Bangkok Jam, Wheelock Place

I'd heard good stuff about Bangkok Jam, and thought I'd get reasonably decent stuff. Like Thai Express, which serves similar stuff at the same price points, I'd expected simple Thai fare, no-fuss and homestyled.

I thought it was a good sign that it was a full-house on a Friday night, with a seemingly never-ending queue outside. But that turned out to be a fake-out. The food was lackluster, with very few barely passable dishes, and the price tag not commiserate commensurate with the quality and value. Maybe we ordered the wrong dishes. Maybe the chef was having a very off day, but it was one of the most unforgettable meals I've ever had. Because it was just so bad. 

Service that night was also frantic and frazzled. The staff were clearly stressed to their limits and unable to handle the full-house. They were nice enough, once they stopped zipping around to take orders, but their ragged harried mannerisms made it obvious that they were so understaffed.

In comparison with Thai Express, which serves similar stuff, my take is that you're much better off at Thai Express instead.

The Por Pia Tod ($7.90) deep fried spring rolls with Vietnamese dip were unimpressive and generic, like those frozen ones that you get from the supermarket. The spring roll skin was too thick and the fillings too stingy.


We also had the Khao Tang Na Tang ($7.50) rice cracker crisps with mild chicken pate. One look at the dip and I wasn't impressed. It looked dull and insipid, like it'd been sitting out for waaaay too long. True enough, it tasted just as bad, if not worse. It had a sour rancid taste, and smell, and I spit it out and had to rinse my mouth out after a mouthful. Not very ladylike, I know, but it was just awful. This alone would have made the entire dining experience horrible. The rice crisps were hard enough to chip a tooth, it had been re-fried to a solid rock-hard finish.


The Goong Pun Tak Rai ($9.90) of lemongrass prawn cake skewers was the only passable dish.


The prawn cakes were juicy and fresh, not the best around but it was alright. I liked the unusual addition of sweet corn nibblets.


The Kai Jiow Poo ($10.50), fried omelette with crab meat, while flavoursome, was a wee bit too salty. That said, if paired with plain white rice, this would have been half-way decent.


The Panang Moo ($11.90), a classic Thai curry, should have been good, but the pork was overly tenderised. It reeked so much of artificial tenderizer, that the mildly spiced curry couldn't quite mask it.


 

Bangkok Jam
501 Orchard Road
#02-26
Wheelock Place
Tel: 6836 0989
Open daily from 12noon to 10pm
Website: www.bangkokjam.com.sg

Comments

yixiao said…
did you return the rancid dip? i would have ...
Bern said…
Nah, they would have just given us another dip which probably would have tasted just as bad. We just wanted to settle the bill and go.

Right opposite to NYDC to cleanse our palates with the boney cake and ice-cream! Hah.
atty said…
Think you meant commensurate up there. Commiserate is more of anti-congratulations .. Which fitting as it may seem in the context, just sounds a bit weird in the sentence. Sorry, just being a real vocab nazi here
Bern said…
ahh thank u!

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