You know how sometimes you just randomly decide to pick a place to eat coz you don’t know the area well – and end up unearthing a great find? That’s how I felt with Boran – an unassuming-looking Thai restaurant in Seapark, Petaling Jaya that serves hearty, unpretentious fare in a casual, no-frills setting (and at wallet-friendly prices)!

Trivia: The word ‘boran’ apparently means ‘ancient’ in Thai, which might allude to the classic dishes they serve.

The interior is spacious and bathed in a cozy yellow glow, with simple wooden tables and stools. Vintage posters paper the walls, and there are two large photos on one side of the store depicting Bangkok’s famous Khao San road.

Menu features mainstream classics and is pork heavy, with dishes such as basil minced pork with rice, braised pork belly, tom yum soup, green curry, pork noodles, som tam (salad), quail eggs, and fish cakes. Set lunches are available on weekdays.

Hubs and I had a late breakfast so we thought of sharing one plate of rice and a grilled pork neck platter (RM15.90). The portion that came was humongous, so we ended up eating a full meal lol. Pork neck had great flavour, but would have been perfect if the meat had more fat as the texture was quite lean and dry. The accompanying dip was superb: an addictive blend of soy sauce, chillies, garlic, and lemongrass.

Filched half a piece of the Moomikin’s moo ping (grilled pork skewers). She ordered the set that came with rice and a fried egg. The tender meat was marinated well and had a sweet glaze. Good stuff.

The bro’s grilled pork belly with green curry. Green curry was mild in terms of spice but savoury; pork belly was crunchy on the outside and balanced on the inside. This also came with rice and a fried egg, as well as sweet chilli sauce.

Last but not least, we shared a Red Ruby (tub tim krop) for dessert. This is one of my favourite Thai sweet treats, comprising of ‘rubies’ made from coating crunchy water chestnuts in tapioca flour which gives them a chewy outer layer. The red colouring comes from, well, food colouring lol.

The rubies are added to shaved ice alongside jackfruit (some places also add coconut), syrup made of fresh jasmine water, coconut milk, and coconut cream. Perfect for a hot summer’s day (in Malaysia, that’s every day).

Everything here is reasonably priced; individual dishes with rice and egg hover around RM10+, and the noodles are RM8+. Parking in Seapark is a bitch though so you might want to take public transportation or Grab if you’re coming here to dine.

Boran has branches in Subang Jaya and Kuchai Lama.

BORAN (SEAPARK)

25 G, Jalan 21/11a, Sea Park, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Opening hours: 10.45am – 9pm

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