YhingThai Palace
Simple Thai restaurant at trendy Purvis Street whips up a great fare.
Situated
along the growing number of trendy eateries and shops at Purvis
Street is the rather untrendy-looking YhingThai Palace. The
simple décor of this Thai restaurant is a stark contrast to
its chic neighbours. But don't be deceived by looks, this
restaurant offers superb Thai food and is usually crowded
on a normal weekday.
From what we heard, the owner's wife is a Thai who has been living here in Singapore for the last 20 years and they recruited Thai chefs through her contacts back in Thailand. The kitchen is currently manned by nine Thai staff, and there is no Singaporean present in the kitchen-- which may explain the absence of strong local adaptation of the Thai food they served in the restaurant.
There
are a few star dishes that appear on practically every table,
one of them is the Fish with Mango Sauce. The pomfret is just
nicely fried and crispy and goes perfectly well with the mango
sauce dip. It's so crispy that you can just chew on the fish
head and eat up the crispy bones. Though this dish is commonly
found in Thailand, the Thais do not use pomfret as it is an
expensive fish. But, admittedly, the pomfret is a good substitute
for the traditional fish that the Thais use.
The Deboned Chicken Wing stuffed with Mushrooms and Asparagus is simply delicious. Fried till light brown, it's crispy on the outside with tender and juicy stuffing on the inside. Though many prefer pineapple rice when it comes to Thai food, the olive rice at YhingThai is the actual show-stealer. The rice is fried till fragrant and served with condiments like dried shrimps (hei bi), chilli padi, lime, onions and sweetened pork. Mix the condiments with the rice and it can be a meal in itself. So, our advice-- skip the pineapple rice and go for the olive rice instead. You will not regret this decision!
Tom Yam soup is a usual must but it's a pity that the soup is nothing to shout about at all. In fact, it is a disappointment after eating all the other delicious dishes as you would have expected the restaurant to excel in this most traditional perennial favourite Thai soup.
The
dessert spread is quite limited and worth trying is the durian
with glutinous rice and coconut milk. It is a rich dessert--with
such a potent combination of pungent durian fruit mixed with
thick coconut milk and glutinous rice. This is the perfect
sweet ending to your meal here.
While we rave about the food, the same cannot be said of the service. Though our food was served promptly, the waiters were rather inattentive. To get a refill of our iced water, we had to remind them six to seven times before they bother to realize that we were requesting for iced water. How's that for service? If only they could match their service to the standard of their food
| Dish: | YhingThai Palace |
| Where: | #01-04
Purvis Street |
| Test date: | 01 Jan 2001 |
| Rating: |
 Excellent! |
