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| - Having read the previous reviews before trying this place, I felt pretty confident that it would make a great location for a friend's birthday dinner. The only negative comments I saw were regarding service, which is not something I'm too bothered by, so I didn't think twice about booking a reservation. Now the funny thing is that I actually thought the service was good. The staff were friendly and the food came quickly (possibly too quickly, but I'll get to that in a second). The problem I had with ChuChai was the food. It was just so...mediocre. Here's a breakdown:
First, the menu offers very specific dishes that focus on one or two items, so it really necessitates having to order more than one thing to have a "complete" meal. It was difficult to find a dish that had both vegetables and tofu/faux meat, which I found frustrating since I don't want to eat just a bowl of plain vegetables or just a bowl of tofu. All to say that the menu is best experienced by multiple people who are willing to share.
Second, the menu gives one star for "spicy" and two stars for "very spicy". I ordered a one star dish (tofu in peanut sauce with crispy spinach) while my friend ordered a two star (rice noodles with vegan duck in chili sauce). We also split a plate of mixed vegetables, which had no stars. My dish did not have even the faintest hint of spice and my friend's had only what could be described as the memory of it. The mixed vegetables were not only "not spicy", but utterly unpsiced - just bland. To be fair, the server did tell us that she did not find the dishes to be spicy herself, but then why does the restaurant have such a ridiculously inaccurate labelling system?
Finally, in terms of the quality of the food, we were unimpressed. The tofu in peanut sauce was extremely sweet. The crispy spinach had visible sugar sprinkled on it and the peanut sauce tasted like it was made with syrup. It was the kind of overdone flavour I would expect from a cheap roadside restaurant, not one where the (relatively small) dish cost $18 and didn't even come with rice. My friend's rice noodles tasted old, like they had been cooked in advance (which wouldn't be surprising since it took barely five minutes for our three dishes to arrive). The chili sauce tasted like it came from a bottle - generic and unflavourful. To be fair, the mock duck was excellent, but it was really the only good thing about that dish.
We decided to skip on dessert, having had such an underwhelming experience at dinner. All in all, after tax & tip, our three dishes came to over $70 (no drinks). What can I say, I guess I'm in the minority when it comes to ChuChai, but I just don't get the hype.
TL;DR: The food is not good - either too sweet or bland. Don't trust the menu's "spicy" ratings - even the highest rating has zero kick. Service is good. Price is much too high for both the quality and quantity of the dishes.
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