This contemporary Thai restaurant is located in The Landmark, at a corner of the Central Atrium. When I arrived I felt a certain familiarity with the Vietnamese restaurant An Nam in CWB, maybe because of the relatively dark ambiance, and the small tables which would have difficulty putting all the dishes ordered when they came.
We ordered a Thod man poo to begin with, which is Thai Crab and Prawn Cakes, with green mango salad, yoghurt and sweet chili sauce. The deep-fried crab and prawn cakes had a crispy surface, and unlike the common prawn cakes they had the additional crab meat to enhance the overall flavors. Even though this sacrificed a bit on the bouncy texture of the traditional prawn cake, it certainly is a good attempt and the additional green mango salad also providing the acidity to make the appetizer lively and appealing.
Many would agree that Tom Yum Goong was a good test of the quality of the Thai restaurant, and in this respect Mak Mak might have slipped big time however. The hot and sour tiger prawn broth, cooked with lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, straw mushroom and fresh chili gave a strong spicy taste, with the herbs pronounced on the prawn broth. The biggest issue though was the saltiness of the broth, which was simply unacceptable.
There were also two main dishes ordered. First was Gaeng phed ped yang, which was Red Roasted Duck Curry, with grilled pineapple, Thai eggplant, grape and vine tomato. The curry was rich, tasty and not too spicy, and the duck was a natural pairing with the red curry. The pineapple added some sweetness to balance the spicy sauce, and overall this was a nice dish, particularly suitable to go with jasmine rice.
The other main dish was Pla krapong nueng manow, Steamed Sea Bass with three-flavored dressing, lime segments, fried shallots and coriander. If you wonder what exactly is this, this is a high-end version of the Thai style grey mullet hotpot, with the traditional dipping sauce as dressing on the fish. This also was nicely done, with the sea bass being much better than grey mullet, without any mud-taste that sometimes could be found in grey mullet. And because the dressing was on the fish the taste was much stronger as well. One thing however was that the chili was likewise all over the fish and one must be careful or would end up eating the very spicy chili.
For dessert we had the Khao neaw ma muang, the famous Mango with Sticky Rice and Coconut Cream. The rice was of a interesting blue color, which might be coming from the butterfly pea flower, which was now getting popular to be made into a herbal tea, but I did not find out from the staff. The mango was fresh and sweet, and the coconut cream luscious. This to us offered a good wrap up for the dinner.
A point to note was that it was super-difficult to call in to make a booking. Having made the reservation online, the staff called me back to confirm the booking but I missed the call. Trying to call back was very difficult, and I have called 6-7 times in different hour of the day before finally getting someone to pick up the phone.
The bill on the night was $1,051 for two, including the above dishes, plus a mocktail and two plain jasmine rice. Quite expensive for a Thai restaurant, but considering the location probably a lot of the bill was going to the rental. Service was generally ok but nothing exceptional and worth mentioning.
My overall rating was 58/100.
Frankly the place is a bit dirty and unkempt, certainly not a nice environment but people tends to eat quickly and go, with us being no exception. We ordered the two-person set dinner, which included half a chicken, a choice of different dishes, a vegetable, two bowls of soup and rice. The chicken is in fact quite nice, very tender and juicy, and paired well with the sweet soy sauce, chili sauce and ginger/spring onion paste. I agree that it delivered the promise of the restaurant.
For the other dish we ordered the pan-fried ground meat with salty fish. Originally I mistook the dish to be a steamed one. The presentation was interesting, with the ground meat fairly thin and pan-fried nicely, and look similar to a BBQ sheet of meat also famous in Singapore. The taste was a good surprise, with good balance of the savory of the salty fish, and the texture offering good bite for enjoyment.
The blanched vegetable is nothing unusual, didn't provide any excitement nor disappointment. The soup on the day is a pumpkin soup which got the sweetness of the pumpkin and I heard from the staff that they put a lot of the chicken bones to prepare the soup, and did not put in any MSG. Honestly I couldn't tell, but I really did not feel thirsty afterwards so I think they were not kidding.
