We got to visit a brand spanking new Thai cafe in the almost-finished Damansara City Mall recently.

The main floor of the mall itself, while still midway through opening up its stores, felt very modern and grand, with high-class restaurants gracing the upper balconies.

The lower ground floor is a more relatable, comfortable atmosphere laced with affordable dining options.

Tiger Lily was founded on the idea of providing affordable and healthy food with a different atmosphere, and this made sense since it displayed a friendly and welcoming front.

They try to serve healthy Thai food, using coconut oil and sunflower oil, and decreasing the amount of santan (coconut milk) usually present in Thai dishes, but without compromising on taste.

Those are pretty ambitious goals to achieve when it comes to Thai cuisine, but we felt that Tiger Lily managed to find its balance.

We were treated to a whole array of dishes and the first dish that came out was the Crispy Sotong (RM18.90). I tend to love fried food and unhealthy snacks, so I enjoyed this immensely even though it is touted to be a healthier version.

Served with a house-made chilli sauce that I actually would have loved to bottle and take home, the flavour was really good and the batter with just the right amount of flavour.

Second to be presented to us was the Mango Salad (RM7.90). My lunch partner is a huge a salad person, but she agreed with me that this dish could be improved. While fresh and tangy, we felt that there could be more dressing.

But all was good once their Thai Fish Cake (RM12.90) came. Wrapped around sugar cane sticks, think of this dish as a slightly less oily version of the Muar otak-otak. We also loved the sauce it came with.

Then came the Pad Thai (RM9.90), which we both enjoyed. I was grateful that they separated the chilli so that we could add it in according to our preferred level of spiciness. We loved the combination of peanuts, crunchy beansprouts and spring onion and thought that there was a good balance of flavours.

One of my favourite dishes here at Tiger Lily is the Green Curry Chicken (RM22.90). It was tender, sweet and is cooked to an excellent consistency. I am a huge fan of green curry in general, so this made me extremely happy. The fact that it was also filled with lots of vegetables made it even better.

But what we found to be the best dish of the day, hands down, is Tiger Lily's Seafood Tom Yam Soup (RM26.90), which comes with a medley of prawns and squid. Spicy, sour and packed full of intense flavours the way a tom yam should be. The lemongrass stood out and we consumed bowl after bowl with great fervour.

Our final main course was the Steam Siakap with Lemongrass Sauce (RM29.90/half). I absolutely loved the lemongrass 'sauce' it came with (although it seemed more like a soup) - tangy, sour, slightly spicy and just packed full of that fishy flavour, I could probably have drank it on its own. The fish, which was cooked to perfection, definitely paired well with this delicious sauce.

Finally, we came to the desserts of which we were both looking very much forward to. We shared the Tub Tim Crob - Red Ruby (RM7.00) which features beautifully presented chestnuts and sliced jackfruit over a bed of shaved ice and some powdered sugar. It was a refreshing delight: the crunchiness of the chestnut mixed with the sweetness of the jackfruit.

We also particularly enjoyed the fact that it is served almost in a bingsu-like style, with the shaved ice and toppings so carefully placed on top.

Last but not least, we got to try the Mango Sticky Rice (RM9.90) here at Tiger Lily. I had never seen mango sticky rice presented like this before so I did not actually know what it was until I tasted it. Honestly, it has probably made it to my list of favourite mango sticky rice dishes in KL: it was just the right amount of sweetness with the little bits of corn, I loved the juicy mango atop the glutinous rice and santan and the pandan leaves just gave it a nice contrasting visual effect.

The Thai Iced Coffee with Gula Melaka (RM6.90) was also worthy of a mention. Despite what looked like an alarming amount of palm sugar (the dark layer at the bottom) it was surprisingly not very sweet. In fact, I found it to be really good overall and the sugar complemented the coffee incredibly well.

If you are looking for a relaxed and casual atmosphere to eat some good food with your pals, Tiger Lily is definitely a place to check out. Be forewarned though, it seemed to be very popular with the office crowd, especially during lunch hour!

Do check out their really affordable breakfast menu with dishes from RM2.90, too!

Tiger Lily, Damansara City Mall (DC Mall)

Lot LG18, 6, Jalan Damanlela,

Damansara Town Centre, 50490 Kuala Lumpur,

Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Open daily from 8AM-8PM

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