Frontier

> Location : 1/F, Room 101, Cheung's Bldg., 1-3 Wing Lok St.,
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Indian (Southeastern Asian curry)
> Tel. # : (852) 2850-5075
> Website : N/A

Frontier is an Indian restaurant fused with with some Singapore, Malaysia and Thai curry elements to it. As advertised by their business card, there highlights are "kebab, tandoori B.B.Q, satay, spring roll, Indian curry, Thai curry, Malaysian curry and roti channai." Frontier is right across from a fresh fruit juice stand and right next to Pasha (which I did a review on if you're interested in Turkish gyros). Just go inside Cheung's Bldg. and take the elevator up one floor. Kukretti Pawan Kumar, the chef of Frontier, is a very friendly guy who does some great cooking! So if you're interested in Indian food and the alike, please read on!

I've personally gone to Frontier multiple times so I can give you readers a pretty accurate opinion/information. First up is the menu: The menu is vast and have a lot of items to choose from. The sections are as follows: appetizer (ranging in the $20 HKD), side dish, soup, salad, kebab & tandoori B.B.Q., chef special kebab rolled in pita bread, Asian curry specialty, Indian non vegetarian dishes (ranging in the $50+ HKD), Indian vegertarian dishes (ranging in the $40+ HKD), Indian Charred oven baked Indian bread (ranging in the $10+ HKD), rice (pilau, biryani) specialty, desserts. There's also a drink section and even a set meal menu. I told you it's a lot to choose from =D Pretty much the whole menu is Indian cuisine related except for the curry section you have the choice to try some Thai, Malaysian or Singapore curry if you don't feel like having Indian curry.

The environment is just slightly dim and well lit. During the daytime, if you want more light, there's a big window you can choose to sit right next to. The capacity is about 35 so people. The two waiters are both friendly and definitely ready to take any request. You can order using English or Cantonese. The younger waiter is better with Cantonese if you don't know much English.

Before I give one of my specific taste review of what I recently had, I'm going to share some quick information of what I had at Frontier before. (1) Their samosa (India's infamous appetizer item) is very standardized and tastes good. (2) Onion Pakora, which is like onion rings but deep fried using Indian spices to give it a distinct flavor. It's very interesting if you're into onion rings. (3) Masala papadum is a lentil wafer (thin crispy wafer/this comes with set meals F.Y.I.), that's crispy, a bit salty tasting and has some spices to it. Usually, this is served with Frontier's three sauces (mint, sweet medlar and sour lemon). (4) As for Indian curry, their tandoori dish fish tikka masala with thyme seed and butter (the chicken and lamb version that's similar also), are great dishes. The aroma of the curry/spices, the tenderness of the meat (I've personally tried them all and from lamb to fish to chicken, they are all tender, soft and full of goodness =D). (5) Black lentil with tomato butter and herbs is a Indian vegetarian dish. Black lentil or also known as urd bean or black gram is a type of bean that's highly cultivated in India. Black lentil is very nutritious (there's also a white version also), and used often in Punjabi (India) and Pakistan cuisines. The black lentil dish at Frontier has a definite sense of tomato flavoring along with the herbs. A lot of black lentils are added so you'll definitely get use to the taste of it. (6) Next is the cottage cheese and green peas curry. This curry is more mild tasting (not as define or overwhelm by any of the ingredients). The cottage cheese are in little blocks. (7) Cottage cheese with grounded spinach finish with cream and butter is another item I had. this dish is very similar to the previous but using spinach. (8) Their naan (plain, garlic, onion and all of the alike bread items) are all done very well. Their naan isn't too thin, hard and dry but perfectly soft and tastes great especially garlic naan! If you ever went to some other places that serves Indian naan before, it's so dry and sometimes very thin, it's just wrong. But definitely not Frontier's. There might be some plus and minus' once in awhile, but overall, you can be confident about it.

Now onto my recent experience. My prior experience at Frontier is with their set meal for lunch. Their set meal comes with soup of the day, plain naan, rice, some mixed vegetables, a samosa, and your choice of curry (cost varies depending on your choice). The prices range from $39 HKD to $70 HKD for the choices. Drinks are $8 HKD extra (check for what's available). For this section of the review, I've gone with the Indian Vegetable Curry ($39 HKD for the whole set) and the India Chicken Tikka Masala ($55 HKD, whole set). No, I didn't eat both myself =D Though the vegetable curry set is the cheapest of them all, it doesn't lack ingredients at all. The vegetable curry comes with cauliflower, potatoes, cilantro, onion, peas, string beans, carrot, green pepper, broccoli, and cabbage. The curry has a strong vegetable taste to it. It's slightly spicy and tastes like your standardized, good tasting Indian vegetable curry.

