Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai

About that place

Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai it is a rare combination of authentic recipes and piquant seasonings with fresh local produce and choice seafood and meats that results in a galaxy of irresistible dishes, from the pleasantly mild to the intensely spicy.

One of the best Thai restaurants in town,Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai has been serving delicious Thai food for over two decades. I am no stranger to Benjarong! I was actually there on the invitation of Chef Ramkumar to celebrate 20 years in 2020.

While we were perusing our menus, a plate of complimentary Miang Kham arrived at the table. In Thailand and Vietnam, miang kham is served with betel leaves; although it's perfectly acceptable to serve it in lettuce leaves, as Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai does, I see no reason to make it standard. Why not offer the diner a choice? And the tamarind sauce is nice and tangy, but where oh where are the dried prawns? At that point I was willing to admit it was some kind of vegetarian version and enjoyed rolling up the leaves and waiting for the explosion of contrasting flavors and textures to hit my taste buds.

We decided to keep things simple. And Neua Tod Prik Tai On (fried beef tenderloin appetizer), Hor Mok Goong (I can never resist hor mok), Som Tam, steamed rice and Kaeng Phed. After some debate on which kaeng phet to order, we decided on the duck. We also ordered two drinks – a Ginger Lemon Cooler for me and a house special known as Siam Sparkle for Vacuum Cleaner.

Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai took longer than we expected for our drinks to arrive but when they did the Ginger Lemon was refreshing and the Siam Sparkle was a nice surprise. It was champagne-like, golden and fizzy, and had an interesting aftertaste – cassia bark, I think. I asked what the noise was coming from and was told they were using 7Up. It's been a while since I tasted an interesting soft drink. And that's the last nice thing I have to say about my experience with this restaurant.

Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai

The Food such as it is.. 

The starter, Neua Tod Prik Tai On, arrived. Let me deconstruct: "neua" means beef. "Tod" means fried. "Prik t(h)ai on" refers to raw green peppercorns.

So. I wasn't sure if the meat we got was beef (neua) - I couldn't tell because it was half burnt and chewy. A fact that is only apparent after you manage to bite through too much cornmeal dough. It was definitely fried (tod) because it was swimming in oil as you can see from the picture when you click on it for a closer look (edge ​​of the plate). And as for the green peppercorns (prik thai on), I mistakenly thought there weren't any, but I found one small cluster when I was cropping this picture for upload. See if you can spot it. Hint: it's hidden somewhere at the top of the frame.

The rest of our food arrived and he took his time with it. Let's take it from above.

Malaysian masquerading as Thai curry
Kerala-masquerading-as-Thai cuisine

Mount Mok. Whatever Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai serves, or thinks he serves, is not hor mok. Hor mok is supposed to be a lightly steamed curry with the consistency of pudding and the texture of a souffle. We got a thick Kerala-style coconut curry containing loads of finely chopped prawns, served in a banana leaf cup. Maybe it was steamed, maybe not. Was it tasty? I assume. Was it hor mok? Hell no.

"Good from a distance, but far from good"
"Far from good, but far from good :D"

Peht Kaeng Phed. All we wanted was a simple Thai red curry. You know, the kind you can make at home from a packet of curry paste, with the addition of fresh coconut milk, some meat, and if you're picky like me, some fried basil leaves and fresh lemongrass for added flavor. Instead, we got a coconut-based curry with a few cooked basil leaves floating helplessly on top of it. The coconut milk disintegrated during cooking, and judging by the color of the meat and its disproportionately high fat content, we were served duck leg rather than breast.

Tasteless. Heartless. Blah. Those are mild words. I try to be polite; otherwise I would probably use words like: terrible. Pathetic. Grapes.

I'm There We were already hungry enough to eat just me there with steamed rice. Som tam is the simplest and most ubiquitous of all Thai salads. Finely grated raw papaya should be lightly pounded in a pestle and mortar with garlic and chilli and then dressed in a combination of fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice. Chopped tomatoes and crushed peanuts are sprinkled on top and a green bean or two thrown in for color and textural variety.

However, Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai the papaya is grated into thicker strips (or rather cut with a noodle peeler), there is not even a hint of fish sauce and the chilli component is woefully absent. And there are bits of carrot in it too. Yuck.

Address : Benjarong - Thai Restaurant in Chennai

No 146, TTK Road, Alwarpet, Chennai - 600018 (Near Park Sheraton Hotel, Co-operative Colony, Sri Ram Nagar) Chennai