Colonel Tan's

Domain of the cool kids, the locals, the students, the up and coming bands in the local scene (or not so local and not so up and coming), Revolver is a pretty hip spot.

David, Nathalie, Chris, Mini and myself (hi guys!), found ourselves climbing the dark staircase into a lofty space room, that was the dining room of Colonel Tan's in the Revolver, a spot that any student would feel home in. A mish mash of pre-loved couches, paint peeling off the walls, stencils scattered about the walls, old school videogame systems set up, pinball machines, dinosaur toys at the bar (that David had bounce around on my chest while I ordered)...a little rough around the edges, but still somehow tasteful.

Surprisingly on a Thursday night, at 6pm, we were finding it nigh impossible to find a table anywhere, we had tried Hu Tong on Commercial Road, we had tried Tyranny of Distance and even Colonel Tan's was looking bleak as all the tables were reserved. So although we didn't get a table, we settled to recline on the couches like the hipsters we were (weren't). Have you seen what these kids are wearing these days? This one guy had multi coloured striped pants with floral patterned shoes...a little bit of overkill in my eyes....anyway...

Colonel Tan's menu is affordable, predominately Thai fare. Although there are a few western interjections, like chilli chips, club steak sandwiches and a tofu whopper. I generally enjoy sharing when I go to Asian places, but Colonel Tan's dishes proved to be perfect sizes for individual dining.

I had been going through a serious week of craving potatoes and had been overloading myself on chips and wedges, so couldn't go past the chilli chips with mayo. Um. Moreish. Like. Terrible delicious. Um.

They were exactly the type of fries I liked, crisp but not hard, and the seasoning had quite a bit of bite afterwards! We all sat there fanning our mouths out a little bit afterwards!

Being the bossy boots when it comes to menu's and ordering (I tend to man up and do the ordering for everyone on the table...), I insisted we get the corn fritters with sweet chilli. These were a little bit bigger than I expected, but really quite lovely, corn kernels were held together, not stuck in, by a nice light batter. There was a bit of tendency for the corn kernels to fall out as you ate, but I personally enjoyed it. Great flavour.

Generally I really can't go past pad thai when I go out for Thai food, but I felt I had been overdosing a bit much on noodles at home, so instead decided to try the chicken salad with smoked eggplant and banana chilli. Don't let the chilli frighten you, it wasn't spicy at all, but the chicken was very tender and with the eggplant it had a very creamy texture. I didn't get a lot of the eggplant flavour, but overall very enjoyable. And it felt like I was doing good things for my body. Veggies and all y'know.

For me though, the curries were easily the stars of the night, Nathalie and Mini went with the Penang lamb curry with eggplant salad (top) and David went with the green chicken curry with salted egg salad. Ah, they both had lovely, rich and fulfilling flavours, not overly spicy but definitely warming in the mouth. The lamb curry more so.

The lamb curry would have been my favourite of the two, it was a bit spicier and there was more of a lingering depth to the flavours. I get a lot of curry at home (both my parents being Chinese-Malaysian) and I would still totally come to Colonel Tan's just for the lamb curry I think.

Chris got the stir fry pork with red curry paste & kaffir lime, I didn't nibble on the pork, but I had a bit of the vegetables that were with it and I suppose after the fullness and richness of the curry, I found this a bit lacking. The beans were a bit too crunchy for my liking personally.

I have to say, I really am remarkably impressed with the quality of food you are getting for what you are paying. It was certainly one of the cheapest dinners I had had in a while and also one of the most relaxed meals as well. No fuss, no muss, good grub.

Colonel Tan's

229 Chapel Street Prahran

Prahran, 3181