India Chicken Tikka Masala is up next. The masala sauce was great (there was some chopped up onions inside, and cilantro sprinkled on top for people who are curious about any other visible ingredients). The sweet, salty and spiciness are all well-balanced together. The chicken was very tender. Along with the masala sauce, it was just marvelous! You can definitely sense the herbs used in this dish along with a lot of similar dishes in their regular menu.

The soup of the day was dried bak choy soup. It had a mild taste to it but you can definitely sense the bak choy used. The samosa served here is always consistently good and the masala papadum (lentil wafer) is always a nice treat with the sauces. The 4 pieces of naan that comes with the meal are good (get garlic naan from the menu, it's good!) and the mixed vegetables are seasoned with a minor vinegar like sauce.

Any other information Simon? Well, to me, the highlight of Frontier is their Indian cuisine choices. Their Southeastern Asian curry dishes are above average but I always preferred the Indian flavors. I really don't have much to complain about this place. If you stick with the main items on their menus with keywords that are listed multiple times, you won't be disappointed. I still have to try their B.B.Q. items to get a full gist of things. I actually seen some people ordering it and it sure looks good! I've mostly touched on their curries and bread for the most part. Their service is friendly and I definitely recommend anybody going if they're in the Sheung Wan, Central area! Anyways, my verdict for Frontier is...

< 4 out of 5 >

Thalassic Thai Restaurant

> Location : Shop C & D, G/F, Chi Ping Building, 38 Hau Wo Street,
Kennedy Town, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Thai
> Tel. # : (852) 3606-3111
> Website : N/A

Yes, we have another Kennedy Town special! But how is it this time? Thalassic Thai Restaurant is in the back streets of Kennedy Town in Hau Wo Street. It's suppose to be a pretty new restaurant. When I first stepped in, the lighting, the decoration (especially around the bar area), are all pleasant looking. The people who served us, attitude wise, were all friendly.

The menu is pretty straight forward. There's a section for curry, salad, appetizers, vegetables and other major categories common to Thai cuisine. I actually got to try quite a few items from this place and I'll share it with you all right away!

Their Tom Yum Kong soup was okay overall. It was more sour than spicy. I was hoping the two could have been more balanced but it's acceptable. Ingredient wise, it's filled with everything that should be there so that's a big plus! Overall, if you're craving some tom yum kong, there's no major low points to prevent you from ordering it here.

Next up, we got the appetizer combo (varies in size/price depending on how many people are eating). There are egg rolls, fried fish (crab?) cake, chicken wrapped in lotus leaf, and other stuff. I had the chance to try the fried fish cake and it had little taste to it. The chicken in lotus leaf was much better. The chicken was marinated and seemed to be fried before being wrapped in the lotus leaf. The rest of the items are what you would imagine them to taste.

I also got half a Hainan Chicken. The chicken came with a similar sauce that a lot of the times, comes with egg rolls in Thai restaurants. This, sweet and sour like sauce. The chicken essentially didn't have much taste to it nor any reminiscence of Hainan chicken flavor. It was more dependent on you to use the sweet and sour sauce which made me felt disappointed. The Hainan chicken Thai style from Lanna Thai (Causeway Bay) was done much better.

Another item i got to try is the pomelo, fried cocunut strip with shrimp salad. This salad is an interesting concept. the pomelo (grapefruit meat) was obvious sweet and maybe just slightly sour. The coconut strips fried would be a little salty with a slight sweetness to it. shrimp would be how shrimp would taste like. What I thought was missing was something "green" to this salad. A salad after all has greens or vegetable related items in it no matter what other non-traditional ingredients are involved. I enjoyed it but after a few tastes, I just thought something green/a bit sour would have perfect this salad.

Next, I had the yellow curry with chicken. Yellow curry in this case would be panang curry (the menu all provided descriptions of the dishes in english and chinese for most of the dishes. only some came with the original Thai name). Panang curry has a sweetish and slightly spicy flavor to it. It's one of the most commonly famous Thai curry around. As for Thalassic, the "yellow curry" had that famous panang taste but not as strong as I would like. The spiciness was strong indeed. My curry came with an ordered of their so-called "pizza." The "pizza" was essentially like a thousand layer pancake (a Northern Chinese delicacy) but fried with more oil, salt and butter added. If you try it, you might have come up with other things that you might have been reminded of (Indian style bread or even Malaysian if you ask me, other than what I said previously).

In the end, I had an alright experience at Thalassic. They had dishes that almost made it to the "finish line" but never quite got there (e.g. the pomelo salad). I actually had this rice dish that I didn't even bother to mention about because it was so bald. The decoration, creativity involved was great but the taste just wasn't there. The environment was festive especially if you get to sit near the bar area because that's where all the jungle-like decorations are. The service was good besides the fact that I just didn't enjoy how the waitress kept asking me to order the most expensive items. The costs justified by the type of item, location but not through the quality as I've described above. If you really want to have some Thai in Kennedy Town, I wouldn't beg you to not go. Overall, it's an average feeling from me.

