Wonderful Thai experience

Jak Tree:

Text and Pictures Dilanka Mannakkara

Stylishly attractive, creatively exclusive and strikingly colourful with walls of green and yellow rings gives Jak Tree an authentic Thai restaurant atmosphere. The Lotus shaped napkins and luscious red cushions makes it a tantalizingly unique and distinctively different from other restaurants.

Thai food is one of the most spiciest and aromatic cuisines of the world and is truly distinctive with its magnificent blend of spicy, sweet, tangy and pungent sauces. Jak tree gallops your taste buds into a gastronomical journey of authentic Thai cuisine and unravels the finest flavours of Thai food in town. The versatile and charismatic Dharshi - PR Manager and the Secretary to Viraj Panchal - owner of Jak Tree, Mango Tree and the Rize Bar was helpful and spontaneous.

I was rather curious as to why they had named this restaurant “Jak tree”. Dharshi enlightened me that the Jak tree is one of the most auspicious and scared trees in Thailand and so they created Jak tree which was opened in December 2008.

The sole objective is to offer authentic Thai food to the discerning food lover. In fact in April 2008 Viraj Panchal had gone to Thailand to learn about the finest points of this amazing cuisine and had discovered three top Thai chefs for Jak Tree. “All our chefs are Thai and they are very particular about the ingredients and sauces, they also use kochci and thibbatu a lot in their preparations,” said Dharshi.

We were treated with a vege-fruit mocktail called Thai Silk and a refreshing soothing Tropically Mint. Thai Silk included grapes, mango as well as carrot and it was bursting out with subtle flavours. The Tropically Mint had lemon juice,cream and a dash of mint in it and had a milky flavour but I found it a bit devoid of sweetness.

Tom Yam soup and appetizers

The traditional Tom Yam soup followed afterwards and it was one of the best Tom Yams I have tasted as the hot and sour flavour was stimulatingly evident. The soup had juicy chunks of fresh fish, prawns and cuttlefish and I felt the freshness in every bite. Then it was time to order appetizers and our friendly steward recommended Shrimp toast and Crab meat balls.

The shrimp toast was served steaming hot and it just melted in my mouth. The minced prawns which was heaped on top of the toast was fried to perfection and the flavour was scrumptious. The crab meat balls were quite large in size but it lacked a bit of salt and flavour. Refreshing Mango and Jak fruit Achcharu salad

The delicious and authentic salads at Jak Tree makes it probably the stand out when compared to other Thai restaurants. Although not a huge salad fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the amazing blend of sweet, juicy mango and raw, spicy Jak fruit. It had the spiciness, the sourness and the sweetness entangled in it and I relished every bite of it. It was quite similar to an authentic Sri Lankan Mango achcharu and is a WINNER and I highly recommend it to all you food lovers.

Steamed Garoupa in Thai sauce

I have always been a steamed garoupa fan and the Jak Tree signature dish tantalized my taste buds. It was probably the most delectable Garoupa dish I have ever tasted. The whole garoupa fish, which was fresh from the waters was seasoned and steamed to perfection and the tangy Thai sauce with chilie, garlic and vinegar did wonders to the dish. It was full of flavour and this was one of my definite favourites at Jak Tree.

I also savoured a traditional Thai chicken red curry which had a lovely coconuty flavour in it. I am quite sure that most of the Lankans would like this dish as it suits our palette and it is quite similar to our old fashioned home made chicken curry. The red curry also included a Lankan vegetable which is not quite popular in the urban areas - thibbatu - which added a lot of flavour to the dish.

The spiced bamboo shoots with baby carrots, mushrooms and capsicums was yet another signature dish at Jak Tree. The bamboo shoots were soft and were surprisingly very tempting as I almost finished the entire dish on my own.

Me being a sea food fan was treated with a Stir Fried Prawn and Cuttlefish with egg which was a totally new experience for me. The egg added the softness to the dish and the curry paste and chillie were the components of the spiciness.

Yummy coconut Ice - Cream

Coconut mixed with ice cream is a combination which you would find hard to fathom but Jak Tree serves the most delicious and mouth watering Coconut ice cream. This is the only place in Sri Lanka where you could savour this mouth watering master piece and it is a MUST TRY.

Jak Tree is opened from 12 pm to 3 pm for lunch and from 7pm to 11pm for dinner. They also have an executive lunch priced very reasonably which is ideal for anyone who prefers a quick and delicious lunch. So all you food lovers make a date and experience Thai cuisine at its best at Jak Tree.