Nakhon Kitchen has gained a reputation for serving good, authentic Thai food at reasonable prices. It is not unusual to see a queue forming outside the shop during dinner time. So does it live up to the hype?
We perused the menu while waiting in line. It is divided into several categories: appetisers ($4-12), salad ($5-10), soup ($6), curry ($6-8), seafood ($10-22), chicken ($6), beef ($8), pork ($6), vegetable ($6), rice ($6-8), noodle ($4-6), and dessert ($3-5). A comprehensive menu with choices for everyone.
We went with the classic dishes so that we can have a fair comparison with the other Thai restaurants that we have been to before.
The Yellow Curry Chicken ($8) was a refreshing change from the usual Green Curry ($8), but we still preferred the latter. My partner had the Thai Style Fried Kway Teow ($4) previously, and it left an impression on her. This time, we went for Nakhon’s Phad Thai Noodles ($5) which was not bad but not remarkable.
The clear Tom Yam Soup ($6) was kick-ass hot, so they will please those who like spicy food. The Stir-Fried Mince Pork with Basil ($6) was also very good. If you are trying to find the best Thai Pork with Basil, you must try it here.
All in all, Nakhon Kitchen offers good Thai food at very decent prices. But I don’t understand its popularity as there are also many good Thai eateries in Singapore – such as Aroy Dee, Ah Loy Thai, First Thai, Jai Thai, and Nana Thai – which serves equally good Thai food at similar price point.
While I like Nakhon Kitchen, I probably would not queue up half an hour for it. What do you think? Is Nakhon one of the best Thai restaurants in Singapore?
Nakhon Kitchen
136 Bedok North Avenue 3 #01-166
Singapore 460136
Tel: +65 6245 5548
Daily: 12pm – 3pm, 5.30pm – 10pm
212 Hougang Street 21 #01-341
Singapore 530212
Tel: +65 6286 8785
Daily: 12pm – 3pm, 5.30pm – 10pm
I feel the queue forms at Nakhon not fully because of the great food, but because the management of the queue is pretty bad. The food is ok, sufficient to satisfy if one has cravings for Thai food, prices are quite affordable too, but I don’t see the urge to stay in the queue because I notice it is always because they are terrible at managing the queue which is why the wait is so long.
I remembered being there once and there were 2 4-person seats available. But the first group of people in the queue is about 10 people, thus the 2 empty tables (which are very far apart) were left empty all the way till they managed to put together seats for the group of 10. The people who were second in line was only served after the group of 10 got a seat. Eventually, the people who are second in line was allocated 1 of the 2 empty seats. Shouldn’t they manage better and give the people second in the line the table first instead of holding them in the queue and allow the queue to continue forming?
This is just terrible queue management. If the management was better, the queue would have been much shorter.
I have been to Nakhon twice, and i had to queue more than 30mins for the table each time. I think there are better Thai restaurants as i find the food at Nakhon is of mediocre standard and definitely not worth queueing for.
Thank you very much for the information that they open 11pm to 3 pm, it took me 20 dollars for taxi to find out it dose not open at that time. U think it is responsible to post wrong info on ur website!?
Tried the kovan branch a few times when there are lesser people on certain times of the day. Food taste good when the restaurant first opened. Taste and quality went way down after coming back again many months later. I would rather go back to the thai food at selegie.
Great food @ reasonable prices. Authentic Thai flavours. The queuing can be self managed if you go a little after 1. There is no way a queue can be managed if everyone wants to get a table at 12-12:30.
It is not just serving authentic Thai food, it is the Northern Thai Isaan food that makes it different from the rest!
In my honest opinion, its the diners who caused the queue issue.
Pretty sure the staff used their discretion before they kept a table empty .
It’s the diners who are seated next to such table who are wrong, clearly they are already done eating yet still hogging the tables looking at their IGs. Disgusting bunch of pple here