Sweet | Salty | Spicy - Food Market & Thai Cusine

There's this new thai restaurant (it's only 2 months old) at Rail Mall, which till now, I have avoided cos it was such a crappy and run down place last time. But then it has alot of new and interesting restaurants now!
I've wanted to try this place since about a week ago, but it was closed cos it was a weekday and it was at 3pm. It looks very clean and nicely done up, and I really like thai food! Yay to finding more thai food near my house.

For the soup, we had clear chicken and prawn broth with young coconut and shitake mushrooms (eeps I can't remember the price it's about 10??). There was egg tofu inside too. However, I found the soup way too salty. Haiz should have tried the tom yum soup...
The next dish that came was the Tasting platter ($24, for 2 -3 persons), which is a selection of the starters. There was crispy soft shell crab with light curry sauce, which was very delicious cos they were juicy and meaty, unlike those cheapo kind that are dry hard and mostly batter. The light curry sauce went very well with the crispy crabs and it wasn't overly spicy. In the middle, there's the traditional prawn and vegetable rice rolls. The rice rolls were thick and chewy, and it was drenched in a sweet tamarind dressing. I liked the prawn and pomelo on betel leaves with palm sugar dressing and shredded coconut. There was just the right amount of dressing to coat, but not overpowering the sour pomelo segments and prawns. The shredded coconut also gave the dish an intersting texture. It's eaten wrapped up in the thick, waxy betel nut leaf. There was also rice cakes with warm chicken and prawn chilli dip. The rice cakes were a bit too crispy, and a bit dry, but the chilli dip was perfect - coconutty and with juicy morsels of prawn and chicken. This goes quite well with plain rice too.
I also enjoyed the tumeric chicken ($15), which was char grilled chicken marinaded with lemongrass, coriander root and coconut cream. We liked the sauce so much that we requested for another serving and they gladly gave it to us. The chicken was juicy and not dry, and well exceeded our expectations. The sauce was slightly tangy, a little salty and sweet.
I also ordered pad thai ($12), which I always get whenever I go to a new thai restaurant. It's my favourite thai dish ever! I didn't quite like the way the pad thai was done, because there wasn't enough fish sauce - so the noodles ended up tasting way too sugary sweet. Maybe the taste was attenuated for the mostly non-local clintele. The noodles were done just right - slightly gooey and translucent, with bits of scrambled egg, dried prawns and tofu, and it was a pity that there wasn't enough fish sauce.
We also tried the Baby Snapper green curry($14), which was a refreshing change from the usual chicken green curry. The curry sauce was thick and had lots of fragrant coconut cream. It is cooked with holy basil and apple eggplants (small, round little eggplants). The snapper was fresh and flaky, and went well with the thick spicy curry.

The dessert ended my dinner on a sweet note - We had Pavalova with brown sugar cream and mango ($9), as recommended by the manager. The pavalova was crispy and brittle on the outside, and it melts once in your mouth. The mango was sweet and juicy, and coupled with the brown sugar cream and toasted, shredded coconut and a piece of pavalova, was a winning combination.

Although the restaurant is a mere 2 months old, business was brisk on the Sunday night that I visited. The ambience is relaxed and there's very nice decor. The service is very good, with staff who are knowledgable about the menu, as well as attentive and filling up the water glasses once you're done. Despite the 2 misses (pad thai and soup), I would return to try other dishes that the restaurant has to offer.

Sweet Salty Spicy

392/392 Upper Bukit Timah Road

The Rail Mall Singapore 678046

Tel 68772544

Sweet Salty Spicy serves lunch till 4pm on weekends (I think, but do call to confirm)