Thai Grill N Bar @ Sembawang

We happened to pass by this restaurant on a nights out after our ICT stint and we decided to try out the Thai food offered. As suggested by its name, this restaurant serves Mookata- a thai equivalent of BBQ and steamboat and they also have a variety of drinks from their bar. Take a look at their extensive menu and you will discover that they also whip up a variety of Thai and Chinese zi char style dishes too. And there's no service charge and GST here.

We shared a 2 person Mookata set ($29.90). This was my first time sampling Mookata, so for the uninitiated, Mookata refers to traditional Thai metal pan used to BBQ meats and also cooking steamboat items. There is a mini grill dome in the centre for you to grill meat which is surrounded by a shallow space to contain the soup broth for steamboat. The entire pan is heated by burning charcoal underneath, so yes very old school. The mookata set comes with a variety to meats, including prawns, squids, marinated pork and chicken and some crabsticks, fishballs and vegetables and you are free to choose between grilling the items or dunking them in the boiling steamboat broth.

As the pan starts to heat up, you are supposed to place the pork lard provided on top of the grill dome. The oil from the pork lard will slowly drip out and help grease the metal grill. It supposedly also helps add flavour to the grilled meat! The oil also drips into the soup to add flavour too.

Besides having the mookata set, we also tried some items from their Thai food menu. We had their Mango Salad ($7) which was rather fresh and provided a really good start to our meal. We got a little greedy and also tried their Thai Green Curry Chicken ($10) which was served in a nice rich and fragrant curry with generous servings of chicken and vegetables. The Thai dishes were not too bad, and they seemed to be prepared by their in house Thai chefs.

We top off the meal with some Red Rubies dessert ($5) which was a really generous serving red rubies on top of shaved ice drizzled with coconut milk and dried mango bits. As you can see from the picture, it's a visual feast. The only problem was the way it was served. It was served in small bowl, like those you would put rice in and we had a difficult time trying to finish the dessert without spilling the contents all over the table. And the dessert most regrettably came together with the food items. There was apparently some communication error and as a result the dessert was served out immediately. If you do intend to visit this place, make sure you reiterate to the waiter you want dessert to be served later. 

Though the mookata was an experience, it was pretty normal grill and steamboat meal. I would like to try their other thai food next time round.

Thai Grill N Bar
25 Sembawang Road