< 3 out of 5 >

Lian

> Location : Shop 2004, Podium Level 2, International Finance
Centre Mall, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Viet/thai/Bar/Bistro
> Tel. # : (852) 2521-1117
> Website : N/A

Another creation from the M.A.X. Concept group (Maxim e.g. Rice Paper), Lian is a classy, business oriented Vietnamese/Thai restaurant located in podium level 2 of the I.F.C. mall. When you first step into Lian, you will spot an entertainment room to the right and the actual restaurant and bar to the left. The restaurant/Bar itself consists of about a 10 seating Bar, a very creative large square table with water decorations in the middle of it. The table itself definitely will be shared among the visitors very much like a bar table. The lighting is dim, there's a mirror up on the roof and on opposite sides of the restaurant to make the atmosphere feel bigger. There's a window looking out into Central with about seven booth style seating available by and away from the window. There is also a bar that serves especially juice and wine.

Lian's menu contains your usual appetizer section along with short orders, rice/noodles/bread, Lian's selections, and vegetables. There are symbols indicating which are Vietnamese or Thai dishes. There's also a separate menu for drinks and dessert.

So onto the food! In any Thai related restaurant, you're going to find "Stir fried morning glory with chili and preserved shrimp paste" in the menu ($58 HKD). At Lian, they keep the consistency alive with that salty, shrimpy flavor from the dish. Nothing extraordinary but done just right.

Next up is the "Green tea smoked duck, pineapple caramel chili lime salt" ($165 HKD). The lime salt is provided on the side to put on your duck. At first bite, I noticed the smoke flavor doesn't overwhelm the other qualities of the dish. It blends in well with the lime salt, the sweetest from the pineapple caramel and there's even a hint of spiciness. Most of the smoked flavor comes from the duck skin and in its entirety, the meat is very tender. It's basically a dish of many flavors yet done very well. It doesn't make you question why a certain sensation is added onto the dish. Some sourness, some saltiness, some sweetness and some spiciness. A good dish overall.

Lastly, is the most expensive dish in Lian's menu which is the "White Miso marinated Chilean sea bass wrapped in cucumber lime leaf and lemon grass flavor, purple pickle" ($ 175 HKD). When it comes to miso on fish, we think of the Japanese. If you ever had miso roasted fish in Japanese style, there's always a strong definite flavoring of miso on the fish but not enough to overwhelm the fish's meat flavor. Yes, this is a Vietnamese / Thai fusion restaurant so it's hard to follow this concept. However, from the first bite into this dish, I noticed the miso flavoring is barely there. You notice it's there but not enough to trigger any delightful sensation in your brain. At the very least, the sea bass is tender and fresh (you can tell if you don't taste that fermented flavor to it). the purple pickles was a nice compliment with the light-tasting sea bass. It was a bit sour, very much like those Japanese style pickles used for bentos or rice porridge. I actually asked one of the waitress about the extreme lack of miso flavoring and the wateriness of the dish. She actually had that same notion when she tried it herself and told the chef about it before. However, the chef thinks that's just how it should be made. So possibly, my experience wasn't an inconsistency, it was just meant to be. Yet, if we were to use the stereotypical standards of what people think is good or not, this dish will dissatisfy many. With the compliment from the purple pickles, I think the miso sauce doesn't need to be extremely obvious but stronger would be nice.

For dessert, I had the caramelized pineapple and fresh mango served with snow pine leaf ice cream. This dessert is a two-sided item and the pastry side goes very well with the ice cream side. A very simple dessert yet done very well! One of those dishes you just have to try to understand!

So it boils down to me shaking my head a little about the most expensive dish in the menu. I expected a lot more from a $175 HKD item. But hey, others might like it. My opinion? Not many though. Yet, I take nothing away from the dessert and the duck dish. They were done extremely well and I give them high marks! So my verdict for Lian is...

