Nangfa Thai Kitchen

Nangfa Thai Kitchen is a casual Thai restaurant on the ground floor of a public housing block at 136 Bedok North Avenue 3. It serves everyday Thai dishes at neighbourhood prices, and most diners are people who live nearby. The name means "angel" in Thai.

This shop has roots in another Thai brand. Nakhon Kitchen began in Kovan in 2008 and later opened more outlets, including one here in Bedok. A cousin of Nakhon's owner ran the Bedok franchise for years. In 2014 he started his own brand at the same spot, first called Nahm Thai Kitchen. He then changed the name to Nangfa, because a well-known restaurant in Bangkok was already called Nahm. Nakhon Kitchen later reopened its own Bedok outlet a few doors away.

What to order

The menu is long. It covers rice and noodles, soups, salads, curries, claypots, omelettes, seafood, meat and vegetables. One-plate rice and noodle dishes suit a solo meal, while whole fish and other large plates work better for a group.

• Basil pork rice: minced pork stir-fried with hot basil leaves, a favourite with reviewers.
• Green curry: Thai green curry, which reviewers have enjoyed with pork.
• Phad Thai: stir-fried noodles, also offered with glass noodles.
• Fried rice: try the pineapple fried rice or the olive fried rice.
• Tom yum soup: served clear or thick, with seafood if you like.
• To share: homemade Thai fish cake and pandan leaves chicken.
• Stir-fried sambal petai with minced chicken: stink beans in a spicy paste.

For seafood, there is crispy grouper with Thai herbs, steamed seabass with lemon sauce and deep-fried soft shell crab with chicken floss. Finish with mango sticky rice and coconut milk. To drink, try the homemade Thai iced milk tea or iced lemongrass.

The setting

This is a simple, no-frills place in the style of a neighbourhood eatery. There is an air-conditioned indoor area as well as outdoor tables, which are often less crowded. People come for the food rather than the décor.

Good to know before you go

• Delivery: you can order Thai food for delivery through the restaurant's online ordering site.
• Budget: rice and noodle plates are cheap, which makes this a good pick if you want to eat well for less.
• Away from the sights: Bedok North is a quiet residential area. Our guide to the Singapore heartlands explains what to expect.

Nearby

Bedok has plenty more to eat. Bedok 85 Fengshan Food Centre is a popular hawker centre in the area. For Chinese-style seafood, Hua Yu Wee Seafood Restaurant is on Upper East Coast Road. If you have a free afternoon in the east, East Coast Park is good for cycling and a walk by the sea.

You can also browse more Thai, Korean and Asian restaurants or all the places to eat in East Coast and Bedok.