(City Weekend)
Updated: 2008-02-19 16:12

With the surge of Southeast Asian restaurants flooding the city (particularly of the Thai variety), it's safe to say that we were excited to see if Tuk Tukhad what it took to stand out.

Perhaps we should have taken the modest decor as a sign of things to come, and thus prepared ourselves for a bit less of a letdown. The shrimp vermicelli salad (RMB38), was on the mushy side, having spent a little too long in the pot, while the grilled chicken marinated in banana leaves (?32) remained a tad heavy on the skin. Things began to look up with the Vietnamese spring rolls with shrimp (RMB32) and green curry with chicken (RMB48), but sadly, the meal ended on a rather questionable note with the steamed bass with lime (RMB78), colorful though regrettably raw and debatably fresh.

Finally, the ice lemon tea (RMB10), one of the last items to appear, was, in fact, a bag of Lipton tea with ice. All in all, satisfactory, though hardly exceptional.

Tuk and Roll
Address: 88 Jianguo Lu, West of New Town SOHO
Tel: 8680-0568