I met up with some girlfriends recently in Flying Chillies in The Gardens last week for dinner. I first heard of this restaurant from some colleagues when it first opened and they didn’t seem too impressed with it. However, one of my colleagues read some pretty good reviews about it so we decided to give it a try for something different. After all, finding food in Midvalley is always a headache with the many choices available!

Flying Chillies is located on the 3rd floor of The Gardens in Midvalley, just a short walk away from Borders Bookstore. You can’t miss it. Its sign is emblazoned in red and it is done up in a nice white and breezy deco. Customers have a choice of ”al-fresco” dining on the outside area and some comfortable booth tables with cushions on the inside. It is a rather nice deco but we found the tables were a little too close to each other which made it a bit difficult when we talked or laughed too loudly.

They have a simple menu printed on paper and a pretty good selection of Thai food. We started with a mixed platter of Thai starters which came with some Thai fishcakes, spring rolls, money bags and some shrimp toast slices (which merely resembled bread with a thin spreading of fish paste!). My friend’s comment: “This is something I could have made myself at home!” I did rather like the fish cakes though. They were springy and a little spicy although on the oily side.

We had dishes and ordered a kangkung, green chicken curry, tom yam, pandan chicken and som tam (green papaya) salad. The rice here is expensive at RM2.50 a portion so luckily we weren’t big rice eaters. The food came fairly fast which is good. However, the tom yam came in a contraption like the one below which was a really bad idea. The flames underneath the mini steamboat pot were too big and the chemicals in it made our eyes water terribly. When we asked the waiter to turn it off, he told us that if the tom yam wasn’t served with the hot flame, it wouldn’t be nice! However, we insisted as it was just getting unbearable so do be warned if you order the tom yam! It does come with about 4 halves of big prawns so prawn lovers might like it.

I found their green curry not too bad. It had the right amount of spiciness and creaminess and went really well with the rice. However, I found they were quite measly with the chicken and veges for the price we were paying.

Their pandan chicken was good and a portion came with about 6 fairly large pieces which were very well marinated. The som tam salad was quite authentic and wasn’t too smelly like some of the roadside salads I’ve tried in Bangkok.

We finished up with their Thai Red Ruby (Tab Tim Grob) desserts which really wasn’t worth the price. It was diluted and they were measly with the jackfruit strips which would have made it taste much better.

I also found their drinks expensive as they came in really tiny glasses which some of my friends finished even before their dinner started! If that was a way to make people order more of their expensive drinks, I don’t think it’s a very good marketing ploy!

In summary, it’s not too bad a place if you’re looking for Thai food in a nice setting. The waiters are fairly attentive and service is quite fast. However, do be prepared to pay for that as our meal came up to more than RM200 for 5 of us. I’m not sure if I’ll be making a return visit as I’m sure there are lots more good Thai restaurants around town.

You’ll find Flying Chillies at:

Flying Chillies,
T219, Third Floor, The Gardens, Mid Valley City, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2287-7708 Fax: 03-2287-7710