Votaries of Patara Fine Thai Cuisine, a decades-old Tanglin Mall mainstay, need no longer sing a mournful requiem for its closure. The purveyor of classic Thai cuisine featuring premium ingredients such as Boston lobster and Alaskan snow crab has been resurrected in a sleeker, classier form as Sarai.
Though the restaurant has been given a much-needed contemporary facelift with its soothing tan and azure palette that shaves off years age-wise, it remains tethered to its culinary soul — Patara’s head chef Chimkit Khamphuang, who goes by the sobriquet of Chef Lisa.
Here, she flexes her creativity to great effect through a pared down S$88 set menu that emphasises lesser-known ingredients in unexpected combinations. Over the years, Chef Lisa has earned an appreciative audience with her bold, artfully crafted hors d’oeuvres (who would have associated beef tartare with Thai cuisine)? She clearly hasn’t lost her edge.
Our meal gently kicks off with the amuse bouche of watermelon with toasted coconut and smoked fish nestled in roasted peanuts — a mild, sweet-savoury palate cleanser that hints at what’s to come. Though the quinfecta of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and spicy flavours in Thai cuisine present themselves in all dishes, at Sarai they’re noticeably dialled down from the big, pungent profiles we’ve come to recognise.
Beautifully presented to resemble a floral bloom, mieng mak, a starter of crunchy dried prawns and wild ginger wrapped with betel leaves gets its bite from a slightly bitter after taste. It’s tempered by the sweet-tangy fizz of puu sorn glin, a morsel of crab meat with pickled garlic on crunchy rice that recalls a lime or orange soda.
Mains are more predictable, albeit nuanced. A standout was the delicate gaeng jued pad yang, a moreish roasted duck consommé simmered with tender young coconut and topped with thai basil. Its well-structured umami made us want to savour the broth till its last drop, unlike other versions of duck soup that are overwhelmingly herbal.
It may be difficult to separate spice- and grease-forward wok-seared favourites such as garlic overloaded kang kong from your fundamental understanding of Thai cooking, but Sarai’s stir-fried sweet pea with tokin jasmine flowers will help upend those notions. Much to our fascination, the latter is a fleshy, vivid green leaf whose natural sweetness isn’t smothered but accentuated by a light kiss from the wok.
And while we’ve come to expect chintzy servings from high-end restaurants, we were relieved to see the wild mushroom salad with grilled prawns and chilli jam sitting aside a compact mound of rice. There are some things about an Asian dining experience we’d prefer not to deconstruct. The monstrous, succulent prawn is grilled to a beautiful golden hue and cloaked in slippery slivers of mushroom. Again, the same subtle sweetness of fresh ingredients takes centre stage.
As with most courses, dessert bears the same pleasant, unconfrontational refinement. Served warm with a crown of taro chips, the baked taro custard with pandan overtones triggers no sugar rush, but instead tapers the meal off with a soft ending.
Though the restaurant is newly reopened, we’re told it’s fast becoming a popular spot for business lunches. We’d imagine this might have something to do with its three 12-seater private rooms with wide arched entrances and expansive windows framing views of tree-lined Tanglin Road.
Make a reservation for an introduction to understated yet elevated Thai cuisine.
