The Yellow Monkey - Thai food
This is a lovely restaurant in JBR and when I was invited here, I was wondering what's the cuisine. After dining here though, my doubts were definitely cleared.
The place has a funky and contemporary ambience to it. There are a couple of tables with swinging chairs and even the tables along with it are suspended and sway. It was interesting when I sat on it, but after some time I preferred to sit on something more conventional.
We started with something really interesting. It was the mango and coconut salad on fried betel leaf. I was pleasantly surprised to know that betel leaf is used in Thai cuisine. It had an authentic Thai flavour to it, especially given the fact that mango and coconut are also used extensively in the cuisine. It wasn't something that personally suited my tastebuds though.
After this we had the tom kha prawn soup. The flavours of the soup made in coconut milk tasted nice and the soup was comforting.
Then we had the chicken satay which tasted really good. It was served in a little basked with peanut sauce on the side. The chicken was soft and the spices weren't overpowering but added a nice flavour to it.
A similar appetizer in the vegetarian variant was the peanut tofu skewers. The tofu skewers made in Thai spices were prepared really well. I barely needed any additional peanut sauce with it.
The grilled jumbo prawns in black pepper sauce looked really interesting. If you're a fan of prawns, then you must definitely try it. They were prepared along with the shell, and combined with the lovely spices that were used, they tasted delicious.
For our mains, we had kaho soi which is a famous far East-Asian dish. It tasted a bit different (in a good way) than what I've usually had. I liked the crispy fried onions on top and the overall flavours of the dish.
One simply cannot leave a Thai restaurant without trying one of their curries. We had the green curry which was amazing. It was a bit thinner than the ones I've had at most places, but I liked the taste and the aroma that it had to it.
We were confused between having meat or vegetarian for our next dish, and that's when they suggested us the mock meat with black pepper. When they brought it to our table, we couldn't have guessed that it isn't meat. It also tasted like meat, although softer. The black pepper flavour was totally on point, and we couldn't get over it.
For our sweet endings, we had some really innovative fusion dishes.
The first was the karak chai donuts. The dish has donuts that are carved out in the shape of mini bowls, and then they put karak chai ice-cream in it. The innovation in this itself made me go Wow! It tasted nice, and wasn't overly sweet which was a good thing.
The next one was the chocolate fondant tart with coffee caramel. The tart was crispy and the fondant inside was warm; combined with bitter coffee flavours and sweet caramel ones, along with a scoop of ice-cream on the side, it was a perfect combination. Do try it out when you go there.
Just when I though they couldn't get a better dessert, they got the Breaking Bread. It consists of homemade cardamom and pandang leaf ice-cream served with brioche dipped in coconut milk based sauce. Despite having just a selective liking towards coconut, this certainly had my attention as soon as I took the first bite. I tried hard to resist it, but after a couple of minutes we ended up finishing it.
If you're looking for a Thai restaurant that is out of the ordinary, then this is certainly where you should be heading. Authentic Thai flavours, funky ambience, and innovative desserts.
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