Thai foods are my favourite. Looking for good quality Thai food in Singapore kind of difficult. Most of us have been influenced by the prevalence of the word ‘authentic’ closely linked to Thai food, and that Thai food is generally street food which usually comes at a cheap price. Cha Thai is here to debunk both of these myths.
Conveniently located on strategic location, just opposite Telok Ayer MRT station, Cha Thai is a place where you can enjoy fine and authentic taste of Thai food in Singapore.
At Cha Thai, there is one thing you will definitely notice – the portions are so large you should always come with friends. It is in the Thai’s tradition and culture to gather, and therefore, their food always comes in portions large enough for sharing. Food always tastes the best in good company.
Besides the large serving portions, Cha Thai insists on great quality ingredients. Seafood is sourced locally from their own kelongs for freshness. Meat is sous vide to achieve tenderness. Dips, curries, pastes, sauces, gravy, milk teas, refreshing drinks and all are made from scratch. Cha Thai sees themself as the Gatekeeper of All Things GREAT – great quality, great portions, great food for great people.
Crispy Prawn Cake
Price – $15
Price – $15
Deep fried thick juicy prawn cakes made with tiger prawns (not the usual shrimps used by many), served with sweet plum sauce.
This appetizer dish is one of my favourite during the food tasting. Crispy on the outer layer, inside is juicy and succulent. The tiger prawn used are very fresh and came in big chunks. Can consider this as the best prawn cake i’ve ever tasted.
Creamy Crab Roll
Price – $15
Deep dried spring roll sticks served with crab cream sauce made of finger roots herbs, and the fragrance of the crab cream sauce tastes like Thai laksa in a creamy state.
This combination seems like a fusion, east meet west. The Creamy crab dip is so rich and full of crab meat.
Lemongrass Prawn Salad
Price – $28
This salad came with huge tiger prawn, it tastes sweet instead of sour like usual salad. Overall this salad is very tasty.
Boat Noodles
Price – $18
Price – $18
This noodle’s soup broth is very tasty, reminded me of Vietnamese pho, but this is definetely Thai version. I feel very contented by enjoying its soup. This noodles comes with sliced meat and meat ball.
Saute Kai Lan with Roasted Pork
Price – $16
Stir fry baby kai lan with sous vide roasted pork, garlic and oyster sauce.
Pineapple Red Curry (with pork loin)
Price – $18
Price – $18
Traditional red curry with pork loin and fruity zesty pineapples. The sour from pinneable helps to balance thick curry sauce.
Garlic Pork with Bird’s Chilli
Price – $18
Found the pork flavour are dominating the whole dishes, a bit too strong too my liking. But if you like pork meat, this dishes definetely for you.
Signature Tiger Prawn ‘Panang’ Curry
Price – $28
Signature Tiger Prawn ‘Panang’ Curry – Thai saffron curry with tiger prawns and juicy sweet lychees, glazed with coconut cream.
Suprisingly lychees brought the balance taste on the thick creamy curry soup. It’s sweet and added a bit sourish flavour to whole dishes.
Pad Thai
Price – $22
Pad Thai is so different and special because it served with 2 pcs tiger prawn which is as big as your fist size. Overall, the noodles are al dente and very tasty.
Premium Giant Tiger Prawns Claypot Glass Noodles Price – $159 / Tiger Prawns Claypot Glass Noodles Price – $55 (for 4 pax)
The premium one comes with giant tiger prawns are about 35-40cm.
Thai baked claypot prawn tang hoon seasoned with spices, ginger, pepper and spring onions. Savour the good quality tang hoon which should be QQ in texture, not soggy.
Thai Coconut
Other drinks:
Smoothies $4.50
Smoothies $4.50
Cold Drinks $2.90
Hot Drinks $2.50
Red Ruby
Price – $8
Red Ruby
Price – $8
Red Ruby with pandan fragrance fresh coconut milk. This dessert definetely won everybody’s heart, it looks so pretty and taste good too. Everything is perfection: crunchy red ruby, the sweet coconut milk and topped with sliced jackfruit.
