Phai Lin Thai Restaurant - Bandar Sri Damansara Club

Phai Lin - Thai Restaurant

PS - Had since closed down. Updated May 2011

The old had gone and the new has come! The old Jade Palace demise was on the cards for a while. Twice, I have the whole restaurant for lunch with no one else! Then what herald the coming of another restaurant to replace the predecessor. Surely something went wrong. Bad landlord? Bad location?

Phai Lin must have been very confident that they have a good product, promotion, place, price and people? Definitely, otherwise who want to dump a few hundred thousand down the drain. Sri Damansara Club is a nice place to eat with the staff or entertain guests. I wish them every success.

Here are some of my thoughts. They have a good product and positioning as there are not many Thai restaurants within 5 kilometers radius. But the people in food preparation has dished out a lack luster but edible food that ranked 6/10 overall on my scale. I do hope they improve themselves. But then food presentation was encouraging and the service was good. The price was ok given that this is a restaurant with comfortable surroundings, ambiance and neat table wares.

Fish cakes that has a bit more flour than I like, therefore less springy. Taste wasn't as authentic as the aromatic 'ummph' from the Thai herbs were not there. RM18.

Another popular starters. Pandan Chicken. 10 pieces for RM22.00. Enjoyed it. Tender and succulent but slightly rough in parts as they used a mixed of the rougher texture fillet with more tender thigh. Pepper-laden and pandan leaves fragrance is a winner.

The red snapper (but on checking it looks more like a Jenahak - Hung Joe) steamed with soy sauce was packed with ginger, Chinese parsley, celery and what else, soy sauce. I checked the cheeks but found that there was not much meat - evidence of a lean fish! The fish could have been fresher and it is definitely from the chiller for a 2-3 days. Sometimes it is so difficult to manage the restaurant esp logistic. Who would want to go to the market everyday for fresh produce and seafood? Even though the fish is acceptable, I hope they will raise the bar.

This moderate to large plate of kailan was slightly overdone but the chewy salted fish was a welcome though an not too healthy choice. The sauces were delightful, salty and sinful. Just as it should as else it would not qualify as salted fish kailan.