The invitation to Joe’s Kitchen came really timely because usually after an overseas trip, I’ll crave for either home cooked food or asian dishes. In this case, Joe’s Kitchen fulfilled both citeras as their delicious thai dishes and unpretentious ambience made me feel at home.
Of course, Joe’s kitchen is already quite well known and well recognized for it’s authentic Thai dishes that have been featured in many other food and lifestyle blogs. Even on a weekday night, it was pretty packed. Joe is Thai and he’s a well recognized chef who worked for Parkway Thai Restaurant as a chef for 6 years before deciding to start his own place.
First dish served is the Mango Salad (S$6.50). It comes with fried cuttlefish on the top and peanuts sprinkled all over. The mangos were tangy and went well with the salty spicy sauce.
The Prawn Cakes (S$2.30/piece) is a hot favorite with everyone.
The crispy batter was perfect and it had bits of prawn in it. Despite being deep fried, it was not very oily at all! Must try!!!
Tom Yum soup is a staple in every Thai meal that I order so I expect it to meet a minimum standard before a restaurant gets my nod of approval. I love that you can choose what sort of main ingredients you would like in your tom yum soup at Joe’s Kitchen – chicken, sliced fish, fried fish, seafood or prawn. We had the Seafood Tom Yum (S$4.50/$8/90/$12.90) and I have to say that the broth was gorgeously flavored and spicy!
The next time I go back, I’m going to try the fried fish version.
As you can tell, we really clean out the Tom Yum Soup!
Instead of ordering the Pineapple Rice, we decide to try the Black Olive Rice (S$8/$12/$16). The rice was served in a claypot with plenty of shredded omelette on top. The rice was fragrant though the olive taste is not as strong as I would have preferred.
The mix vegetable (S$8/$12) is a absolute surprise. When I first tried it, it was good and mildly spicy but by my third mouthful, smoke was wafting out of my nose!Don’t be deceived by it’s simple looks, this is one spicy dish!
I love spicy food but with these much spices on the table I was thankful that I had the black olive rice to compliment the dinner.
A dish I highly recommend is the Thai Style Steam Sea Bass (S$18). The fish was really fresh and soft while the sauce was light and spicy. I’m not a huge fan of steam fish but I had more than my fair share with this one.
Another must-try on the list when you visit Joe’s Kitchen is their Claypot Crab with Vermicelli (S$18).
The highlight of this dish is not so much the crab but the Vermicelli. All the crab essences were absorbed into the vermicelli and made it really yummy. I didn’t eat the crab but I slurped down 2 bowls of those slippery glass noodles soaked in goodness.
The service given by Joe’s wife, Jamie, was very detailed. Most of the portions were nicely divided out for us as our table didn’t have enough space to contain all the food.
I small little shoutout also, for the Thai Ice Tea and Lemongrass drinks. These two are my favorite when I have thai food.
It’s time for desserts!
The Thai Red Ruby (S$3) is good! Normally it’s only available on Saturdays,Sundays and public holidays only but we were in luck as the mangoes that arrived at the shop that day were not sweet so they recommended their customers to try the red ruby. I really like mango sticky rice (S$5) , so I asked if they could still make a small portion so that I can try how the sticky rice is like.
The mango, like they already warned me, was quite sour! But the sticky rice with the coconut is good. Hopefully the next time I go there, I’ll get a batch of sweet mangos to try.
If both Mango with Sticky Rice and Red Ruby are not to your liking, you could try their Tapioca with Coconut Milk (S$4).
As you can tell, all the prices are really reasonable. There were a couple of other dishes I would like to try the next time I head back. I’m keeping Joe’s Kitchen on the list for one of the places in Singapore that you can find authentic thai food without restaurant pricing. Thanks to Joe and Jamie for inviting us and tantalizing our tastebuds.
Blk 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1
#01-182
Singapore 150125
Opp. Alexandra Hospital
Tel: 6270 8484
HP no. 9857 7007 (Jamie)
HP no. 9100 5185 (Joe)
Email: contact@joesthaikitchen.com
Operating Hours:
Open all Days
11am to 3pm
5pm to 10pm
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