Michelin-starred Bib Gourmand T For Thai doesn't set out to be 100% authentic Thai food, it's the brainchild of Michael Wendling, owner and head chef of Shanghai's long-established French restaurant, Bronz. Although Michael once went to Bangkok to learn how to cook in order to learn Thai food, he is still cautious about the use of spices, and has some Thai symbolic ingredients in his heart, but he does not dare to let go after all, and is still accustomed to designing dishes with inherent thinking and French framework.
Among the appetizers, the beef salad best reflects the chef's style. The beef is grilled over the surface and cut into pieces, but the inside is still tender pink, combining the aroma of fire grilling with the fishy beauty of raw meat. Lime juice is used to sour the dominant flavour, complemented by onions, shallots and fried garlic, and even grapes to add a subtle sweetness, creating a simple but three-dimensional Southeast Asian-style beef salad, while the three signature Thai spices of lemon leaf, mint and lemongrass are missing from the menu.
The prawn and grapefruit salad is another example of Michael's understanding of Thai food – fruit in dishes, which also has something to do with his French background. This dish is covered with sweet, sour, slightly bitter, plump and juicy white grapefruit pulp, and is made with shredded toasted coconut and chopped peanuts to add a crispy texture. Michael even made the seasoning simple this time, so the taste was only provided by the ingredients themselves, and the aftertaste was slightly lacking.
Tom Yum and curry, which rely heavily on spices, have also been improved. Tom Yum is added with a lot of coconut milk, resulting in a warm and soft taste, with almost no sour and spicy sensation. Although the ginger, lemongrass and lemon leaf are all there, the effect seems to be just to make a fuss and not bring substantial flavor assistance. The red curry and green curry taste are not bad, but the edges and corners are erased in T For Thai, the fragrance is thin and there is no distinction; The former is cooked with duck meat, and the amount of dried duck meat is small, which is a little inferior to the combination of green curry and Thai eggplant, and Thai eggplant needs to be imported, and the cost is slightly higher, which can be used to judge whether a restaurant is willing to pay for it, so it is worth a try.
T For Thai's gentle Western-style twist is not annoying, retains the exoticism, and has a wider universality due to the more mellow seasoning, making it an interesting fusion of cuisine. T For Thai has also put a lot of effort into the interior design, the overall style is modern, simple, colorful and cartoonish, the wavy board on the ceiling is a sunshade commonly used by street stalls or illegal buildings in Thailand, and the photography on the wall is made into a light box, making the space more layered. There are two Tuk Tuk cars parked in front of the door of Bangkok, and the atmosphere of Bangkok is outstanding. What's more, T For Thai is very family-friendly, and every weekend at noon, there is a separate children's activity area with tents, floor mats, TVs and various toys, so that children can play for a long time, and parents can rest and chat.
