Bali Thai Restaurant @ Velocity

After a super long hiatus, I have decided to return to one of my earlier passions – Halal Food Blogging! So here is my latest food escapade at Bali Thai Restaurant. Fatma, Hui Chuan and I decided to try the Indonesian & Thai buffet, so that we could try as many food as possible and as cheaply as possible! (For me at least! :D) I forgot to note down which dish came under which menu but there was basically about 8-9 dishes for the Indonesian buffet menu and Thai buffet menu, and we tried them all except for the Soto Ayam Madura that was unfortunately unavailable! :C

First, we have my all time favorite dish, Fried Fish Fritters in Sweet Thai Sauce! The lightness of the crispy skin encapsulates the flaky texture of the fish. 

Next, we have the Beef Rendang! This was delicious because the rendang was spicy without being too sweet. I know there are some versions of rendang which I personally feel are too sweet!

The Chicken Green Curry was also one of the best I have tasted. The curry was not too heavy, with the right amount of spices and curry that brings out the sweetness of the pieces of chicken in the curry itself. This is a definite must try for those who simply love green curry!

The Sambal Sotong wasn’t fantastic in my personal opinion because the sambal seemed to lack the added punch. Coupled with the fact that there seemed to be more vegetable than the sotong itself also made this dish not as good as it can be.

The Nasi Kuning was part of the Indonesian menu. We also had the Pineapple Rice which was part of the Thai menu but I forgot to take a picture of it. The rice was light and moist and was a great accompaniment to the various buffet dishes for both Indonesian and Thai menus.

I did not even know what to expect when we got this dish, Ayam Tum, when I opened the little dumpling-like leaf wrappings. The taste of the Ayam Tum reminded me a little of otak-otak, although this was chicken based whereas the otak-otak is usually fish based or seafood based. It was nice but not entirely memorable.

This was called the Combination Platter! I guess this dish was for those who would not be able to finish every single dish and would rather only taste a few that was available. The chicken satay can be ordered separately as a dish in itself. The fried vegetable popiah and the “chicken-nugget-thing” after the satay were both simply tantalisingly crispy and definite must try for those eating the buffet!

The Tahu Telor was not entirely good. Both Fatma and Hui Chuan felt that there was something wrong with the tahu itself and it did not taste as good as the other tahu telor we have eaten at other Indonesian restaurants.

This was one of the dishes I was really looking forward to BUT it was quite a disappointment because I had expected the pandan chicken to be be crispy and savoury. Instead the chicken does not seem to be fried but is covered with a paste-like substance that was spicy and delicious as well. But I was quite disappointed since it was not similar to other pandan chicken I had tasted previously before.

The Sambal Kangkong was quite good actually. It was spicy, mixed with the right amount of belachan and chilli, creating a perfect taste for the sambal fried with the kangkong.

The Chicken satay was comparable to those you can get from the Hawker stalls around Singapore. There was a lot of chicken on each stick and the peanut gravy was smooth and delicious as well.

The Seafood Tom Yum soup is also one of the better tom yum I have tasted. You can really taste the authentic tom yum spices and the lemon grass that was used in the soup. There was also a generous serving of seafood in the soup and a waitress was there to help us scoop the individual potions of soup for each of our bowls!

My least favourite dish – Phad Thai. It is not my least favourite because it was not delicious I just don’t like Phad Thai in general. According to Hui Chuan and Fatma, the Phad Thai was quite good and the peanuts and chilli flakes added a new sensory dimension to the Phad Thai noodles!

 

As you may have seen, I seemed to have lost my flair for describing the sensory tastes of the food in great detail. One of the reasons is the fact that I have been so out of touch about writing about food that I think my brain needs a little more time to start waxing lyrical again about all my favourite food. AND I also felt that I was not entirely inspired by the food at Bali Thai. Some of it was delicious – like the Fried Fish with Thai Sauce and the Chicken Green Curry, but as a whole the buffet wasn’t the best that I have tasted. But its definitely worth the money since you can have about 19 dishes which only cost $19.90 without service charge and GST. The ambience of the restaurant is also quite good since it was not very crowded and it was tastefully decorated.

For those who would like a taste of both Indonesian and Thai Cuisine, this buffet would be for you!

Bali Thai Restaurant
238 Thomson Road
#03-61/64 Velocity @ Novena Square