The Cheapest Thing on the Menu- Mango Coco

Cost: $20.95

Location: 421 Pitt St. Haymarket

We’ve only been here once before, but after a few other options turned out to be too pricy after a cursory examination of their store-front menus, we decided to return to Mango Coco, if we were going to splurge a bit today (as it was our wedding anniversary after all). Mango Coco is situated amidst all the modern Thai dining venues in Thainatown, and when you first enter their café, you may think it’s just a smallish venue with limited seating, until they lead you to the adjoining dining room which probably used to be another store before they punched a hole in the wall and made it an enclosed dining space. Known more for its desserts, however they do have a good selection of Thai fusion savoury dishes. I did cheat a little and ordered the second cheapest thing on the menu (the cheapest I had tried the first time we came here), so for a ‘not so’ cheap $20.95, I ordered the Challenge Fried Rice- Grilled pork neck, Southern style chilli fried rice, fresh salad, and chilli sauce. **Note, the fried rice was $1 more expensive than the actual cheapest thing on the menu.

Portioning: What can I say? The portioning was small, that’s why they have small tables, so the plates look larger in contrast. Ok, the plates weren’t that small, but the actual edible food on the plate was. When you usually picture a plate of Thai fried rice, you picture a large mound of rice heaped onto a plate, and you picture yourself digging spoonsful of rice into your mouth. Yeah? But at Mango Coco, picture a standard rice bowl of rice and that’s all the fried rice you get placed on one section of your plate, then several pieces of grilled pork in another quadrant, a ceramic dipping bowl in another (to make the plate look more filled-out), and finally two large puffs of Cos lettuce which took-up another quarter of the plate.

Tastiness: When my dish arrived (after my wife had already been eating her dish for a while and it was well after 1pm), I was so hungry and was ready for a feast, I had my wife help me drizzle some of the chilli sauce onto the rice and meat and then tucked in. And OMG! My face must of turned a different shade of colour and sweat immediately beaded along my hairline only after the first mouthful. And this is a note to self for future ref, Southern Thai food is the super-hot Thai food, and man that sauce was hot! I needed to sooth my mouth with a gulp of water, swilling it around before I could continue. But once my tastebuds recovered, I was able to taste the food properly. The Pork neck was flavoursome with a nice charcoal grill taste to it, reminded me of Chinese BBQ pork, but more Smokey. While the fried rice was just spicy.  

Quality: See, the meat was good but everything else? I just didn’t have enough of it to properly evaluate it for its quality. We did also order a dessert, the Durian Heaven (heaven for some, while probably hell for others….), which consisted of Durian crepe filled with mousse durian and sticky rice (clearly made earlier and refrigerated), served with durian ice cream, durian pudding and fresh cream. It was tasty, like fifty shades of durian (if you’re into that kind-of-thang), but at $21.95 it ought to be good! And at least I was enjoying it for the rest of the day, as hours afterwards I was still having durian burps. Nice…….   

Value for money: Yes, I’ve said it and I’ll say it again. Things these days are so expensive! Pre-COVID a dish at $20.95 would be one of the most expensive items on a menu, where you’d be expecting something lavish or a serving large enough to share. But after finishing my $20.95 dish, I was only 60% full, the dessert pushed me to 80% satisfied, but after I got home (10 minutes later) I still went to the kitchen to find something to snack-on. And that’s after almost $33 each without drinks? What has the world come to guys!? But you ought to check-out their website though, I’ve never seen such a classy website for a restaurant/café in my whole entire life! I suspect that’s where the money is going to!? Not into giving you the paying customer a healthy portion of food, but to pay the web-design company for their 10/10 website! Another tech guy who’s getting rich, when everyone else ain’t.

 In conclusion, I know we professionals make money so that we can enjoy it, but how can you enjoy a meal if you keep feeling so guilty about how much you’ve spent on each mouthful? Sure, I’m not then taking the money that I’m saving from eating the cheapest thing on the menu, and then donating it to a charity who feeds the poor (although that’s a pretty awesome idea and I might just do that at the end of this year long challenge), but I think it’s the deeply embedded Asian frugalness inside of me which makes me feel this way. I just keep hearing my dad’s voice in my head, saying, not to throw money away, as money is hard to come-by. And although these days money is much easier to come by, than the 1950s, but dammit, sometimes you just think how better can you spend $67 on something which lasts a bit longer than just 3 hours, when I finally stopped having my durian flavoured burps!