Pee Nong (Thai Food) @ Pandan Indah

I've noticed this Thai eatery in my neighbourhood, Restoran Pee Nong @ Pandan Indah, was always packed with people whenever we drove past.  We finally decided to stop for dinner one evening (the food featured here is from a few visits).

This restaurant occupies four shoplots....two in the same row (but not next to one another) and two lots opposite (also not next to one another).  I think what probably happened was, when business picked up (tremendously), they expanded but couldn't get the lots they wanted next to one another.
 

Of course, we had to start off with the Red Tom Yam (Seafood) Soup @ RM13.50 (for small) in a Thai restaurant.  I think I found only one (maybe two) smallish prawns, a few pieces of squid and some straw mushrooms...and lots of stuff you can't eat like lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves although the flavour of the soup was rather good.

 

The guy taking the orders asked us to choose a spiciness level from 1 - 5.  I can't remember if 1 or 5 was the most spicy but I chose a 3 which is mid-level spiciness....and it was still very spicy!  I better take it down a notch the next time.

Another signature dish of a Thai restaurant is the Thai Fish Cakes @ RM19 and it arrived with just six pieces of rather thin fish cakes.  It did taste like pure fish paste mixed with some spices with the fragrant kaffir lime leaves taking centre stage.  I did enjoy the fish cakes but found it to be a bit pricey for six rather thin slices.

The other popular Thai dish is their Pandan Chicken @ RM19 which is a perennial favourite of ours too.  The chicken pieces wrapped in pandan (screwpine) leaves were fragrant and well caramelised.  It was tender and you can certainly taste the lemongrass and charred flavour.  No complaints except for the meagre portion of just six not-too-large pieces again! :(

We also tried their Green Chicken Curry @ RM17.50 which had chunks of chicken, two types of eggplant (those Thai round ones and our local ones), long beans, red chillies and a pungent herb (probably Thai basil which I wasn't particularly fond of).  The coconut milk in the green curry resulted in an extremely thick and creamy curry (alright if eaten in small quantities but overly rich otherwise).

 

The Deep Fried Squid @ RM18 turned out to be my son's favourite.  The squid was battered and fried to crispy perfection.  It wasn't over-fried and managed to retain its tenderness...it was pretty good. 

Another squid dish we managed to try was the Butter Milk Squid @ RM22 where the battered squid was also found to be super crunchy (in fact, this was even better than the deep fried squid above) before being doused in a butter milk sauce.  I detected coconut milk in the sauce which made it even thicker and creamier.  The curry leaves in the mix brought a bit of relief to the richness of the sauce.

 

Yet another squid dish (yeah, we love our squid) was the BBQ Squid @ RM5.50/100g and this plate of squid cost RM26.40 which would make it 480g (although it didn't seem like 480g to me).  That's always the problem when ordering something that charges by weight coz you can't really gauge how much it'll cost until after they present you with the bill.  They did, however, manage to give the squid some nice char marks, so that gave it some smoky flavour.  It was slightly tender, not rubbery but still slightly chewy (probably from being grilled a tad longer than it should).

 

The squid was definitely fresh and the excellent spicy fresh chilli dip that came with it saved the taste of the otherwise bland squid (as I believe the squid was just simply grilled without any seasoning).

 

This dish of Deep Fried Little Prawns @ RM16 was just as the name suggested.  These super crunchy small shrimps were little morsels of crispy delight.

They were so crispy you can eat the entire shrimp...head, tail, legs and all!  I especially liked the crunchy heads....awesome! =D  This turned out really well and it was simply the best dish we had here.

 

As for our vegetables, we had the Pucuk Paku Fried with Belacan @ RM12.50 (I've seen this vegetable referred to by many names...paku pakis, jungle ferns, vegetable ferns, wild ferns, edible ferns, etc).  I love to eat them because of the crunchy texture (especially the stems) when fried just right with the saltiness from the dried shrimp paste with chillies and garlic.

Another vegetable dish order was a very simple Stir-Fried Cabbage with Dried Shrimps @ RM12.50.  Although I was happy to see that it contained a fair amount of dried shrimps, I found that the serving portion to be rather small.

We also had the Kangkung Fried with Belacan @ RM12.50 on another occasion.  All the vegetable dishes turned out ok.

You can douse the flames in your mouth with Pandan Flavoured Water @ RM4.50 (for one jug) or RM1 per glass.  It was a nice, refreshing change from just plain water as you can definitely taste the pandan in the water.

 

My Personal Opinion

 

Overall, although the prices seemed reasonable for Thai food, I felt they were on the pricier side because of the small portions and the fact that it's a no frills, coffee shop style, Thai eatery in a housing area.  [#Tip: Because of the small portion sizes, two persons can even polish off four dishes if they wanted to.  So, for 3 persons, I think you may need at least 5 dishes to be fully satisfied.]

And because of this very reason, a meal here can easily cost RM50 per pax (depending on what you order) and more if fish or crabs are involved (I saw the price of crabs ranging from RM51 - RM91 for one + fish costing more than RM100 on the menu)!  Even at such prices, I'm surprised they're doing such brisk business (even on weekdays) for a housing area eatery.

The food is pretty good, I'd give it that....but at such prices for a casual dinner at a neighbourhood joint, it seems a bit much for the petite portions of food.  Great for family meals when you're not cooking....just not frequently!

Restoran Pee Nong
No M5A/4 Jalan Pandan Indah 4/1A
Pandan Indah
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-4293 3228