Cosmo Thai: Juicy pandan chicken, crispy spring rolls & mango sticky rice at only RM2.89 per bowl

Thailand is known for many things, but my favourite is how the ‘Land of Smiles’ has a smorgasbord of tasty food at unbelievably affordable prices. But instead of taking the first flight out, Cosmo Thai in Petaling Jaya offers food at a price tag that will make you feel like you’re back in Thailand. 

Located on the ground floor of The Curve, Cosmo Thai serves Thai food at only RM2.89 per bowl. You can expect familiar Thai delights such as Green Curry Chicken with Rice, Thai Fried Anchovies with Peanuts and Cosmo Fried Pad Thai. The hitch is that each dish is served in a rather tiny bowl which means you would only be able to savour a couple of bites. But for RM2.89, can we really complain? 

What I tried at Cosmo Thai

As each bowl was pretty small, I decided to try one of each: appetisers, mains and dessert. 

For starters I opted for the Cosmo Vegetable Spicy Spring Roll. This dish is a classic appetiser at most Thai restaurants and for RM2.89, you will get two pieces of freshly-fried spring roll drizzled in sauce. 

Cosmo Thai’s spring rolls were delightfully light, crunchy and flaky. The insides had a good amount of seasoned crunchy vegetables such as julienned carrots and radish. Even though the name of the dish has ‘spicy’ in it, I couldn’t actually taste the spice from the sauce or the spring rolls. There was a distinct taste of black pepper from the filling but definitely no spice. The sauce was sweet— I wished they had placed the sauce on the side instead of smothering it over the spring rolls. 

I admittedly went ham on the number of mains because of the price tag and ordered the Cosmo Traditional Pandan Chicken, Cosmo Tomyam Glass Noodles Soup and the Cosmo Fried Pad Thai.

I have to admit I was thrown off by the appearance of the Pandan Chicken. It looked burnt on the outside so I was suspicious of how it would taste. I unwrapped the pandan leaves and took a bite of the chicken and woah, I was really impressed! 

Each bite of the pandan chicken was well-marinated, juicy and packed with flavour. The marinade has this sweet, savoury sort of flavour accentuated by the pandan leaves which imparted their delicate, inviting aroma to the chicken. The chicken was so succulent, I was so regretful that I did not order 2 bowls. 

Next was the Cosmo Fried Pad Thai. One of the world’s most beloved noodle dishes, the pad thai served here came sauced and topped with a sprinkling of crushed peanuts. Unfortunately this dish did not sit well with me. The sauce was very sweet and it was basically a heavy, soggy clump of noodles. There was no usual intricate combination of sweet, sour, and salty in the noodles. I understand that at RM2.89, they limited their pad thai to noodles and peanuts but I wished they included some bean sprouts and egg. 

After two bites of the pad thai, my taste buds simply couldn’t stomach the sweetness so I moved on to the Tomyam Glass Noodles Soup. I took a sip of the tomyam broth and noticed disappointingly that the broth was lukewarm. Otherwise, it was still rather tasty, the sweet-sour Thai flavours played beautifully together. The solo prawn was the only meat in the bowl but it didn’t taste very fresh either. I would have preferred if they included chunks of chicken in the broth instead. 

And of course for dessert, I tried the quintessential dreamy Thai dessert, Mango Sticky Rice. A traditional summer dessert in Thailand, I eagerly scooped up sticky rice along with the mango in a pool of coconut milk. The sweet sticky rice paired perfectly with the rich, creamy coconut milk. However, the mango wasn’t ripe enough so it wasn’t very sweet. However I still enjoyed the sticky rice drenched in slurry coconut milk sauce and had no issues finishing the entire bowl. 

Final thoughts

A single bowl at Cosmo Thai can be gobbled up in about four large mouthfuls, but it’s still a pretty sweet deal because I got to try more items on the menu. It’s also good for small eaters or if you want to try everything on the menu. 

While half the dishes were pretty decent, what would make me go back is definitely the price tag and seeing all the bowls laid out on a table in its glory. And… the juicy pandan chicken! 

Expected damage: RM2.89 – RM15 per pax

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