Dinner

After passing by this restaurant, we decided to give the adjacent Changi V Hawker Centre a miss because of the friendly Thai uncle who was at the restaurant living up to his home country's acclaimed "Land of Smiles" moniker. The Bael tea and Roselle tea were rather refreshing albeit probably unusual on a more conservative palate. The papaya salad was refreshing, with fragrant ingredients including dried shrimp and raw long bean. The pork cutlet was extremely tender, though slightly mysterious because it wasn't quite like the texture of pork you'd expect as we couldn't quite determine which part of the pig the meat originated from. The fish (a strong recommendation from the Thai uncle) was extremely fresh and the sourness of the soup gave it a refreshing tang, though we'd suggest you opt for maybe 4 to 6 chili padis instead of the usual 12, "less spicy" was already too spicy, to be honest. As for dessert, the mango sticky rice had a rice that was fragrant and the mango sweet, though a slightly larger portion might have been appreciated. Kudos to the warm and friendly service, though a little slow at times!

Aw yeah, yam ring.

We might have ordered a measly 4 side dishes without main course despite dining as a threesome, but this did not, in fact, make this dinner any less satisfactory. We ordered the Spinach Vermicelli cold dish, braised mushroom tofu vegetable dish, chicken soup (complete with a rather swanky pot) and of course - the mandatory XLB. None of these dishes disappoint. The cold spinach vermicelli was refreshing albeit light on the palate, the tofu mushroom was braised flavorfully, and the chicken soup held good balance of healthfulness and delectableness with its tender but unfatty chicken pieces. Nothing much has to be said of the XLB - as usual, just the right thickness and chewiness of pau skin with an orchestral balance of bite and fat in the meat mince, complete with slurpy XLB meat juice. Yet what impressed me most was the service - we were, admittedly, stingy in ordering this amount for 3 people, but the service crew still held their smiles and courteous demeanor despite the evident dinner time rush. A prevailing credit card discount was given despite the fact that the credit card was left at home. Would return again, definitely for the food, but even more so for the service.