Walking out on to the seventh floor of Building A9 of Xinyi Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越), we are met with the fragrance of lemon grass and coconut milk, the smell immediately drawing our attention towards Thai Town and its set lunch menu on a lectern at the restaurant’s entrance. At first glance, our party of three is astounded: NT$630 for three. We only later did we find out that the price is actually NT$630 per person. It’s still worth it.
Thai Town has seven locations throughout Taipei as well as branches in Taipei County, Taichung and Kaohsiung (www.thaitown.com.tw). The management boasts that it maintains strict control over the training of its staff and the quality of its ingredients so that what you get at one location is of comparable quality at another. I cannot vouch for the other locations, but our party was heartily satisfied with the meal we were served.
The tastefully finished interior of faux wood walls and floors punctuated here and there with trees had immediate appeal. Floor to ceiling windows offer glimpses of passing shoppers loaded down with bags of newly bought goods.
Photo: Noah Buchan, Taipei Times
We ordered the six-course lunch, which includes a choice of shrimp pancake, Thai seafood salad, beef stir-fry, chicken curry, fried vegetables, dessert and a drink. A la carte prices are in brackets.
Our drinks arrived first. Long strips of fresh coconut floated in the slightly sweet coconut juice (NT$90), while the iced tea (NT$90), with its generous addition of lemon, was sour enough to pucker the face.
The spicy Thai seafood salad (NT$300) and spicy shrimp pancake (NT$320) came next. The slightly salty pancake, which featured chunks of baby shrimp nestled between a crispy exterior, went well with the piquant and slightly lemony marinade of the salad, which was topped by generous portions of fresh crab, shrimp and cuttlefish. This Thai salad was a crowd favorite, our table competing for the last morsel, and left us panting for more.
The main course was a trifecta of different flavors. First came the beef stir-fry, a Massaman curry (NT$300). Tender slices of beef, chunks of green pepper and onion floated in a spicy-sweet curry sauce and covered with swaths of coconut cream topped with needles of lemon grass.
The decadence continued with a green curry chicken in coconut sauce (NT$280). Subtle flavors of basil and lemongrass were discernable through the sweet coconut milk. The fried water convolvulus with shrimp paste (NT$180) was the meal’s only miss because of the addition of dried shrimp, which made an already salty dish saltier. We left most of it on the plate.
But then came dessert: black sticky rice (NT$95) served hot with taro in coconut milk and ice. Thai Town’s interpretation of this dessert, with its chewy warm rice and taro contrasting with the sweet coconut, ranks as one of the best I’ve tried in Taipei.
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