri Palace). It also had plenty of chicken and vegetables and the gravy is just to die for =P

      

Red Snapper Fillet

   
The Red Snapper Fillet totally did not disappoint (see the generous portion? ^_^) and was cooked to the same level of perfection as Rama V - read our raves here. This still remains my favourite dish of all and I highly recommend you try it =)
   
All in all, if you want a quality meal to the standard of Rama V but don't wish to pay an exorbitant price, hurry to KHAO instead and enjoy their awesome set meals!!! This sister restaurant definitely doesn't stinge on quality or quantity. I'd love to return even though Setia City Mall is miles away. To the genius owners of Rama V, please set up another branch at MidValley or 1 Utama ^_^
   
 
     

PawPoints: 5 Paws
Pawket: Tomato
        
http://khao.com.my/
          
        
KHAO by Rama V

LG21, Setia City Mall
Tel: 03 3358 3159
Daily: 10am - 10pm

Rama V Fine Thai Cuisine @ Jalan U Thant, KL

When our friend told us about an ala-carte, fine dining Thai buffet with free flow beer and drinks, we could hardly wait to try it! Rama V's buffet is only available on weekends during lunch and I must say it is a pretty good deal for the amount of food we'll be able to try. It is located in KL where there is a cluster of embassies and housed in a refurbished bungalow. Parking is somewhat limited so best to car pool although it doesn't seem like there are many patrons on weekends.

     

Very fine indeed

      

Pity the rest of the house does not match the entrance

     

Inner garden

     

Place setting

      

Buffet Menu

   

Buffet Menu

   
To minimise wastage, there is a guideline for the number of dishes one can order which depends on the number of people in one's party. Once you have finished the ordered dishes, you are welcomed to order more so it is best to come with a group of 6-8 friends to be able to fully taste most of the dishes available in the ala-carte buffet.

      

Fruit punch

     

Array of drinks available

     

Yam Pla Duk Fu

   
This dish is a spicy catfish salad with dressing made from sliced mangoes. The catfish tastes quite dry as it is deep fried til crisp but provides a nice crunchy texture to the salad. The sliced mango dressing infused with fish sauce is quite spicy and gives a yummy flavour to the overall dish.

     

Meang Kam

   
The typical Thai appetizer, Meang Kam is served beautifully on a square plate with defined slots for each condiment. The condiments include lime cubes, deep fried dried shrimps, ginger cubes, bird's eye chillies, cubed raw onions,  toasted groundnuts and some little sticks of I-dunno-what...probably herbs (or coconut shavings if Wiki is correct). The sauce is thick and I prefer to put more of it on the chaplu aka kadok leaf as otherwise the leafy bundle tastes quite bland. My favourite condiments are raw onions, dried shrimps and lime cubes =)

     

Build your own salad

       

Tom Yam Kung

   
The Tom Yam Kung is murky and spicy with lots of seafood and parsley shavings. One of the best I've had and definitely much better than Khuntai's with just the right sour notes (on a side note, I have no idea why there are so many hits for Khuntai when the dishes are SOOOO sour!!!).

     

Poe Tak

   
I'm not sure if Poe Tak is commonly available in other Thai restaurants but this is the first time I've seen this dish. I was initially quite hesitant to order it as clear soup, to me, just means bland or tastes something like chicken soup. Never have I been so wrong and I must say that Poe Tak is now my favourite and even tops Tom Yam Kung!! =D
   
This clear seafood soup is spicy and infused with Thai herbs. As with the Tom Yam Kung, it consists of lots of seafood and parsley which is my favourite herb. Its spiciness was bearable but the more I drank, the spicier it became! >.< In the end I had to halt my drinking and take a few mouthfuls of other dishes before resuming another spoon of soup. But it was extremely addictive with its light clear bittersweet taste (somehow it tasted like extremely concentrated ginseng chicken soup to me but JS disagreed) and sharp zing. 

     

The culprit

   
The culprit turned out to be a whole family of black peppercorns hiding in the soup with its accomplice - dried chillies.

     

Kai Pad Ka Pao

   
This is a quintessential Thai dish of minced chicken stir fried with lots of fresh basil leaves and chillies. Fragrant and heartwarming, this is the perfect dish to go with rice.

