Thai Restaurant on Bintan Baan Aarya now Permanently Closed
So one Tuesday on vacation, we decide to hit Baan Aarya, Thai Restaurant on Bintan. This is a beautiful restaurant right on the beach, and we were lucky. Yep, we managed to get a beautiful outside table, overlooking a distant twinkly Singapore.
The staff were lovely, bringing us mosquito spray to make the evening comfortable (yes there are quite a few of those blighters about on Bintan). And we settled down to review the menu – and my oh my it looked so so good. We ate like Kings and Queens of Siam, price-wise this was on par, but this place gets my #1 vote for best on Bintan for food – amazing!!!
To give some comparison to that statement – check out my reviews of Rin Japanese Restaurant and Kelong Seafood Restaurant. To come tomorrow will be Spice Restaurant. So you can review my reviews to see if the truth is an honest comparison compared to Baan Aarya, Thai Restaurant on Bintan.
So what did we all eat this fine dining night;
Chicken Wings – with lime zest and lemongrass
We chose this for Amy & Baby-Jude as non-spicy, but when this arrived we all tucked in. This was super good, perfectly cooked. Crunchy skin and moist meat, but the smell was the killer. You could smell this arrive about 20m away. The Kaffir Lime and Lemon Grass zest came wafting over the night air. Absolutely stellar!
Marinated Chicken Filet – cooked in Pandan leaves with sesame paste
Same with these little blighters for the kids too. Little parcels of pandan leaves, and then open them up and waft waft waft – sweet-smelling sesame hits your nose, and then these little nuggets of moist, baked chicken plop on the plate. Moist, ever so moist, and so so sweet to the taste. These were also incredible.
Deep-Fried Sun-Dried Beef
We had two of these – I just knew we’d need them. We used to eat this a lot when we first moved to Singapore at Indochine opposite Boat Quay. Newbies then we thought that was eating local in Singapore ha ha. Anyways we saw that on the menu and had to have it. So glad we did. More beer please, this is beef jerky Thai-style.
Larp Kai – chicken salad
The only disappointing one tonight. I always have to order two dishes at every Thai restaurant I visit. This dish is one such dish. Not spicy enough for me, but then again in the menu it did not say spicy Larp Kai, so perhaps I’ll let them get away with it – my experience though is that any Larp or Larb is always super spicy.
Chicken Galangal Coconut & Lime Soup
Baan Aarya, Thai Restaurant on Bintan, I have to say you excelled here. I know I have been saying the same of a lot of this dish that I have been trying in Singapore at various restaurants recently, but seriously this version here was way way up there with the best this English boy has EVER had. It was absolutely one of the best, no doubt – sweet, salty, sour, spicy, galangaly etc. a beauty!!!
Seafood Green Curry
OK commentary from Mary here; intense flavour, creamy, very spicy, so so fresh, and not fishy in flavour at all, just the perfect balance of the seafood with the green curry sauce – nicely done Baan Aarya, Thai Restaurant on Bintan.
Salad of Grilled Beef Tenderloin – chilli jam, lemongrass, cucumber, lime, shallots & mint
And a SURPRISE cocktail for me – Bloody Mary
OMG moment. I thought a wee nightcap and have a Bloody Mary. But then what happens? The waitress arrives with this pink frothy thing, WTF. “Did I order this?”, “Yep it’s the Bloody Mary.” “Really?”
The you have a glug of it – and WOW. This is a bloody brilliant version of a classic. Its sweet and savoury, its fruity, you get hints of horseradish, and other spices too boot. This is a cracker, an absolute cracker!
So as you can see we ate a tonne. Everything was incredibly fresh, freshly cooked as well you could tell. You got fragrance from the mint, from the Kaffir lime leaves, from the lemongrass, from the zests, from the coconut. It was incredible. You brought a spoonful of food up to your mouth and got a waft of fragrance up your nose and then BOOM the same when it went in your mouth – an explosion of flavour. Baan Aarya, Thai Restaurant on Bintan, we will be back this week I promise. I have to have more and this family Kennett, give you our #1 vote for restaurants in Bintan – move over TripAdvisor – ENJOY!!!
