Readers may now be aware that Thai food isn't necessarily one of my favourite cuisines. I don't mind it but I also don't go out of my way for it. It is with that mindset that I added Jamn's Kitchen to my list, more by virtue of the fact that it was close to home rather than anything else. Anyway what made me decide to finally pay them a visit was the fact that they had recently signed onto first table, therefore offering 50% off food, making it a very good deal. The reservation times were not un-reasonable and we paid them a visit as an early weeknight dinner.
The restaurant itself was fairly small with a handful of seats inside and outside. The menu wasn't brief but it also wasn't particularly long. All your standard Thai dishes were available including curries, rice dishes, noodle dishes and some mains and other appetizers. We ordered at the counter where we had a minor hiccup insofar as the restaurant claimed a number of items (sides and desserts) were excluded from the first table discount, without them having been explicitly listed on the website. This was later rectified by first table adding these exceptions to their site, however I think the restaurant really ought to have honoured the deal.
Anyway, it didn't take too long before our meals started arriving. First to arrive were crab net spring rolls. These were freshly fried and crispy but ultimately they didn't really deviate from the iterations I've had at other Thai restaurants and Vietnamese restaurants. I've seen frozen ones in the supermarket and imagine that they all source them from the same location.
In terms of larger dishes, the first two to arrive was the red duck curry and the beef steak with jamn's sauce. The duck curry was ample in portion size with a generous amount of duck and lychee. What really stood out to me though was how excessively sweet it was, even for Thai food. I definitely struggled to finish this one. The beef steak was more reasonably flavoured, although still tangy with lime and a strong dose of sugar. Although well charred, I found it to be unnecessarily chewy for my taste.
Our main event was the whole fried barramundi. It was huge and very impressive on the plate. Like the other dishes, it was very sweet. The sauce it was doused with was basically sweet chilli jam. I didn't mind the fish, it was crispy and not overly fishy, but again I would appreciate a less sweet sauce.
We ordered a serve of coconut rice to go with the curry. This was surprisingly bad coming from an asian restaurant. It was exceptionally wet, the rice was also clumpy and the grains were not distinct.
We also had a serve of soft shell crab pad thai. The portion size was a bit lacking but the execution was good in comparison to the other dishes we had that night. The soft shell crab was freshly fried and crisp. Being served a whole crab was fairly generous. The noodles were tender and soft but retained a level of chewiness, however still was a tad sweeter than I would have liked.
Despite the fact that their dessert was not on half price, I still ordered the milo roti to share because I was pretty keen on it. The roti was straight out of the fryer, fresh and crisp, whilst the milo ice cream was sweet without overwhelming the dish. This was probably my favourite part of the evening.
Although our evening was filled with hits and misses, I couldn't say that it was a bad deal by virtue of the first table discount. If Jamn's Kitchen was situated a bit further away, I could pretty confidently say I wouldn't be back but given the proximity, I may still come back due to sheer convenience.
Taste: 6/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 6/10
Environment: 8/10
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