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OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, Bengaluru diners have (reluctantly) made peace with the reservation link in the bio of most restaurants’ social media pages. We’ve (grudgingly) agreed to make dinner plans with friends weeks ahead. We’ve (gingerly) settled for waiting in long lines, making polite enquiries of the other patrons’ booking stories. We’re (quietly) thrilled that our little piece of the pie is bursting at the crust with some of the best F&B options.
And here comes another one: Baan PhadThai, a new prizefighter from Bangkok, to cause yet another stir in Indira Nagar. This restaurant has found itself on the Bib Gourmand list of the Michelin Guide Bangkok for six consecutive years. Usually, this reviewer doesn’t rub shoulders with the thronging masses for some nibble and nosh at one of the city’s hotspots. But whispers of the opening of this 30-seater restaurant got us nudging our tech-savvy, start-up maven friend to get clicking. He’s previously been a success with our vaccine shots, and we needed a table pronto. (Sorry, House of Phadthai, we might have been part of the mob that broke your reservation link!)
Dinner plans weren’t instant. Lately, they never are. But a few weeks later, on a rainy night in Bengaluru, a start-up maven, a bookseller, an inclusive educator, a digital labour researcher, and a writer walked into a Thai restaurant.
Phuket About Your Worries
Baan Phadthai serves up a tightly-edited menu of bangers, and so we’re glad for the assistance of five stomachs at our table – now, we can sample everything on offer. We kick off with Satay, chargrilled skewers of curried chicken; Sai Erok Esan, fermented pork sausage; Gai Twat, brined and fried chicken wings; and the Tom Yum Kaichiau, a Bangkok-style omelette with crabmeat.
Despite the deft movements of our forks between floral-printed enamel plates or the swapping out for our fingers, each of our starters was delicious and distinct. The chunks of charred chicken dunked into the mix of the accompanying peanut sauce and the sweet chilli cucumber ajar was a delightful dance of savoury, sweet, spicy and smoky. The sausages tucked into a raw cabbage leaf, along with garlic pods and sliced fresh Thai bird’s eye chilli, was a punchy, pungent and pickly bite. In this house, we’re fans of fried chicken, and these wings didn’t disappoint, crispy, juicy, with the spike of spicy and tangy from the accompanying sauces. But the crabmeat omelette won this round: a wonderfully fluffy omelette topped with a cluster of sweet crabmeat. It is absolutely tasty. Then, go on, drizzle on the tom yum-makroot lime reduction to elevate it into a savoury, luscious mouthful.
Mai Heart Is Full
We didn’t slow our roll. For mains, it was their signature PhadThai with its 18-ingredient secret sauce; Phad Krapao with pork belly, Gaeng Karee with prawn and Moo Hong, a Phuket-style braised pork belly. Again, each dish holds its own. The standouts: the silken, coconutty curry swimming with plump prawns; the cuts of braised pork belly doing laps in the thick, caramelly sauce and the Phad Krapao capped with a fried egg, perfect with a skirt with a crispy hemline and a voluptuous, runny yolk, was outstanding. (The Thais do wonders with eggs, it’s clear.) The Phad Thai – hand-tossed tableside, nice little touch – was a little on the sweeter side for us, but a sprinkling of sliced Thai bird’s eye chilli rescued it.
We also fit in dessert, and we got both options. The Khanom Baitoey – pandan toast sandwiched with a smoked coconut ice-cream was floral, sweet and crunchy. The divine ice-cream reappears in I-Tim Kati but accompanied by salted peanuts, resulting in textural and flavour heaven: crunchy, creamy, smokey, salty and nutty. The highest praise we can confer, these desserts weren’t too sweet. Baan PhadThai, we will be back.
Baan Phad Thai is at Sai Suraksha, 12th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indira Nagar. For reservations, call 8971202645 (Monday-Sunday, noon-5 pm & 7-10:30 pm).
