Jatujak Thai Food

Thai food in Manila has increasing popularity nowadays. You'd notice the different Thai restos popping up especially in malls. But Soms still rule 'em all since they've been here for quite some time.

We were late for the movies and so we decided to have a light meal in Jatujak (the name Jatujak is actually a weekend market in Thailand). It's actually nice to be late since we get to eat although not too good for my figure (hehe!).


Jatujak is located in the 2nd floor of Mall of Asia near the cinemas. Their decor is quite appealing but the tables and chairs are a bit crowded for the lunch traffic.

Sampler Appetizer

Our first stop, the sampler appetizer. I like samplers since you get to taste a little of everything in their appetizer menu. In this case, the dish consists of fresh Thai lumpia, fried lumpia and crab cakes.

Fresh Lumpia

The fresh lumpia comes with a sweet dipping sauce with crushed peanuts (just like the Chinese fresh lumpia minus the sugar). The veggies were fresh with a couple of cilantro leaves that's rolled in a paper-thin lumpia rice wrapper.

Fresh Lumpia Up Close and Personal on a bed of greens

Fried Spring Rolls

These crunchy fried spring rolls are a treat. It looks like there's sotanghon or vermicelli noodles inside the rolls. It's really tasty and the the sweetness of the dipping sauce goes well with it.

Crab cakes

Lastly for the appetizers, the crab cakes. I was a bit disappointed with it though. It was really fragrant when it came to the table so I was looking forward to tasting it. But when I bit at it, I can taste the oil which is not good. The texture was like fish balls so it was kind of like oily crab balls. The dipping sauce didn't do much, either.

Chicken Sate

Since we were on a light lunch, we only ordered the chicken sate. The Philippine version of sate is our barbeque. But sate is marinated with different spices. Peanut sauce is one of the unique things about it. And their dish of sate is overflowing with the peanut sauce, yum! The onion and cucumber on the side were in a small bowl of sweet vinaigrette. The sweetness of the onion and the crunchiness of the cucumber were really delicious with the sate.

Bowl of Jasmin rice

We also ordered their plain jasmin rice. It was served in a cute stainless bowl which isn't helpful at all since the rice was hot. But I liked the charm of this bowl, makes it feel authentic.

Thai Iced Tea

The glass of milk tea was gigantic! It was good enough to share for two. It was refreshing and the taste was the same as Som's milk tea but in a presentable tall glass. This ended our meal. I would definitely go back and try their curry or their Tom Yum.