Revisiting Lanna Thai

Last Friday marked the first day of a week of work with my cousin, a notorious solicitor named Gary. This notorious solicitor happened to take his entire staff out to lunch that day and to my surprise, they chose Lanna Thai as our place of lunch - a place I had already been to a few weeks ago with my friend.

The first thing I had noticed upon walking in was that they were still playing cheesy Westlife songs at their restaurant. Sigh. Anyway, thats beside the point. If you must know once again, the restaurant is the 17th shop-lot along Jalan Telawi 2 in Bangsar Baru.

I was under the impression that we were going to order from the set lunch menu - which still remained the same as when I previously visited. I was wrong. We ordered from the a la carte menu, and we ordered quite a bit. I was really looking forward to this as I was finally about to be given a taste of what Lanna Thai really has to offer.

Upon ordering the dishes, my cousin had tested the service at Lanna Thai by asking them if they could give extra cushions for his staff - they felt uncomfortable. The waiters happily obliged and stole some cushions from the other seats, just for us.

As our appetizer, we had Deep Fried Spring Rolls with Shrimp. It was incredibly hot and crisp, indicating to me that they had just been deep fried. The simple dish was served with a sweet Thai chili sauce, a combination which worked very well. I had taken note that the prawns however, were a little bit overcooked and tasted a little dry.

Up next, we were served Butter Prawns. All of us came to the conclusion that the name was very misleading, as the dish simply looked more like deep fried, battered prawns to us. What did they actually mean by butter prawns? Nonetheless, the prawns were large and succulent, with the batter, nice and crisp - both ingredients being present in their appropriate amounts.

Up next, came the Stir-Fried Vegetables in Oyster Sauce. The vegetables were nice and crisp, with each type of vegetable retaining its own flavor. Upon tasting the dish, I also noticed that the sauce and vegetables were present in adequate amounts. The sauce had added to the flavour of the vegetables rather than overpower it. It was a wonderful dish.

We then had Thai Green Curry with Chicken. I must warn you that this dish can only be eaten by the faint of heart. I could, sort of - but I was sweating like mad. This dish though, was truly one of the better green curries I've tasted. The chicken pieces were in abundance and were really tender too - despite the other vegetables tasting unusually bitter.

Our last dish that arrived was the Stir Fried Chicken with Basil Leaves. This dish was a killer as well, as those really small chillies had been finely sliced and added into the dish. Nonetheless, the chicken pieces in this dish were really tender too. The flavor of the basil, the soy sauce and chicken complemented each other very well.

On the whole - apart from the music, I really enjoyed my lunch at Lanna Thai, which served me good quality and authentic Thai food that day. If you are in Bangsar and in the mood to try Thai food, then I would highly recommend Lanna Thai to you.

I didn't manage to look at the total bill or menu, but the food is slightly pricier than most Thai restaurants. Though, if you want quality food and classy ambiance, you simply must be able to pay up for it. Nonetheless, I still think it is quite worthwhile to give this place a try.

Presentation: 7/10

Ambiance: 8/10

Service: 7/10

Overall Taste: 7/10

General Impression: 7/10

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Cheers,

BrianandRepublic