Thai food without the bite at Plu

NEW RESTAURANT

Plu Singapore Goodwood Park Hotel 22 Scotts Road Singapore 228221 Tel: 9750-5888 Open daily for lunch and dinner: 11 am to 2 pm; 5 pm to 9 pm

[SINGAPORE] Kidnap a few Thai chefs. Fly them into Singapore. Tip off customs so they don’t smuggle in their stash of chillies and secret spices – the magic that makes Thai food Thai. Deprive them of their morning ChaTraMue. Lock them in a kitchen with chilli padi-averse tourists until they cook a pad krapow even a toddler can eat. Only then are they ready to open Plu – a restaurant with a Thai heart that beats to a Singaporean tune.

Even so, Plu has us at “sawadee ka” – delivered in that familiar sing-song twang of tourist-friendly Sukhumvit Soi 24, invariably followed by “special price for you, ka”.

It takes over the former Alma restaurant at Goodwood Park Hotel, the once-dreary interiors swept away by a wave of cheerfulness, filling it with optimism and pastel greens. The decor leans towards retro-colonial – a nod to its Bangkok flagship, housed in a century-old building in Suan Plu Alley.

While it skews upmarket, Plu Singapore is fundamentally casual, serving a dictionary of familiar Thai cooking tailored for the faint-hearted palate.

Thoughts of what could have been cloud our brain. We imagine chefs chafing at the bit in the kitchen – restrained from adding just that extra dollop of heat, sauce, no, authenticity. Just because someone at the table beside us warily asks the nice Thai server: “Is it spicy?”

Khao khluk kapi (S$39) holds so much promise as an elaborate rice salad – brought to the table and tossed like a colourful yusheng of shrimp paste fried rice, sweet pork, dried shrimp, raw onions, shredded green mango and coriander.

Instead of a full-on sweet, spicy, salty, sour explosion, we get a polite tete-a-tete. The caramelised pork belly stands out, but the fried rice has only a hint of shrimp paste, while the other condiments fight to stay in the background.

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On the other hand, pork and chicken satay (S$32) get the wrong memo and come across too strong. The meaty skewers are oversized but tough, dry and strangely sour – as if someone wanted to use up the last lemon for the marinade. The sweet pickle relish and peanut sauce help to distract, but we’ve had better from an Or Tor Kor market hawker on a bad day.

There are glimmers of hope, though. Blue crab and betel leaves curry (S$35) isn’t kick-in-the-head spicy but still zaps your tongue with the familiar heat and funk. The yellow curry is bulked up with plenty of betel leaves but not so much crab meat, to be mopped up with rolled nests of vermicelli. Ideally, it should be kanom jeen noodles, but let’s not quibble.

The chefs also get their groove on with the almost wok-hei-infused stir-fried prawns with glass noodles and stink beans (S$28). The prawns are fat and the noodles smothered in egg. Any monotony is easily countered by the crunchy petai and niblets of pickled garlic.

The menu is huge. Take your pick and see which one lands. Green chicken curry (S$28) is made by one who took the “Singaporeans like sweet food” dictum way too seriously. Grilled pork neck is almost there – sliced very thin and crisp on the edges, served with a chilli dip.

Pad krapow (S$24) – that lethal Thai weapon of minced meat, chilli and holy basil – is more “hmm” than “pow”. But our chicken version is still a worthy stir-fry and rice companion.

There aren’t many dessert options, and they’re not show-stoppers. Bua loy (S$12) is a pale shadow of the original – less-than-chewy glutinous rice balls and avocado bits in sweet coconut milk. Get the coconut ice cream (S$6) instead – it’s satisfyingly dense, sticky, chewy and fun.

It’s still early days, so service can be slow and the kitchen needs to find its footing. While they’re doing that, maybe they shouldn’t underestimate the Singapore palate. We’re not Bangkok newbies. When you’ve trawled through the city long enough, the last thing you want is to be spoon-fed Thai food 101.

So give the chefs their magic spices back and let them follow their instincts. Our stomachs might suffer, but we’d rather pay for food that says something instead of playing it safe.

Rating: 6.5