Tasty tom yum and Thai green curry for under US$10 at busy Baan Mai in Central, Hong Kong
- Baan Mai offers lunch deals, rice and noodle sets and a variety of tom yum
- Service at this busy restaurant is efficient, if impatient, and a few dishes didn’t hit the mark
Baan Mai is a busy Thai restaurant hidden above the bustling streets of Hong Kong’s Central district.
We got a rather impatient welcome of sawasdee ka (“hello”, in Thai). The servers are efficient, walking quickly, and practically dropping the dishes on the tables, instead of placing them down quietly.
Baan Mai offers special lunch deals, including noodle and rice sets, and listed at the top of the menu are variations on tom yum kung.
We ordered tom yum kung with noodles (HK$78), green curry chicken with rice with soup (HK$78), and a signature appetiser platter (HK$128).
First to arrive was the tom yum kung. The spicy soup was topped with large shrimp, split in half, which was fresh and bouncy, as well as mushrooms, fried tofu skin and lettuce. The thin rice noodles absorbed the flavour of the soup, which was sour, spicy, salty and hot, although could have used more lemongrass.