< 3 1/2 out of 5 >

Lanna Thai

> Location : Shop # 1101, 11/F, Times Square, 1 Mantheson St.,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Thai
> Tel. # : (852) 2506-3303
> Website : N/A

Wow simon, thai cuisine again? haha. well, i wanted to try this neat place where they serve malaysian food and you eat it on a banana leaf. however, my brother brought up this new thai restaurant inside times square so i decided on that! wow simon, still, it's thai! see, the thing is, this place only opened for like about 2 months and hell, i haven't found any english friendly reviews online of it, so i have to be the first one to put one up!

lanna thai is located within times square on the 11th floor. yes, one above modern china restaurant! speaking of "modern," when you first enter lanna thai, the decoration is especially modern yet you get this very high class feeling as you walk to your seat. the atmosphere is slightly dimmed with different colored lighting on certain walls giving it a very layback mood. high class indeed, the menu tells you that this place isn't particularly cheap. here's a good comparison. their appetizer costs just as much as a regular dish at most standard chinese restaurant. about ranging around $60 to $80 hkd. their entrees are around $100 (some are a bit less) all the way up to $200 hkd so. usually cost justifies the quality and at this place, it definitely does that! yes, the cliche, "you get what you pay for" comes to mind. food wise, the following on the different sections of the menu: grill, sharkfin and soup, meat and poultry, seafood, curry, vegetable, noodle, rice, salad and dessert.

first up, hey what's new? haha, it's tom yum kong with chicken (this place spells it with the "k" and some places use "g"). the last three thai places, the menu only indicated with prawn and this place, you had the choice of both! tired of prawns, i went back to the old fashion chicken tom yum kong. one thing i must say is, the waitress' will warn you with specific orders, that the item is originally spicy unless request to lighten the spiciness. this place's "normal" spiciness is hotter than the last three places i went to (thai simple kitchen, chili n spice, cafe siam). it's not too bad if you eat spicy stuff once in awhile. for people who don't too often, it will be somewhat difficult. so request them to lighten it if you can't take the heat! besides the replacement of prawns with chicken, the ingredients within the tom yum kong are pretty much the same. the one thing that was different from what i usually experience is the addition of bean sprouts. it makes the soup more crowded but i don't think it does much to the taste. essentially, an additional vegetable for you to eat. soup wise, spicy as i've hinted. it doesn't seem to be very sour. perhaps the extra spiciness neutralizes your senses to make you think it isn't too sour. still, you can definitely pick up the sourness from the lemon juice and lemon grass. the chicken was nice and soft, easy to eat. this tom yum kong definitely has its own unique position from the other reviews i've done. these exceptions are rather hard to explain until you really try it yourself! $48 hkd for chicken per person and $52 hkd for prawn per person.

next up, we have the green papaya & beef strip salad with chilli & fresh coriander ($75 hkd). this thai papaya salad is like a fusion between thai beef salad and thai papaya salad. one thing that catches your attention is the rawness of the slides of beef. seemingly not cooked long enough, the beef is about medium rare or about a tiny bit less and just cooked just right. it has the roasted flavor to it which is really good. fried wanton strips (the like) is added giving this salad a chinese chicken salad look to it. with lettuce as the base, the green papaya is set on top of. the papaya is very crisp and fresh. the sour, slight sweetness from the lime juice and fish sauce (fish sauce is added in a lot of these sour tasting thai dishes) within the green papaya along with the roasted sensation of the beef with the crispy fried strips give every bite a mouthful of sensation. forgetting to mention, crushed peanuts are also spread slightly into the salad giving another thing for your mouth to register. an extremely well put combination. it is not your usual thai papaya salad with carrot strips and cherry tomatoes (the traditional version can be ordered), but it is still a very well done dish!

satay chicken! no, i lied. haha. but it's a fusion dish up next. hai nan chicken in bangkok style ($128 hkd). so basically, hai nan chicken is a malaysian highlight. it is steamed chicken served with chili or grinded ginger and onion oil sauce along with rice that is cooked with garlic, oil (or chicken fat) and some chicken broth. definitely a simple yet really good experience. so what's different with bangkok style? according to the waitress, the chicken is spiced with thai style ingredients and on the side, served with this sour and spicy sauce. usually, hai nan chicken steamed is a pale yellowish texture on the skin. lanna thai's bangkok style holds a golden brown texture on the skin most likely due to its marinade and spices. the taste difference is that, i think the bangkok style has more define taste to it and not extremely dependent on the chili or ginger sauce in malaysian style. along with the spicy and sour sauce provided, lanna thai's hai nan chicken was definitely very unique. i think this dish is a good twist but not superb. the chicken itself was done very well, holding a tender texture. cucumber and red pepper base/decoration was used along with some side lettuce garnishes. overall, the tenderness of the chicken, the more define taste due to the spcies along with a hot and sour sauce makes this dish a definite order choice.

you can't leave a thai place until you have some sauteed thai vegetables! i got a good kick out of thai baby cabbage from chili n spice last time so i had to go with more cabbages this time! at lanna's, they didn't have any baby cabbage. however, their cabbage still isn't huge and not too far from baby size. one of the cabbage dish they have is the sauteed bamboo fungus, mixed mushrooms & cabbage sprout ($85 hkd). like always, you get the usual thai sauteed vegetable flavor like with morning glory. however, this particular dish is designed to be more light and refreshing so the sauteed flavor isn't as strong but still noticeable. usual sauteed flavors come with shrimp paste or bean curb paste so it's more salty. in the end, this is a standout dish from all the spicy, sour and sweet flavors.

