Generally regarded as the best Thai restaurant in town, Mu Yi and I didn’t see it when we visited NAAM Thai in 2015.
Most of the dishes we tried had the exact same taste, it was like eating plate after plate of hot. I honestly could not differentiate between the grilled chicken and prawns because both just tasted like hot spice. And I want to make clear right now that I’m no spice doofus. I’ve been to Sichuan and Hunan many times and wowed the locals with my feats of spice. I can handle my spice, I can dig it.
We started off with Tom Yang soup, which is a thicker more viscous and oily traditional Thai soup, for $175. Perhaps the highlight of our lunch, it had good texture and just enough bite to it to make it enjoyable.
Our appetizers came out next and were both forgettable. The prawns were moist and fresh, but the sauce overrode everything and was far too spicy, and that’s all I could taste.
The dumplings were an interesting concoction of goo and peanut sauce that went nowhere. I had absolutely no idea what was inside the dumplings, they just didn’t have any flavour.
The salads continued the downward spiral as I had a grilled beef salad and Mu Yi tried a papaya salad with grilled chicken.
I think the main problem with the salad was the mix of vegetables that accompanied the meat. It’s the kind of stuff you serve as decoration on the side of a plate that’s there just to look good, but it isn’t actually supposed to be eaten.
The mains come out last and were average at best. My Thai curry with chicken was decent but nowhere near top drawer, if compared to the curry at Golden Peacock or Indian Spice.
Mu Yi’s grilled chicken meanwhile was just plain hot and excessively so, plus a little dry to boot.
NAAM Thai has both indoor and outdoor seating, and tables are usually available on a walk in basis. Not cheap in the least, our bill ran $1300, a lot of money to pay for a restaurant that I would only give three stars to, and that’s probably being a little generous.
The service and decor was both quite nice however and we felt very taken care of, so at least our lunch there wasn’t a complete disaster.
