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| Thank you to Parv.ca for a number of these photos |
If you
visit Mango Tree Thai Fusion & Sports Bar expecting authentic Thai food,
you may leave disappointed. Really, their name should be a dead giveaway
there’ll be a deviation: there’s a fusion element and Thai restaurants aren’t
known to be sports bars. Once you get off the elevators, on the second floor of
the commercial building, and walk into the huge dark space, you know
authenticity doesn’t matter. With the black walls, colourful mural, large
television screen, and huge bar, it seems like it’ll will morph into a club at
any moment.
There
are certainly “sports bar” offerings on the menu such as obligatory fried
chicken wings ($13 a pound) or burger sliders ($12) that get a Thai twist with
the tamarind sauce used on them.
Some
dishes tread the line between bar and Thai food. The MT spring rolls
($10) filled with a ground beef and pork mixture dotted with finely chopped
carrots, onions, and coriander, the denser filling reminding me of Filipino lumpias. Or the coconut milk
fried shrimp ($15) where you could really
taste the coconut, but the cream they dip the shrimp into before
coating the shrimp could be thinned as the crust was a tad thick. In both
instances, the filling and batter would benefit from more seasoning as by themselves the
finger foods were plain, but improved with sauce.
Then,
there are dishes you’d expect from a Thai restaurant. The starter tom yum soup ($6) was a large bowl of hot
and sour broth teeming with lemongrass and other aromatics. It’s
certainly spicy, but not overwhelmingly; the heat balanced off with
vegetables like bean sprouts that also add a bit of crunch. Opt for the
vegetarian version, as the deep fried tofu is great for soaking up the spicy
soup.
The
mango salad ($9) takes relatively sweet green mangoes and tosses it in a light
shrimp paste for a savoury element. I enjoyed the fried shallots garnishing the
salad, which adds a nice earthy crunch.
Of all
the mains, the chicken green curry ($14) was perhaps the most authentic tasting
and our favourite main of the evening. As a warning, Mango Tree uses dark meat
giving the dish a gamier taste. It also contains chunks of eggplant
(great for soaking up the liquid) and peppers. If you like it spicier, dig to
the bottom as the chopped pepper pieces seems to sink to the bottom of the rich
coconut curry.
My
friend’s description of Mango Tree is great: it’s like a HK-style Thai
restaurant (similar to HK-style Western cafes or cha chan tangs). Essentially, they are Thai dishes but with a
Chinese influence. For example, the khao
soi ($14) switches out the spicy yellow broth for a milder soup base that
has a heavier coconut element. Moreover, the egg noodles are replaced with flat
chewy ones that almost have a hand-pulled quality to it.
To cap the bowl off, a
fried pineapple ring that gives the noodles a sweet element. I would
have preferred the khao soi spicier;
but then the menu, which showed no chili peppers beside the name, was
accurately depicting the dish. In retrospect, had I known I would have asked
for it to be made at the spicy level - Mango Tree offers customization options
for most mains where you choose the protein as well as the spiciness level.
The MT
boneless pork chop ($20) didn’t have much of the lemongrass and garlic flavours
I expected based on the menu’s description. Rather, the sweet tamarind barbeque
sauce flavour was prevalent and sparked the whole HK-style Thai café discussion
to begin with – it had that thick sweet and sour sauce flair that’s not
unlike the Cantonese style pork chops (except less sugary). Personally, I’d
prefer the pork chop thinner to allow the marinate to permeate the meat more
and the barbeque glaze toned down to let some of the herb’s flavour shine
through.
No meal
should end without an order of the Mango Tree sticky rice ($11). It takes time
to prepare but the wait is worth it as the sticky rice arrives warm and when
combined with cool sweet mangoes and thick coconut cream, I felt momentarily
transported to Thailand. Had I known how delicious the dessert would be, I’d skip
the appetizers and have an entire order of the sticky rice to end.
Kevin,
co-owner of Mango Tree, explains they wanted the restaurant to be different. Of
course, they serve food. But, it’s more than that. They want a space where
people can visit, hang out, and enjoy each other’s company. Indeed, that seemed
to ring true for our visit; while the food arrived quickly, we were left with
our mains well after the forks went down so we could just relax and lounge.
We took
that opportunity to sip on cocktails, my mango Bellini ($10) went down so
easily, a concoction of mango puree with soda water, balanced out with citrus
but so fruity that the rum melts away. For a unique drink, the Phulay sunset
($11) sounds like a tropical explosion of orange and pineapple juice with
coconut cream, but the addition of ginger gives the cocktail an interesting
zip.
The
weekend crowd was so varied from a boisterous table of women celebrating an occasion,
families, couples, to other groups of friends catching up. A lot of tables
stayed for a long time, ordering more bites and drinks to keep the night going.
Just like Mango Tree intended.
