Food Picks: Fi Woodfire Thai relocates to Shaw Centre with new items and improved signature dishes
Fi's Signature "Moo Ping" Pork Rib ($48, 500g bone-in) is slow-grilled over lychee wood until tender and flame-kissed for the perfect charred ends.
SINGAPORE – When Fi Woodfire Thai it opened in January 2024 at Robertson Walk, it was part of a new crop of modern Thai restaurants offering fresh, bold takes on th e c uisine.
Since July 8, it continues to do so at its new, more convenient town location at Shaw Centre.
The space seats 60 people – up from 40 before – with an open kitchen featuring its double-insulated wood-fire oven that reaches temperatures of up to 450 deg C.
At the previous location, I was hunting for a spicier kick to the food and I like that here, several dishes offer a choice of three levels of heat and a non-spicy option.
The heat comes through most prominently with the grilled green mango salad ($12), a tongue-tingling medley of charred green mangoes, cherry tomatoes, long beans, roasted peanuts and dried shrimp.
Another new dish is the Son-in-Law Eggs ($10 for three), hard-boiled eggs with crisp fried edges that retain a gooey yolk. The name comes from a Thai legend, in which a protective mother is said to have fried two hard-boiled eggs as a warning to her daughter's husband. Eating these eggs, however, feels more of a treat than punishment.
The signature dishes remain, and are better than before.
They include the roasted French Poulet ($32, half a chicken), basil minced pork on charred eggplant ($18) and my favourite Signature 'Moo Ping' Rib ($48, 500g bone-in), slow-grilled over lychee wood until tender, then flame-kissed for the perfect charred ends.
The pork ribs now come with char-grilled sticky rice cake glazed in coconut sugar and a punchy nam jim jaew (Thai dried chilli dipping sauce).
Pair the dishes with the new Pineapple Rice Stack ($24), pineapple fried rice loaded with prawns and spicy chicken floss, then topped with ikura and tobiko.
For dessert, there is the quintessential Mango & Butterfly Pea Sticky Rice ($12) with two types of mango – Australian, prepared as a compote cooked in mango puree, and Thai; and Red Ruby ($12) with housemade 'rubies', sago, strawberries, jackfruit, chia seeds, coconut flesh and coconut gelato.
Here, I discover my new favourite matcha combination – iced matcha Thai tea ($8), the best way to beat the heat.
Weekday lunch specials start from $12, while the $12 Happy Hour menu (5 to 7pm daily) features Thai-influenced cocktails such as the Tom Yum Mule, made with gin, ginger, chilli paste, lemongrass, kaffir leaf and ginger beer.
Where: 03-14/15 Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Road
MRT: Orchard
Open: 11.30am to 3pm, 5 to 10pm daily
Info:
@fi.woodfire on Instagram
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