Kha at Hort Park (2 Oct 2008)

Hort Park (along Alexandra Road) was less than a year old. Hence, Kha would probably be the same or even newer. Kha is a Thai fusion restaurant, inside the Hort Park. Not sure how many restaurants they have in there but it is not difficult to find it once you are in Hort park.

I was there for a meeting and my business partners bought lunch. We had the set menu. Started with some appetizers, soup, followed by rice served with several dishes and then dessert.

The appetizers were barbequed chicken on bamboo with ngam jai dressing and thai salad and thai crab and prawn cake with thai salad and sweet chilli sauce... in simpler english, chicken satay and thai crab cakes. The chicken satay was tasty... marinated with lemongrass as how the Thais would do it but the Thai salad was not much of a salad.  I was expecting some green thai mango but I can't make out what it was as it was covered with this pink colored sauce (tasted like thousand island dressing). The prawn and crab cake was good. Again, I can't appreciate the salad. I think the fancy name doesn't bring any merit.

 

Next came the spicy pomelo salad with prawns, chicken, mashed coconut, ground peanut, chilli jam and sweet sauce. In short, pomelo salad... and yes, the red flesh pomelo. My favorite. Maybe because I am use to the spicier version, so this was a bit bland for me.

Then came the soup - chicken tumeric lemongrass galangal in coconut milk. Ha ha.. what happened to "tom kah kai"... forgive me but i find it strange that you have to spell out all the ingredients in naming your dish. So far all the dishes had extremely long and ingredien-filled names. It didn't taste exactly like the traditional thai "tom kah kai" but neither was it really special. Can't put my taste bud to it... I will sit on the fence on this one.

After that we were served rice with 3 dishes namely steamed seabass with lime and chilli, grilled chicken massaman curry with mashed pumpkin and peanuts and lastly, the vegetable of the day - stir fry kangkung with belacan. The seabass (I found out as i was goggling -  siakap = seabass) was a bit fishy... not enough lime and chilly. No comments on the kangkung... kangkung is kangkung. Definitely, the best dish by far, the massaman chicken curry was great. I had always appreciated frying or grilling the meat first before cooking it again in sauce or curry. Like how you would do with "ayam masak merah". A very popular cooking technique in malay cooking especially. The curry was delicious, maybe because of the mashed pumpkin. Who would have thought? A very clever combination.

 

To complete the meal, dessert was grilled mango cheek with passion fruit sorbet. I don't think the mango was grilled but the mango was definitely sour and the passion fruit sorbet was even more sour. I was squirming in the chair as I spooned the sorbet and mango into my mouth. When I looked up, I realised that the mango was cleaned to the skin and not a trace of sorbet was left on everyone's plate. Only mine was scattered with passion fruit seeds as I refuse to swallow. The dessert turns out to be the saving grace for this meal. 

Overall, it was alright... don't know the price point as our host paid for it. The service was really  teething. The waitress served coffee without the spoon, removes your dish without asking etc. Attention required in the service department for sure. Ambience - great. Nice setting. Excellent for sunday brunch, if they have one, I would definitely go back. Kha, at Hort Park earns 2 cilipadi.