Gin Khao, One Raffles Place

Gin Khao (#04-29 One Raffles Place, One Raffles Place, tel : +65 6532 2387) serves contemporary Thai. The food that they do is what anyone with some familiarity with Thai cuisine would acknowledge as internationally recognized Thai food - nothing with much surprises going on here. The contemporary element simply redefines the recognisable with refinement on the ingredients, preparation and presentation. The roots remain.

yam mamuang

I liked their mango salad. Nothing unnecessarily fancy, properly made and there was that citrus fragrance from the fruit that was on going there. Not just strips of sour crunchy stuff that you sometimes get. Would have been great if they were more generous with those crushed peanuts.

paw pia tod

These prawn spring rolls was unexpectedly better than I had imagined. There seemed to be nothing but prawns stuffed in the rolls and the flavours of the skin was...much tastier than they looked. Could have easily finished a serving of them myself.

stir fried squid with runny salted egg

Stir fried squid was not bad tasting but the larger pieces were kinda chewy. 

tom kha gai

Their tom khai gai was addictive. It was lightly creamy from the coconut milk with a vibrant tanginess which left me spooning mouthful after mouthful of the broth. I would be willing to return just for this.

khao phat dtaeng moe

The only thing that I probably haven't tried before from the bunch of stuff we ordered was their watermelon fried rice. This was a seafood fried rice which came laden with quite a bit of squid, prawns and mussels and strewn on top of that - cashew nuts, crispy deep fried bean curd strips and chicken floss. Not forgetting, warm chunks of warm watermelon. I liked it.

larb moo

The lard moo was served late for a salad. But it was good. Nice hit of mint and lime over fish sauce in textures of ground pork, onions and leaves.

kang ob woon seng

And we had some vermicelli with crayfish which was pretty flavourful.

For some reasons, our table had a free dessert. It was a Thai tea mousse cake of sorts which tasted like how it looked. I realised that did not really describe anything to anyone who doesn't know how Thai tea tastes like, but...

The other dessert which wasn't free was their green curry gelato over steamed black glutinous rice. There was nice creamy heat that left prickles on the back of the throat from the gelato and the rice was moist and tender. I liked this.

And some Thai coffee to wash the food down. This was a rather strong brew. Strong like how I can remember feeling palpitations when I get my triple grande at Starbucks in Bangkok. But the fragrance of the roast wasn't as full bodied as I would prefer. The coconut cream that came with it made it taste a little salty so I recommend it with a little bit of the syrup that they also provided.