Chili, Spice, and All Things Nice on the Menu at Amazing Thai
There is a brightness and allure to Thai cuisine that, wherever you happen to be eating it, transports you straight to the beaches of Ko Phi Phi or the backstreets of Bangkok. Having fallen in love with Thai cuisine during his frequent visits to the country, restaurateur Chen Chen struggled to find this vibrancy back in Beijing, so he decided to open his own restaurant, Amazing Thai.
The first branch of Amazing Thai opened at Raffles City in November last and has since quickly expanded to three branches across Beijing, with plans in the works to open more restaurants.
To ensure that their recipes are as true to the original as possible, Chen Chen invited Thai chef Mr Bumbim to consult on the menu and work with Amazing Thai’s kitchen team. Chef Bumbim comes from a long line of chefs (his father cooked for the Thai royal family) and has been introducing Thai cooking and ingredients to restaurants around the world for more than 15 years.
At the recently renovated Yizhuang branch, rather than relying on silk decor and tchotchkes to create an artificial Thai-style atmosphere, Chen Chen has chosen a sleek, industrial look that offers a simple background against which the dishes really pop. Leafy plants and colorful art add fun touches throughout the space.
But like any good Thai restaurant, it’s the food you come to Amazing Thai for, not the decor. A typical meal might start with an order of the shrimp cakes (RMB 38/small, RMB 72/large), which are made with 100 percent shrimp, fried to crispy perfection. Continue your foray into all things shrimp with an order of sinus-clearing tom yum soup (RMB 38/small, RMB 68/small), which comes packed with fresh shrimp, as well as kaffir lime leaves, cherry tomatoes, and straw mushrooms. The soup strikes a balance between sweet, sour, and spicy flavors, with a broth made from more than 20 different ingredients.
From the “main” dishes (although all are designed to be shared, really), the standout is the massaman curry beef (RMB 78), featuring hunks of tender beef and potato swimming in an almost sinfully rich coconut-based curry sauce. Massaman curry is thought to have roots in Indian and Malay cuisine and thus uses a complex mix of dry spices not otherwise commonly seen in Thai cuisines, such as cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, and mace.
For something a little lighter, try the stir-fried minced chicken with holy basil (RMB 46), known as pad ka prao in Thai. As with most of the dishes, the spices and herbs for this dish are flown in twice weekly from Thailand. Finish your meal with a pretty plate of mango sticky rice (RMB 46), the rice dyed in different colors using pandan leaf and butterfly pea (that same butterfly pea makes an appearance in an eye-catching tea (RMB 22) that changes from blue to purple with the addition of lemon juice).
With a simple menu of Thai classics that are the real McCoy and four branches spread across the city, Amazing Thai is a, well, amazing option for Thai food lovers in Beijing.
Amazing Thai (Raffles City branch)
Daily 11am-9pm. 5/F, Raffles City, 1 Dongzhimen Waidajie, Dongcheng District (132 6033 1389)
东城区东直门外大街1号北京来福士5层
Amazing Thai (Shuangjing branch)
Daily 11am-9pm. L3-6, Space3, Shuangjing, Chaoyang District (185 1965 8985)
朝阳区双井乐成中心Space3L3-6
Amazing Thai (Yizhuang branch)
Daily 11am-9pm. F3-20, 3/F, Dazu Square, Daxing District (186 1133 7278)
大兴区大族广场购物中心3层F3-20号
Look for Amazing Thai to open a fourth Beijing restaurant in Solana towards the end of September.
This post is paid for by Amazing Thai
Photos: Uni You, courtesy of Amazing Thai