     

Gaeng Ped Pol Linchee

   
Ooo this is yummy...thick red curry with a hint of sweetness by the plump lychees. The roasted duck surprisingly went very well with the curry combination but the brinjal I felt was too hard and did not absorb the curry flavours. There were also these giant pea pods which looked very cute, dotting the dish.

     

Pla Dang Sam Rod

   
This fried red snapper was my favourite of the lot. The fish had a lovely light batter and its meat was still moist and firm despite being bathed in hot oil. The 3 taste chilli sauce was spicy and complemented the fish very well.

   

Kai Hor Bai Toey

   
The Pandan Chicken was really flavourful and well marinated and did not need the help of the accompanying chilli sauce to boost its taste. The chef also managed to retain the juiciness of the chicken despite being deep-fried until its skin was crispy. We were really stuffed by then but I still forced myself to finish the chicken as it was that good.
      

Dessert time!

   
Two in the party were ecstatic that it was finally time for dessert and let me assure you, it wasn't the girls...
       

Chendol, Taro and Sticky Rice in Coconut Milk

   
The cendol expert said this Chendol was so-so only. It was creamier than the local version as evidenced in the picture and JS didn't like the addition of yam in it.

     

Water Chestnut Dumplings with Jack Fruit in Coconut Milk

   
No comment on this as I did not try it but looks good!
     

Longan

   
Tasted like it was straight from the can haha but still good! The chunk of ice helped reduce its sweetness.
     

Mixed Fruits

   
Fresh fruits with a surprise strawberry - what else is there to say? =P
   
Guess how many of us were there for this meal? Only four and we were stuffed beyond words but what a great meal! Although it was a buffet, every dish was prepared with care and tasted better than your average Thai meal. For a price of RM 65, I have to say this is a very good deal as you can sample lots of dishes without breaking your piggy bank (considering the amount you'd have to pay if you ate this much ala-carte).
 
They've got sister restaurants at Setia City Mall and Paradigm Mall which I hope are cheaper versions and we've already got plans to head to one of them =)

   

 
PawPoints: 5 Paws
Pawket: Cheese
      

Rama V Fine Thai Cuisine
5 Jalan U Thant
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2143 2663
Daily: 12pm - 3pm, 6.30pm - 11pm

Nahm-Jim & The L'Orient Lounge @ St Andrews, Scotland

As St Andrews in Scotland is a relatively small town, there are not many Asian restaurants available and Nahm-Jim is one of the few. It serves both Thai and Japanese cuisine but we only sampled the Thai dishes. It is located at the city centre and is fairly easy to spot.

       

        

Table setting

     

Tom Yum (GBP 6.50)

     
There is a choice of king prawns, chicken or mushrooms with the traditional Tom Yum so naturally I chose king prawn =D My brother and I had one bowl each because we expected the portion to be the size of a Chinese rice bowl. You would never believe the size of a portion for one - the bowl pictured above is a medium sized soup bowl!! As you can see, the bowl is chockful of button mushrooms and prawns. The chefs certainly did not tone down the fieryness of the soup for the Scots as even I felt that it was spicy. The Tom Yum is definitely a surprise winner with its spicy and sourish flavour.

     

Chilli and Thai Basil Duck (GBP 14.50)

   
This Chilli and Thai Basil Duck is also our favourite dish. It has lots of wok hei and the tender duck slices are fully infused with the flavours of chilli and basil. The onions and peppers added a nice crunch to the dish. The spicy gravy, though oily, goes so well with rice.

     

Aubergine Green Curry (GBP 12.50)

   
This dish came laden with lots of greens such as the titular baby aubergines, broccoli and peppers. The gravy is thick with the aroma of coconut cream and fragrant due to the addition of herbs. I'm not a fan of green curry as there is a distinct flavour that I can't quite describe but if you love typical green curries, this will most likely win you over too like it did my brother who kept ladling gravy over his rice.