last but not least, is my favorite dish next to the papaya salad dish. cod fish with red curry ($118 hkd). of course not just curry and fish, there's also red and green bell pepper, onions, thai green eggplants and squash along with some spices that look like vegetables, but are just there for the taste and looks. just a little additional information, when you think eggplants, it isn't just the long purple looking vege. egg plants also come in small round shapes like a golf ball! thai green eggplants is a green and golf ball size vege. sorta reminds you of a cherry tomato but green. anyways! there's about three good size cod's in this dish so don't worry about the lack of meat in this dish, heh. the red curry is nice and rich holding a very pleasant sweet taste. the dish isn't as spicy as the other ones i mentioned, just having a mild spiciness to it. if you've eaten cod fish before, you know it's really hard to cook it wrong. cod fish has a very easy to bite into texture in short or longer cooking time and usually holds a very distinct taste even with little marinade before cooking. due to the eating friendly nature of this fish along with the rich and tasty red curry, these two things end up going hand in hand making this a very wonderful and visual friendly dish (colorful, contrast). definitely three thumbs up if i had a third thumb. haha.

so finally, the end of this review! let me take a breather now, haha. before i give a score, i also want to mention about service. the waitress' and waiters were overall very helpful. the manager that night was also very helpful with various random questions i asked him about the restaurant. price wise, i must say it's not cheap. the taste, decoration, presentation of the dishes does justify the price for the most part. i just believe if you pick the right places, you can probably find matching quality dishes for a cheaper price. chances of doing so are probably slim and even if you do, not every dish you order can be as consistent as a place like lanna thai. one thing i want to bring to light is that, a lot of thai restaurants i go to around hong kong don't use the official thai name for some of the dishes. i mean, i understand it is hard to know what exactly it is if you've never ordered it before or don't read the language. however, you can always put the description right below it to clarify things. it is more friendly to experienced and native people to the cuisine and also adds an informative/intriguing look to the menu for first timers and such. on the side, i also got one of their desserts. it's a coconut jelly dessert which comes in six pieces. not much i can say beisdes that, it's a nice addition to the lineup! anyhow, so what's my final take?

< 4 1/2 out of 5 >

Chili N Spice

> Location : Shop 117, Podium Level 1, The Westwood,
8 Belcher's St., Sai Wan, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Thai fused with Singaporian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese
> Tel. # : (852) 2542-7777
> Website : http://kingparrot.com/eng/theme_chilli1_hk.php

Sorry it has been awhile, haha. but i gotta apologize again! since these two restaurants were unexpected visits, i didn't bring my camera with me =( however, i managed to take pictures with my camera phone with one place but the other i had to use my brother's which is low res. anyhow, i'll be visiting this place more times in the near future anyways so i'll surely replace them with better quality ones!

chili n spice is part of the king parrot group, which comprises of all sorts of cuisines from russian to shanghainese. chili n spice alone has four other branches: causeway bay, stanley, shatin, and tseung kwan o. when i first stepped into this place, there were a lot of nice decorations all around. the place is fairly big with a lower level and a higher level of seating. when i say higher level, it doesn't mean second story, but just a few steps higher up. the waitress' i had contact with all seem to be of thai or indonesian decent and their attitudes and service were overall very positive.

i ordered three things. firstly, i went with the tom yum gong as a soup starter. like thai simple kitchen which i reviewed the other week, they added some prawns in the soup. ingredient wise, it was pretty much the same (the usual coconut milk, basil leafs, mushrooms, etc). taste wise, there certainly is a difference. while simple thai had a more sour taste, chili n spice was a bit less sour yet you can sense a sweeter sensation. seriously, i wish to know what exactly is the standard for this thai soup. but judging it in a more artistic sense, chili n spice's tom yum gong is certainly in its own position because of the sweeter taste. note, the sweetness is not so much where it overwhelms the sourness. after all, the sour taste is the highlight of this and many thai soups. in the end, i definitely give this soup a go for ordering.

the second thing i ordered is the sauteed thai baby cabbage with black mushrooms. baby cabbage is a less common vegetable so check with your waiter before ordering! according to my brother, they don't always have this dish because of the baby cabbage. the reason for this (i believe) is because cabbages are a seasonal vegetable. they tend to do better in cooler weather and since it's still consider summer time right now, the heat won't help most of the cabbage crops. the base sauce of this dish is very much like a lot of thai sauteed style vegetable (e.g. morning glory). a bit salty but the baby cabbage's sweetness blends in well. the slices of carrots added into the dish also helped balance the taste. the black mushrooms were also very good. they were nice and juicy and easily bite into. i must say, besides morning glory, if you ever get a chance to order thai style baby cabbage, do it! yes, i know it's just vege, but this is vege that will make your mouth water!

