Kha Modern Thai Cuisine, HortPark

Hubby brought me to Kha at HortPark recently for dinner. Am I out of touch or what? I didn't even know the existence of such a place in Singapore.

Quoted from the nParks website, 'HortPark is a one-stop gardening hub that brings together gardening-related, recreational, educational, research and retail activities under one big canopy in a park setting. It is a knowledge hub for plants and gardening and provides the platform for the industry to share best practices and showcase garden designs, products and services. This 23-hectare regional park in South-Western Singapore is also a park connector, connecting Telok Blangah Hill Park to Kent Ridge Park.'

Wow, that's cool. Apparently, there are plenty of activities, programmes and even venues for rental.

Our intention was to check out the restaurant and chill out after a stressful workday so weren't appropriately dressed to go for a walk around the park. We will definitely be back another day to do just that.

Kha offers indoor and alfresco dining. The alfresco lounge overlooks a vast water feature and lush greenery, a good choice to hangout and chill. For dinner, we opted to stay indoors with air-con :p

Reception area.

Both the interior and exterior of the restaurant look quite chic and elude elegance with warm dark wood furnishings and exquisite Thai touches. Would expect the clientele to be rather atas. On the contrary, the patrons ranged from couples to groups of friends and even families in sports gear. So, it isn't exactly a fine dining restaurant, and neither a family restaurant.

As for the menu, since it offers Modern Thai cuisine, most of the dishes are uh, well, modern.

We spent quite some time pondering what to order as the descriptions are relatively sophisticated. Usually we have a tendency to look for familiar names like you know Pandan Chicken. Here they have 'gai hor bai toey - chicken wrapped in pandan leaf with sesame seed and sweet soy sauce'. Pineapple rice is missing or maybe it's not served for dinner or perhaps termed differently, 'khao phad talay - stir fried jasmine rice with seafood'?

Whatever, it's always good to experience new things instead of the same-old, same-old.

tom yum goong - hot and sour broth with king prawn and lemongrass

A must-order for us. Hubby felt that somehow the soup lacked oomph, not sour and spicy enough. He would go for Maggie Thai at Liang Seah Street anytime (big bowl with lots of ingredients and very sour and spicy). So-so for me. Not a big fan of tom yum soup. King prawn was quite succulent and fresh though.

pla gao rad prik - deep fried grouper fillets with chili sauce

Both of us love this dish. Fish was deep fried to perfect crisp and sauteed with chili sauce. The chili sauce was a winner! Complemented plain rice (described as 'khao hom-ma-li - steamed premium thai jasmine rice) very well.

Couldn't recall the actual name of this dish - supposedly a monthly special. It's some grilled squid stuffed with sour pork. We are definitely not used to 'sour pork' which tasted quite weird. The squid was ok. Didn't have much impression except for the weird sour pork.

thap thim krawp - red rubies with coconut jasmine syrup

Hubby's favourite dessert. Turned out rather ordinary, perhaps slightly more fragrant due to the jasmine?

khao nuew dam - black sticky rice and date pudding served with tamarind caramel sauce and mango ice cream

Still prefers the Sticky Date Toffee Pudding at Marmalade Pantry. This was a tad dry and not moist enough. The mango ice-cream was also a little too sour for my liking.

After the dinner, we adjourned to the outdoors for a cuppa herbal tea to cleanse the palate. The lounge area is really nice and comfy for lounging. We stayed for quite a while before leaving.

Overall, kha offers a cool ambience and prompt service but the meal itself wasn't anything to rave about. Perhaps we didn't order the 'correct' dishes. In fact, after browsing the menu again on their website, realised we could have ordered some other dishes. The drinks menu looks interesting too but I guess I didn't have the patience to read through the extensive list then. Not to mention the price is on the high side. Maybe I'll be back again, but not so soon.

Kha
HortPark
33 Hyderabad Road Singapore 119578
65 6476 9000
http://www.kha.sg/

P.S. Advisable to make reservations as the place was quite full even on weekday.