Thai Central

It was Good Friday, a public holiday. My family decided to have a family dinner at night because we seldom eat together due to work commitments. We decided to skip Mayim and Jai Thai for something we haven’t tried before.

Korean cuisine was too spicy and Japanese was considered too exotic for my parents and my dad got a craving for Thai food so we decided to go to this Thai Restaurant called Thai Central, not to be confused with Central Thai, that is another restaurant in Orchard or Somerset.

Thai Central is located along Chun Tin Road, next to Old Town White Coffee. Chun Tin Road was named after Cheong Chun Tin, the first qualified Chinese dentist to settle in Singapore. He has a son named Cheong Chin Nam who was a well-known dentist as well as a merchant, landowner and rubber estate owner. Cheong Chin Nam Road was named after him.

"a Thai Central Meal is always a memorable affair"

Okay back to Thai Central. The décor is rather simple and contemporary, nothing fancy. Just a simple Thai air-conditioned restaurant.

The menu offers a fair variety of food including Mango Salads, Thai Tofu, Stired Fried Kai Lan, Laksa with different kinds of curries, Curries, Olive Rice, Pineapple Rice, Thai Chendol etc.

My sister and brother-in-law loved the Thai Iced-Tea

To upsize your meal, you must add another $3.90 to include a side-dish (5 choices) and a drink (5-6 choices) including the sweet and slightly milky Thai Iced-Tea which my sister, brother-in-law and mum enjoyed a lot. They also offer lunch sets.

We ordered quite a lot and I shall just touch on what I ate instead.

Thai Tofu Slices (Included in the Upsize)
The Tofu slices are ordinary, it was crispy and it was served with Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce.

Golden Rolls (Included in the Upsize)
This was cleared as soon as it came. A crispy layer of crust wrapped around some crunchy vegetables inside. The crust is not oily too. It was paired nicely with the Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce.

Thai Fish Cake (Included in the Upsize)
This dish earned the top marks for me. This rather normal looking, fishcake has a thin layer of film-like crust that embodied a flesh full of flavours, it was spicy with a herbal touch. I couldn’t recall what is that fragrant herb they put inside, I think it was lemongrass, it adds a slight sour but refreshing taste to the fish cake like a citrus fruit.

Stir-fried Kai-lan with Shitake Mushroom ($5.50)
Simply put, this veggie dish disappeared quickly too even my carnivorous brother likes it. I enjoyed this dish with my rice my only concern is that the sauce seemed to be a little starchy.

Seafood Phad-Thai ($8.90)
It looks like the Thai version of our kway teow, my mum kept calling it the “kway teow”. However, what is important was that my sister and mum enjoyed it.

Pineapple Fried Rice with Seafood ($8.90)
No chicken or pork floss. Normally, those covered the taste of the pineapple rice, so its nice to have a pineapple rice without those once in a while to enjoy the rice. It was quite a few chunks of squid, prawns, pineapples, raisins and eggs etc in the rice. Portion was alright. There is nothing fantastic and nothing to complain about the rice.

Olive Fried Rice with Chicken ($6.90)
In contrast to the Pine Apple Rice, this Olive Fried Rice has a stronger flavour. It is not something everyone would enjoy, while I find it alright (think my niece too). My mum and sister don’t enjoy this dish. It has a strong Southeast Asian flavour, a tad spicy and sour with a fragrance associated with Thai and Viet cuisine.

Thai Fried Chicken with Rice ($7.90)
The chicken that came with seemed to be quite a portion. My brother-in-law enjoyed this dish because the chicken was well-marinated. The spicy and sour sauce that came with it separately added a kick to the dish.

Yellow Chicken Laksa ($7.20)
Very spicy with a slight sour taste, you can use the curry for your rice too quite nice. Unless you have a high threshold for spicy stuff, try to not to eat this by yourself. My mum was perspiring while she was eating it.

Sweet Tapioca with Coconut Whip ($3.80)
I prefer Jai Thai’s one. This one was slightly lighter in flavour and it was not as sweet as Jai Thai.

Bangkok Chendol Cold ($3.80)
I didn’t get to try this but my brother-in-law, sister and mother seemed to be enjoying it a lot. Not recommended for the health-conscious though.

The service was okay. They are children friendly, they provided my niece something to colour with colour pencils provided. Their attitude was quite good too, had been very friendly throughout the meal. Although they brought us a wrong order, a Spicy Chilli Crab Fried Rice instead of a Honey Chicken Rice, they charged us according to a Honey Chicken Rice price instead of insisting that we take an extra order. The refilled our water and cleared the plates without prompting although it took them a while to do so as the place was quite crowded during dinner time.

Some of the dishes are good such as the Thai Fish Cake, some are so-so only. All in all, it was a place that provided affordable Thai dishes at relatively low prices. They also have affordable lunch sets that you can look out for if you live around the area.

RECEIPT
1 x Stir-fried Kai-lan with Shitake Mushroom ($5.50)
2 x Pineapple Fried Rice with Seafood ($8.90)
1 x Honey Chicken Rice ($6.90)
1 x Yellow Chicken Laksa ($7.20)
2 x Thai Fried Chicken with Rice ($7.90)
1 x Olive Fried Rice with Chicken ($6.90)
1 x Seafood Phad-Thai ($8.90)
1 x Bangkok Chendol Cold ($3.80)
1 x Sweet Tapioca with Coconut Whip ($3.80)
1 x Thai Iced Tea ($2.90)
5 x Upsize ($3.90)

+10% Service Charge

Total Bill: $114.25 for 8 People
(including one hungry child)

Date Visited : 020410

Address
16 Chun Tin Road

Tel: +65 6469 4862

Opening hours
Daily
11.30am – 10.30pm