on the side i want to discuss about presentation. this place doesn't give up on anything when it comes to presentation from what i see. the menu is very colorful and i could tell from it the plates and platters they use to hold their food are all very creative and unique. looking around the other tables definitely tell me so.

to connect this thought, our final dish is the chicken green curry with pumpkin and coconut milk. they also have a similar dish next to this one called duck green curry with lychee and coconut milk. both sounded very tempting but i had to go with the pumpkin since i have a lot of experience with thai curry and fruits before. first of all, presentation wise, they used this clay pot made into a shape of a chicken. obviously very unique. yes, chicken holding chicken, haha. this dish definitely is not mild at all. it is not super spicy but still enough where you need to drink some of the ice water here and there. besides the title of the dish, other known used ingredients are eggplants, basil leafs and this one round/green vegetable is used (i really want to figure out what this round green thing is! it's like the size of a cherry tomato but it's green and not as sour as a tomato). the chicken was cooked just right. not a minute more in fact. it seemingly had a raw texture to it but it is cooked of course. so it had a chewy texture when bite into. the green curry was spicy and sweet due to the coconut milk and probably some from the pumpkin. the eggplant, pumpkin and other vegetable were very soft and hold most of its taste from the cooking process. i think the overall combination of these ingredients are done very well. however, i personally would like to see this dish having a stronger taste to it. perhaps a little bit more sweeter in the green curry would do the job right. the green curry i had at central is the perfect example of what i think is green curry done right. however, take nothing away from chili n spice's green curry. the presentation and combination of ingredients is certainly a boost. taste is good but like i said sweeter would make it more memorable in my opinion.

in the end, chili n spice gave me a overall good first impression. there are still a lot i need to try from this place! the green curry just didn't quite get me going. so i couldn't give this place that extra half a point. the dish is still good! but not in the excellent status. for now, i give this place...

< 3 1/2 out of 5 >

Thai Simple Kitchen

> Location : 3/F., President Theatre, 517 Jaffe Rd.,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Thai
> Tel. # : (852) 2838- 2896
> Website : N/A

First and foremost, please click on the photos this time for a larger image! anyways... tell me about it. rating something with a perfect score or near perfect score is tough. especially a person like me who have high expectations in things i enjoy. the environment, the customer service, the decorations on the food, the taste of the food itself, the price versus quality ratio all has to be correct. all these fields holds some type of exceptions depending on the business strategy and what not. so like i promised, i have a thai restaurant review just for you'll. even though most of you just look at the pictures, haha, i'm going to be as informative as possible for the the few that are around hong kong or might travel to hong kong!

i'm going to split this review into two experiences. the first about 4 days ago with rebecca, her cousin and cousin's girlfriend (much props again to her cousin for treating us and props to 'becca for taking some of the photos for me! ^_^ ) and second with family just yesterday.

located in 3/F. president theatre, 517 jaffe road, causeway bay, hong kong, a little unexpected entrance lies a restaurant with many faces. your first step inside is a nice sign that says thai simple kitchen and some decorations and a elavator leading up to the rear floor where the restaurant is at. once out of the elavator, you face a semi-dim environment with a lot of spotlighting, water flowing decorations, a small stage for performances (a lot of thai places in LA are like that), outside part of the restaurant, inside part of the restaurant, a big horizontal glass window looking outside and many other things. the most neat thing about this place is the outside part of the restaurant. although most know hong kong has humid weather, they placed a lot of high powered fans around to keep you cool and even a few 8-10 seating shacks closed in with clear plastic sheets with air conditioning inside. a very colorful environment and very exciting. so the first time, i sat outside but not inside the shacks.

we ordered six things. the first thing that came is the 'famous prawn soup' or as most would call it, 'tom yum gong.' one of the two infamous soups in thai restaurants (next to tom ka ka). the usual suspects in this soup are lemon grass, lime juice, chili, basil leafs and mushrooms. to make it a more high class pricey item, the menu adds some king prawns in it. tom yum gong is a very sour and spicy soup. of course, it did disappoint at this place. spicy (chili playing a role) and sour (lemon grass and lime juice playing a role). every taste keeps its strong flavors and nothing left out. when the soup comes, a fire is add on the bottom to keep its warmth for seconds and as a environmental decoration. a thai soup like this has to be the best starter you can have!