Sweet Corn Herbal Jelly
Price – $8
It’s simple and humble dessert. If you like herbal jelly then this is for you.
Price – $8
It’s simple and humble dessert. If you like herbal jelly then this is for you.
Summer Potato (sweet potato)
Price – $8
Another favourite dessert which desserved calories balance. This is so good! The sweet potato goes really well with creamy coconut milk. And overall it’s not overly sweet.
Emerald Jade (green ruby)
Price – $8
Green version of ruby with pandan fragrance fresh coconut milk and topped with sliced jackfruit. The texture of the ruby is pretty unique and it’s crunchy.
Tropical Paradise (mango sticky rice with ice-cream)
Price – $12
This is the queen of other dessert. It was my first time trying the unique and complex combination for such a (usually simple and common) Thai dessert. Everything is perfectly done and amazingly goes well together: the coconut ice cream, coconut milk, the sticky rice inside and the fresh mango.
If you are looking for an enjoyable fine Thai meal of high quality, Cha Thai is certainly the right place for you. Their prices might not come across as street price like many of Thai food restaurant in Singapore. Difference lies in the quality of the meat and many other ingredients involved, and the cooking techniques and time taken with these techniques.
For instance, at Cha Thai, their meat are sous vide before cooking, that takes lots of time and effort to prep to ensure meat is tender. All gravy, sauces, pastes, drinks, etc. are made from scratch. They use only Thai ingredients/condiments. They use tiger prawns for even their prawn cakes and all their prawn dishes.
About Cha Thai
At Cha Thai, you can often see its Founder, Permsiri Sirijindapan, also affectionately known as Leah, rolling up her sleeves and working her wok magic in the kitchen, whipping up Thai cuisine from the central region we all love. Leah speaks fondly of their family legacy of recipes passed down from one generation to another, and she picked up this heritage of food from her grandmother. Using and adapting the recipes now at Cha Thai, Leah certainly makes Cha Thai quite a newfound treasure and dining pleasure. Fine Thai, not Authentic Street Thai. Singaporeans love Thai food and if you are one avid fan of Thai food, you’ll be happy that someone is doing it with loads of passion, lots of pride, bolts of
genuine quality.
The owner of Chai Thai has strong culinary passion got her admitted to schools in France and Thailand, which explains why she is able to marry the best of East and West, adapting the West’s technology while keeping to the East’s traditions, to bring Thai food to another level.
With a professional skills set, Leah went on to set up her first cafe, Loaves Me in the SMU campus and was the first to bring a Thai cafe concept with her signature Thai Kaya Cube Toasts, and these toasts got so popular that they have become quite a staple dessert on our sunny island. With the success of the Thai Kaya Cube Toasts, Leah wanted to expand her dining menu and move beyond desserts and bread, and thus coined the concept of Cha Thai, and decided to close Loaves Me in SMU to focus on the new dining concept.
The bubbly founder had no qualms about sharing the real definition of ‘authentic’. “Historically, authentic Thai food was really just cooking with palm or coconut sugar and coconut milk, and this was dated few hundred years ago, the true blue authentic Thai food. Times have changed and food evolved, if we continue to cook Thai food authentically this way, no one will want to eat Thai food. Therefore, the Thais have to change with times, fine tune their cooking methods to suit the modern palate”, shared Leah.
Very often, if not, always, we think of Thai food as cheap street food. Leah begs to differ. “Thai food is just like food from any other culture. In Japanese food, we have the street food, as well as the finer quality food. In Chinese food, likewise. Even Western food, we have street food or fast food and fine dining. Thai food is not just about street food”, said Leah.
“The quality of Cha Thai’s food is the result of premium quality ingredients, along with traditional (not authentic) recipes cooked with modern techniques, to bring out another dimension in the taste of Thai, so our customers experience the best of Fine Thai Food”, Leah continued.
“I do not want Cha Thai customers to be compromised, I want them to enjoy high quality Thai food”, said Leah.
CHA THAI
Address: 80 Telok Ayer Street #01-01 Singapore 048466