Friday, July 25, 2008

Jane Thai Food, Orchard Towers

Beef Salad

So...Orchard Towers, eh? Yeah, it was a bit weird coming here looking for food, especially right when this building's infamous line of business started to get going in the evening. But we were in the neighborhood and had heard about this Thai place for a while (400 Orchard Road #04-30). And if history has taught us anything, sometimes such seedy environments are exactly the right place to come look for good food.

And how burningly correct that was. Damn, the food here was f*ckin' spicy. The tom yum soup was delightfully painful to drink, while the refreshing som tam brought us right back to Thailand. The beef salad above didn't look like it packed much heat, but you knew it when it hit your mouth. Now, this place won't get any points for freshness of ingredients: the shrimp in the soup were horrendously powdery. But when the food was this brutally spicy, I guess it really didn't matter in the end. I'm going to be paying for this on the throne tomorrow morning.

If you're willing to brave the elements to head all the way up to the fourth floor for this, then try coming just after 8 PM. When we arrived before eight, there were still a lot of the neighboring employees (or are they better called entrepreneurs?) taking up all of the tables. After the clock struck eight though, the place had cleared out, presumably since their "shifts" were starting.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

the great man himself says you need to be sat down some shady back street on a plastic chair and having a dog nearby is also a must. only then will you know you're in the right place :)

milky way said...

hi do u know if this place is open for lunch? we are in singapore next week :)

Anonymous said...

Like you, I've also heard about this place's very authentic Thai food.

Unlike you, I haven't worked up the courage to ascend to the 4th floor of the infamous Orchard Towers yet.

Anonymous said...

Just reading the words "Tom Yum" makes my mouth water. What a delightfully flavoursome but light dish.

Anonymous said...

As part of my never-ending quest for food as good as when I lived in Thailand, I'll be trying this one.

I also discovered a surprisingly good Thai stand at the foodcourt in Anchorpoint Mall (across from Ikea Alexandra). It's called Viet Tom Yam or something, but the staff are Thai and the tom kha gai soup was excellent as was the som tam.

Anonymous said...

Jane is only opened from 6:30pm until 5 am.

Try the Glass noodle claypot, either prawns or crabs, they are the best Ive tried anywhere so far

Anonymous said...

I found the food at Jane's slightly less than good but a lot better than mediocre. The best budget thai meal ive eaten is still at First Thai (bugis area).

Hits: Tom Yum soup, iced tea & Mango Salad

Misses: Prawn vermicelli (only the 1st few mouthfull is gd, then it becomes very "gelat"), iced coffee (sour!!), olive rice (overly salty, rice is not al dente).

The meal costs $49.

For the same amt & quality of food, P&P Thai (Kallang Bahru) has better value for money.

HTH.