Totally loving our hikes across estates these days. It’s like the best way to clock up the miles and possibly a few tens of thousands steps as well. ? And nothing beats building up an appetite with a long walk like this because everything tastes fantastic when you’re famished, haha.
Anyway, we were very into ‘mouse-hunting’ recently because one could win $50k (sponsored by OCBC) by searching for a coin with a mouse. Made us even more motivated to walk and seek, haha.
While we were searching the Punggol Waterway Park earlier, we even met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who was having a walk with his wife and his entourage of bodyguards. We waved and greeted him. He was so warm and friendly. ? It was our first time meeting Mr Lee in person. Really very honoured to exercise alongside him.
Ok, back to the topic on food now.
While on our way to Punggol, we actually stopped by Jalan Kayu for lunch as I wanted to get soya beancurd from Selegie Soya Bean. This is the same stretch of shophouses where the used-to-be famous Thasevi prata place is.
Decided on Thai food as nothing else caught our fancy.
Naowarat Thai Bistro is probably one of the newer additions to the Jalan Kayu neighbourhood as it only opened for business last year. When we were there on a Saturday for lunch, it was quite quiet with only one other table of customers.
This restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating. We obviously chose indoor because it was too hot to stay outside. ?
Ordered the Thai Iced Milk Tea ($2.90) and Thai Green Milk Tea ($2.90). What is a Thai meal without Cha Yen right? ?
After trying both, I thought the green milk tea was slightly better because the green tea flavour was more pronounced. Even though we requested for both drinks to be less sweet, they still turned out quite sweet. The tea brand they used was Cha Tra Mue but the concoctions weren’t as well balanced as the original version.
Our feast for two! More than enough food because portions were quite substantial.
I liked how they presented the white rice ($0.70/portion). Nicely shaped with a thin carrot slice on top. Cute!
The Som Tum ($13) was delicious as it had a lot of textures and crunch from the various ingredients. The dressing was nicely balanced and not overly spicy. And the addition of dried shrimps really gave an umami flavour to this.
Their Tom Yum Seafood ($16) was served in a hot pot style to our surprise. As there was a flame below, the soup was kept hot and comforting throughout our meal.
Overall, the soup wasn’t too spicy. Lovely tang and very robust.
Just look at that tremendous amount of ingredients. There were shimeji mushrooms, straw mushrooms, imitation crab sticks, whole prawns, squids, sliced fish, mussels and tomatoes.
Didn’t expect to also find mock abalone (made from squid paste) in the Tom Yum Soup. Definitely a first time! Loved its chewy/springy texture. Now I know why this Tom Yum Soup costs $16 because it’s brimming with good stuffs. ??
This Deep Fried Tilapia with Thai Sauce ($13) was from a separate special menu. Good size fish. Really fresh with no fishy or muddy taste. The tummy was nicely scored so the fish was beautifully fried to a nice crisp on the outside while the flesh was tender and moist. We took our time to eat and the fish was able to retain that crispiness till the last bite. Impressive. Also, that chilli sauce was sweet and spicy – very appetising and moreish.
This Kor Moo Tord Gra Tiem ($15) or Deep Fried Pork Collar with Garlic looked really good at first glance. The pieces of pork collar had fair ratio of fats and meats so when I bit into it, it was rather springy. Kinda crispy on the outside but not the crunchy sort. The pork was a little bland and it didn’t have much of a garlic flavour either so we had to make use of the dipping sauces. Overall, as a fried meat, it wasn’t too bad.
All prices shown on this post are inclusive of GST. There is no service charge.
All in all, we enjoyed our meal, particularly the Fried Tilapia and Tom Yum Seafood Soup. If you’re looking for a Thai restaurant in the north-east region of Singapore, this is one to consider. We will be back. ????
PS: Scroll down for the menu.
4.30pm to 10.00pm daily
(Closed on Mondays)
+65 6816 2537
https://www.facebook.com/Naowarat-Thai-Bistro-165510243809161/