next up is the 'panang curry with prawn & coconut milk with vermicelli.' at first i thought it was going to be a bowl/pot with a lot of curry within. but when it came, i was very surprised. a side note, this place loves using king prawns. so why was i surprised? well, forget the bowl of rice, the vermicelli is your base for the panang curry. first of all, panang curry is your prime orange thai curry. it holds a very unique sweet flavor that no one can ever forget. so you have king prawn meat on top of the vermicelli mixed in with the panang curry. the decorations on the dish is splendid. with king prawn head, tail, with a decorative carot flower and some uncooked lettuce and cabbage as a green/white coloring base. usually, i would think vietnamese vermicelli with some fish sauce is good but vermicelli with panang curry? you know, this combination is a genius move! the softness of the vermicelli along with the very strong flavor of the thickly cooked panang curry is just so darn good. note, the curry is thick and not watery at all which is a positive. along with the king prawn meat, it's just good stuff!

so, you think you had enough king prawn? next we have the 'fried rice with prawn, chicken, longnan, garlic and shallot.' no prawn head this time but you just have the meat. this dish is presented well too. it comes in a wooden pot with a cover on top. open it up, you see all its wonders. this is one of the less strong tasting dish overall speaking. as of in, the taste is reliant on one or two of the ingredients. usually, fried rice is like that unless it's a wet fried rice like fujian style fried rice where the thick sauce covers everything. the highlight this dish, longnan is added which is a very similar fruit to lychee. it's a bit less sour than lychee but more sweet. it gives the fried rice a slight sweet flavor to it. the bit of saltiness comes from the dry pork meat. usually these things (comes in beef, fish also) goes with rice porridge, but adding this to this fried rice helps the higlighting of the taste. besides that, the taste has a sweet, soy sauce like taste to it. great presentation, conservative taste yet good overall.

now we have the strongest saltiness tasting dish. 'fried minced chicken with basil, chili.' this dish is very salty, very strong with its basil and chili taste (therefore spicy also). the dish also includes some mushrooms, green beans and red bell peppers. a very colorful presentation. this dish is definitely a rice matching dish so naturally it went with the fried rice that was discussed above. a dish that should be loved by people who loves spiciness and extremely strong flavors.

to the side of the restaurant outside, there's a grill for the 'griddle' portion of the menu. all sorts of seafood can be choose from. for our occasion, we went with the squid. like always, good color contrast in the presentation. the grilled squid goes with a thick sweet, sour garlic, chili type sauce. if you ever had the dressing on thai beef salad, it tastes very very similar to it. the squid is chewy with the grill like taste on it. along with the sauce, it adds a nice compliment to it. simple overall but of course, still very good in its own way.

hey, we all need fiber to help do our business right? so we went with the 'sauteed morning glory with bean paste and chili.' morning glory is one of my personal favorite vegetable. the various ways it could be cooked in (shrimp sauce, bean paste, chopped garlic), really makes it a versatile vegetable. in this dish, the bean paste helps highlight a lot. in addition to this, some of the bean is not grinded into paste which gives some additional chewing, taste to it. the bean paste gives that fermented, salty flavor to the morning glory. the chili gives the dish a slight spiciness to it which patches up the dish. good stuff definitely.

OKAY!! well, i'm not quite done yet. haha. so onto my second experience right away. sat inside one of those shacks that is air conditioned. the plastic covering keeps the AC inside really well away from that humid feeling. definitely a nice enclosed environment with a bunch of friends or family. the dish difference between my first and second experience is the 'pineapple fried rice' and the 'steamed mullet with lemon grass, basil, grape tomato, coconut milk, and lime.' the other dishes were also ordered from the first experience.

so instead fried rice coming with a wooden pot, it's fried rice coming in a half pineapple shell! pineapple fried rice is the most common rice dish among most thai food lovers. this one comes with rasins, squid (additional meat), mix vegetables (like those frozen bags with peas, kernal, etc). pineapple of course, chicken (base meat) and shrimp (additional meat). presentation wise, nothing but clever. since it's pineapple fried rice, it comes in a pineapple shell, haha. very much like the other fried rice, this dish is very dependent on the pineapple for the highlighting of the taste, sweetness. again, dry pork meat is added on top to make sure flavors are extracted with every bite. with the usually not added meat into the fried rice (squid, shrimp), it gives a somewhat mix sensation to the mouth. i would prefer limiting it down to chicken and shrimp if not just chicken. nevertheless, it was a good dish. my only complaint was, because they try to fit it into the pineapple, the portion wasn't a lot compared to the wooden pot one, but still, clever presentation.

last but not least, the steamed mullet. this dish took the longest for it to prepared. comes in a fish shaped plate with fire underneath, the sauce/soup base to this dish tastes pretty much like tom ka ka. comes with lemon grass, basil, grape tomato, coconut milk, and lime as said before, the flavor is about mild. i suggest when eating the mullet (it's a type of fish by the way), eat it in conjunction with the soup base. it gives every bite the sweet (coconut milk ) and sour (lime) sensation. i was expecting the sourness to be stronger, however it came mild. yet, it's a nice dish used last to settle off all the spicy, strong sour and sweet flavors if that's a better way to make this dish sound better. overall good, but i think it's one of those exceptional moments. which is, if i came tomorrow again, the taste could possibly be stronger. or perhaps it is intentional for it to be mild. presentation and everything wise, done very nicely.

