Joe's Kitchen

Joe's Kitchen was one of the food places on the "I Desire" list (see right column), and I was so glad that I could take my friends there for dinner after a tiring day at a freshmen orientation camp. I was telling Daphne that I'm beginning to feel that sense of delightful satisfaction of bringing people to new places to try new food, just as how other more famous food bloggers would organise "makan" sessions. People somehow are seeing me in a slightly different light when it comes to food now, it's quite odd sometimes, but they would be like, "Hey, you're the foodie right, where should we eat?" or even decide for them what they should eat. And of course, I'm getting recommendations from a lot of people of places I should visit, which I truly do welcome because it adds on to my list.


Joe's Kitchen is a very simple, unpretentious place along a row of shops located under the block of flats opposite Queensway Shopping Centre and Alexandra Hospital. Many of the shops were closed early and I was wondering if I had gotten the place right since it all looked quite quiet and run-down. Then we saw the bright signboard and heaved a sigh of relief. We're here!


For a place highly recommended by some of the more popular local food bloggers, Joe's Kitchen didn't have the air of a great, stylish restaurant, and it was quite small too. But then, we were here for the food, and we knew whatever the ambience, ultimately it would be the food doing the talking ;)

Stuffed Chicken: 9/10


YUMMY. We ordered this as an appetiser, and Daphne enjoyed this so much she kept going on and on about how a good a recommendation this place was. Everyone else felt that this was very unique, and for a while we were wondering how it's done, removing the bones in the mid-wings carefully and all.


What this chicken wing is stuffed with is a mixture of water chestnuts, corn, chopped chicken meat and mushrooms. There must have been so much work put in for these chicken wings man, as much as they're so easy to eat and can be finished in a few hungry bites! Full of flavour, crispy on the outside and juicy too. Yums!

Phad Thai: 8.5/10


This is very good phad thai, one of the best in Singapore I would reckon. The dried chilli gave it the spicy flavour it needed, and it was just a little moist to prevent it from being too dry. It could have done better with the added crunch of more peanuts, to make it more authentically thai. One awesome thing about this dish, for its price, is the portion. The lady mentioned to us that it's quite a big portion and can be shared by a couple, but all six of us told her we were hungry and just bring it on! She was right though, but we did try to eat as much as we could of this good stuff.

Sambal Kangkong: 7/10


This kangkong dish didn't impress any one of us though, because we felt it wasn't spicy enough.

Seafood Tom Yum Soup: 8.5/10


You may say it's unfair, but I would compare any tom yum soup with the benchmark soup from MBK Food Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. This soup from Joe's Kitchen comes quite close, but if it was a bit more spicy and sour, it would have been superb.


A good thing about this soup is that it's very generous on ingredients, with all the prawns, sliced fish and squids. Even if it's slightly behind the real homecooked soup from Thailand, I would have to say that this is still fantastic stuff!

Green Curry Chicken: 8.5/10


Some food bloggers have felt that this green curry should be spicier, but to be honest I feel that this is cooked just right. I think I prefer green curries which are thicker, and I will leave the red, spicy ones for the normal curries. The chicken was very tender and I'm sure the curry would have gone very well with white rice. I drank a lot of the gravy actually, it was so good. The rest thought the same way too =)

Service
Very good, friendly.

Price
$2.00 for each stuffed chicken wing
$4.50 for phad thai
$6.00 for sambal kangkong
$12.90 for a large seafood tom yum soup
$12.90 for a large green curry chicken
$1.50 for each can of drink
$0.20 for each wet tissue

Prices inclusive of GST. No service charge.

Place
Blk 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1 #01-182
Opposite Queensway Shopping Centre and Alexandra Hospital

Additional Comment
You've got to try this place out =)