Nakin Thai Food

Passed by this new Thai food stall at Clementi West kopitiam several times and decided to try when I saw their signboard advertising a new dish - Thai Beef Noodles

At $7 dollars a pop this is more expensive than most beef noodles, Thai or otherwise but rest assured you will get value for money. Large pieces of tender beef was in my bowl. The choice of beef cut was also specially selected as each piece had a sinewy portion that made it more chewy and tasty.

The noodles were also slightly more chewy, very much like those you get in Thailand. Unlike some of these Kway Tieu that you get in Singapore which is just soggy after cooking.

As for the broth, very meaty taste smothered in spices. Do not add too much chilli flakes as theirs pack a lot of heat.

Will come back to try their Pad Thai and Basil Leaves Pork. Such legit Thai food, it’s a rare gem in the West.

Came across a post on social media recently mentioning about a certain Nakin Thai Food that is located at West Coast — made a trip down to give it a try and found out that the stall is located within the coffeeshop at Blk 722 Clementi West Street 2 (other tenants occupying stalls in the coffeeshop includes Ah Bear Mookata, amongst a few others), which is also within the same neighbourhood across from West Coast Plaza where 726 West Coast Market Square is also at. Occupying a stall in the middle of the coffeeshop, Nakin Thai Food sports a bright green signage — fairly easy to spot for one that is walking by the coffeeshop. One could either grab the only set of hard copy menus which they have at the counter to check out what they have to offer, or scan the QR code to access the menu which they had uploaded on Google Drive — the menu comprises of sections dedicated to Seafood, Ala-Carte dishes, Appetiser, Vegetables, Rice, Noodles, Yum (i.e. Salad), Soup / Curries, as well as Thai Dessert; pretty extensive considering how Nakin Thai Food is just a stall operating out of a coffeeshop.

Having skimmed through the menu on what they have to offer, we found ourselves going for the Creamy Basil Minced Pork Rice amongst the few other dishes that we had decided to go for. The Creamy Basil series of rice dishes also comes with other meat / seafood options — this would include chicken, beef and sotong, which are priced at either $8 or $10 given the type of meat / seafood chosen. The reason why these are being named “Creamy” is due to the runny omelette that comes over the rice here — apart from the runny omelette, the Creamy Basil Minced Pork Rice would otherwise be no different from the usual Basil Minced Pork Rice, though we do note that they are pretty generous with the portion of basil minced pork here considering how this is priced at $8. There was nothing not to love about the Creamy Basil Minced Pork Rice here — fluffy and soft egg that goes well with the rice beneath, as well as basil minced pork that comes with sufficient sauce beneath without being done overly wet, one could definitely detect that aroma of basil all around the minced pork here, which is made savoury from the fish sauce that goes in during the cooking process. There isn’t any undesirable porky stench with the minced pork here; the savouriness of the meat as well as the aroma of the basil comes accompanied with that intense kick of spiciness coming from the chopped small chili padi that is speckled within the minced pork — something that tickles the tastebuds even for those whom are tolerable to moderate levels of spiciness. Overall, a pretty well-executed basil minced pork dish that Nakin Thai Food has given a twist to considering the type of egg which they had decided to serve up with the dish.

Given how we have tried a few items of what Nakin Thai Food has to offer on their menu, we thought that Nakin Thai Food does serve up some seriously authentic Thai cuisine for an establishment of its type. Despite the Tom Zaap (i.e. Northeast Style Spicy Clear Soup) only coming in a single choice of meat option (i.e. pork), this was also something that we really enjoyed — that clear Tom Yum
soup carrying that zing and that intense kick of spiciness that was oh-so-shiok even for those who are tolerable to moderate levels of spiciness; definitely something that those who love spicy food will utterly enjoy. The Penang Pork (we suspect a little typo on their menu here; probably more Panang Pork) was another dish worth mentioning — that dish to go for if one prefers richer curries and comes with a good portion of greens against the meat that made it a textural delight as much as it satisfied our tastebuds. Also not to be missed would be the Moon Sticky Rice — the usual Mango Sticky Rice is missing in this variation but comes with a Flan-like pudding that evokes a light egginess without the caramel; pretty interesting considering how it’s less sweet in flavour, yet more consistent in its texture with the glutinous rice as compared to the typical Mango Sticky Rice. Prices of the dishes at Nakin Thai Food are pretty affordable, with most dishes being priced below $10 with a rare few going up to $18 at most — our total bill being $31 for 3 pax across a total of four (4) dishes. With plenty of Thai food stalls around the island these days, Nakin Thai Food is probably one of the better ones we had tried thus far — one that is worth a go especially if around the Clementi / West Coast area, and an option that residents around would be glad to have in their neighbourhood!