4 simons with sombrero hats or 4.5? 5 is out of the question. i absolutely got to have no doubt at all to give it a 5. i'll say this right now, the service was a bit not as responsive as i would like. both times there, the responsiveness was very similar. when asking if a certain dish is coming or not, they would check for you but never come back sometimes to say if they checked and it's coming right away. attitude is between neutral to good. all this definitely threw away 0.5 out of the total. okay, it's not about the food, but the way i see how this business is geared, the customer service is a must. ultimately, this place is a must visit restaurant! nothing was mediocore. all was good to excellent. definitely a good thai place to go to! in the end...

< 4 out of 5 >

Thai Spice

> Location : 15455 Jeffrey Rd., Ste 315, Irvine,
California 92618, U.S.A.
> Cusine : Thai fast food
> Tel. # : N/A
> Website : N/A

For some quick thai food, thai spice does it job. i live fairly close to thai spice for like 3 years so i had a lot of experiences there. they may not use traditional ingredients in every dish, but for someone with a new tongue in thai food, it really is still some above average food.

as the name tells u, this place isn't kidding with the spiciness! you get to choose up to 4 or 5 different levels of spiciness. mild is usually good enough in my opinion unless you like to fight fire throughout your meal!

as one reviewer stated, their soup isn't exactly up to par with sit down restaurants. but still it's acceptable. most notably, tom ka ka and tom yum gong. i'm usually a sucker for their noodles. pad see u, pad thai, lad lan, pad kee mow, chicken curry noodle are all good (pardon the spelling). rice wise, i like the spicy chicken on rice over pineapple fried rice. just because of the consistent taste.

speaking of taste, because they change between 2-3 chefs now and then (i know of an older lady chef and a younger/middle age lookin chef), the consistency of some dishes can vary sometimes. due to this fact, picky eaters can feel negative about this. it has been a month or two since i've been there so things could have changed.

appetizer wise, their chicken wings are really good. spicy with a lot of honey and other ingredients, this to me is the best appetizer besides their fried tofu with the peanut sauce or the satay meats.

anyways, overall, it's one of the better place for asian semi-fast food around that area. if you go there often enough, u might even get free appetizers or drinks like me =) on a side note, they can make green curry even though it isn't on their menu. try requesting it, they might make it for you. i know they did for me! how did it taste? it's alright. not great but heck, i use to go there so often, i needed something else 'cause i had everything on the menu already!

i would give this place three stars. BUT because of their friendly service (at the very least to me ^^) and it is fast food after all (yet, the quality isn't horrible when the right chef is working, the old one i prefer), for a place like this, it deserves 3.5-4. since there's no 3.5, i'll give it a 4! hope this helps.

* these short reviews by me can also be found on www.yelp.com

< 4 out of 5 >

Cafe Siam

> Location : 40-42, Lyndhurst Terrance, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Thai
> Tel. # : (852) 2851-4803
> Website : N/A

So all that was yesterday for dinner. today for lunch, i went up a place near by, in central also, called cafe siam. cafe siam is thai cusine. if you think simon had enough of thai food (thai spice), well i haven't yet. haha. i ordered two things. the first thing i ordered was tom yum gong fried rice. tom yum gong is originally a soup with chicken, lemon grass, coconut juice and a few other spices and ingredients. however, what made this dish funky was, practically, they took the soup and used it as a sauce to make fried rice out of it. with two prawns on top of the fried rice, the taste was as expected. a bit spicy and sour as usual. interesting overall. so if you like the taste of tom yum gong a lot, u should definitely try this out. the other dish i ordered was chicken green curry. i've ate green curry from all over the place before and this HAD TO BE, the best green curry i have ever had. first of all, green curry usually consist of thai bail leafs, choice of meat, some coconut milk and green curry powder. i believe, a lot of the times, restaurants tend to save money and not use too much coconut and green curry powder, and replacing it with a bit more water, the curry gets diluted a bit. in cafe siam's green curry, my experience was a very strong, distinctive taste of all the ingredients within the dish. nothing was left out of my taste buds. in the end, it's definitely a place i will come back to.

< 4 out of 5 >