Restaurant Reviews: Sweet Chili - Amazing Thai Food
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Sweet Chili is the newest restaurant of the Gerry’s Group
of Companies, which is famous for its flagship restaurant, Gerry’s Grill.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
If nothing else, it had me with its interior design making it distinct from its competitors that look like a tourism brochure.
The restaurant has very limited choices with a two-sided legal-sized
board menu which helps making decisions easier. Now before we go on, let me
have a disclaimer here: my family and I are no experts in Thai cuisine although
we have been to Bangkok years ago (like in the 20th century) and
have not been back since. We can’t even remember what we ate there, though I do remember
fending off crocodile soup as I am not that adventurous. So the comments
here are based only on our experience of eating at self-styled Thai restaurants
in Manila, Hong Kong, the US and Australia.
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| Pad Thai plain noodles Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
As pad thai (stir-fried noodles) is a menu staple, it was
the first in our order. It tasted like Hong Kong beef hofan noodles but without
the beef. Instead, there were bean sprouts and tofu. But between the hofan and
pad thai, I’d go for the former. I didn’t hate the pad thai, mind you, but it
was just too ordinary for an Asian like me who’s eaten a lot of varieties of noodle
dishes. Sweet Chili calls it plain noodles because you can opt to have it
served with scrambled egg covering it like a cocoon.
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| Deep-fried king fish with green mango shreds and crushed peanuts Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
This was marked as a house specialty so we gave it a try
and Sweet Chili is not exaggerating. The mango relish complemented the dryness
of the fried fish with its hint of sweet and sour taste. The sauce was so good
that I wiped it with the last remaining fish bits.
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| Tofu with minced chicken Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
I love tofu and I love chicken so I had high expectations
for this dish which, alas, failed to meet them. Anyone who will be tasting tofu
for the first time will not be impressed. And anyone who doesn’t like tofu will
never be a convert. The tofu was as bland as it can be. It felt like I was
eating two different dishes at the same time.
As Sweet Chili did not totally fail us the first time, my
family and I returned less than a week later to try the other dishes. We
noticed that there were more customers this time around.
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| Seafood rice in basil sauce Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
As we did not try the rice the first time, we ordered the
seafood rice this time. Looking at it, I expected it to be sweet and I began preparing myself for disappointment. However, after just one spoonful, I was
delighted with its not-so-sweet taste. It had just enough flavor to remind you
it’s not plain steamed rice but not overpowering when eaten with other dishes.
The seafood was too minimal though to make any meaningful impact and they should probably consider calling it “basil rice with incidental seafood.” Although the menu says it’s good for
four people, it really isn’t enough simply because it is just so good. So we had an additional order
of pad thai plain noodles but ended up pointing at each other to finish it. The
noodles were too rich for seconds. We should have ordered another serving of
the same seafood rice and probably ended up fighting over it.
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| Sweet and sour king fish with Thai herbs and garlic Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
As their menu was limited, we had no choice but to order
another king fish dish but this time with Thai herbs and garlic and ended up
missing the mango relish. It wasn’t bad but we missed the tanginess to
complement the richly flavored fish.
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| Stir-fried morning glory sauteed in soy bean paste and garlic Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
I never knew kangkong was called morning glory in
English. Never bothered to think what it was in English until I saw it on the
menu. Anyway, the dish just tasted like something you can whip up at home.
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| Thako Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Now this is the best reason to return to Sweet Chili---its
thako or rice pudding made with coconut milk and green pandan. It tastes like
our very own maja
blanca and dare I say it---but better? There are six in one order and if we
weren’t already full, we probably would have asked for more.
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| Thai halo-halo Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
I went back on another occasion to try their Thai
halo-halo which is just the same as ours
except it uses coconut milk. I couldn’t tell the difference really. It was so
sweet though that I had to put more water. Perhaps they could follow the lead
of Taiwan milk tea shops that ask for your sugar level preference or they could
serve the sugar syrup separately for the customers to pour to their heart’s
content.
Sweet Chili is located at 2/F Fisher Mall, Quezon Avenue, Quezon
City. Meal dishes range from 175 and above.
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