     

If ever you're craving Asian food in St Andrews, Nahm-Jim is a good choice =D

   

    

PawPoints: 4 Paws

    

http://www.nahm-jim.co.uk/index.html

    

Nahm-Jim @ The L'Orient Lounge

60-62 Market Street

St Andrews

Scotland

Tel: +44 01334 470 000

Sun - Thur: 12pm - 4.45pm, 6pm - 12am

Fri - Sat: 12pm - 4.45pm, 6pm - 1am

Chakri Palace @ KLCC

I've always wanted to try Chakri Palace but I knew the prices were quite exorbitant. That's no longer the case as there's a 20% discount off total bill for Citibank card holders so off I went =)
    

Chakri Palace

      

Mango Salad

     
The Mango Salad was extremely appetizing with lots of fish sauce and crunchy peanuts, raw onions and young mango shreds. I thought it very good but my friend said that she's tried better elsewhere.
      

Stir Fried Hong Kong Kailan with Garlic and Mushrooms

     
This wasn't too nice as it was quite bland with hardly any taste of oyster sauce. Skip this if you're there.
   

Japanese Beancurd with Prawns and Mushrooms

     
This was rather average...any tai chow place would be able to do this dish justice. Order this only if you really really like tofu and need to have one immediately.
     

Thai Green Chicken Curry

     
I never used to like green curries as there's this odd taste to it but Chakri Palace's Thai Green Chicken Curry definitely changed my mind about it. It was fragrant and creamy and oh so yummy. My friends and I could not stop scooping the gravy over our rice. It wasn't spicy at first but slowly, it got spicier the more we ate it but nothing too spicy. This is highly recommended.
    

PawPoints: 3 Paws

Pawket: Tomato

    
Chakri Palace
Level 417B, Level 4
Suria KLCC Shopping Centre
Tel: 03 2382 7788
Daily: 10.30am - 10.30pm

Khuntai Village Restaurant @ Jalan Gasing, PJ

This Thai restaurant sits opposite a sprawling field and is the typical wooden shack under a tree sort of place. You are able to see the signage from the main road due to the lights and huge roof.

    

Shop Front

   
There is only one word to describe this place: SOUR!!! You will see why if you scroll down...
     

Umbra Juice with Sour Plum

      
I looked up "umbra" as I have not heard of it before and found out it's the kedondong / shar li fruit...not like it makes any sense to me but wow, combined with sour plum, this green concoction is extremely sour! I guess you can say it's refresthing in a way but I'll stick with sour.
    

Seafood Tom Yum

     
As I arrived quite late, I didn't hear the order placing so I'm not too sure how many person is this Tom Yum specified for but the portion is huge. The fiery red soup holds tons of goodies like prawns and squid. The soup is quite murky though, not sure if it was because of the impurities from the seafood or the way it is cooked. It is also the most sour Tom Yum I've ever tasted. Extremely sour and slightly spicy is how I'd describe this Tom Yum.
    

Yam Basket

     
The Yam Basket is a bit odd. The "basket" itself is not the typical yam basket we usually order in Chinese restaurants. Rather it's quite a stiff structure and much harder to bite than the typical basket. One interesting ingredient in the basket is the inclusion of quail eggs. Didn't try this so can't comment much.
   

Stir Fried Asparagus with Prawns

     
The asparagus was quite yummy and the prawns were fresh but the spicy sauce which coated this dish was quite sour.
   

Stir Fried Kangkung Belacan

   
This dish was yummy with lots of wok hei. Typical kangkung belacan.
   

Steamed Fish

    
The steamed fish came in lots of spicy gravy. The firm flesh of the fish absorbed the flavours of the gravy which was very yummy. However if you were to pair rice with gravy alone, there's only one word to describe it...sour.
   

Mixed Seafood

   
Another sour dish with lots of gravy, the clams and squid also absorbed the flavours fully, making them very yummy.
  

Thai Fried Beancurd

    
The fried beancurd was rather bland with some hidden beans. It's more palatable with the Thai chilli sauce served on the side.
   
This place is very cheap. With so many dishes, it came up to around RM 12 each for 10 people. However I find the dishes here not as spicy as I like my Thai food to be. Rather, if you'd like cheap yummy Thai food with a super strong dose of sourness, do make a visit to Khuntai.

   

PawPoints: 3 Paws
Pawket: Onion

    
http://khunthai.com/?cpage=NTk%3D

   
Khuntai Village Restaurant
6, Jalan 5/44
Pertaling Garden

Off Jalan Gasing
Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03 7781 7523