Review: At Im Jai by Pun Im, fiery curries, stellar seafood, and a whole lot of heart take the stage

Thai food in Singapore is showing no signs of slowing down. Beyond the familiar green curries and mango sticky rice, more eateries are spotlighting regional dishes and homestyle cooking — from fiery Isan fare to vibrant street food rarely seen outside Thailand.

The latest addition to this evolving landscape is Im Jai by Pun Im, a Tanjong Pagar restaurant where chef-owner Vincent Pang channels both tradition and creativity into plates that feel familiar yet refreshed.

The backstory

Opened in September at Icon Village, Im Jai (which means “a full heart” in Thai) is a deeply personal project for chef Vincent. 

He left a finance career in 2019, and attended a Le Cordon Bleu training in Bangkok, while clocking stints at Michelin-starred Wana Yook.

In 2020, chef Vincent then began serving up meals to friends and family for feedback, while donating all proceeds to charity. His efforts subsequently grew into the concept Pun Im (which means “to share fullness”), a private dining concept, which even had a pop-up at one point, at the Raffles Courtyard in 2021.

Today his mother helps run Im Jai by Pun Im alongside him, turning it into a heartfelt family endeavour. 

At the same time, touches such as hand-painted Benjarong plates and motifs of Thailand’s national flower, ratchaphruek (also known as the golden shower tree), reinforce the sense of culture and craft.

Similar to his private dining, a percentage of profits at Im Jai is also donated to Ambulance Wish Singapore and other charities, which aligns with the term “pun im” beyond sharing good Thai fare.

Beyond setting up the restaurant, chef Vincent had also established Singapore’s first Thai-style pork floss factory in Singapore earlier this year, and distributes products under Im Sabaii, a snack label under Im Jai.

Unlike the sweet and cottony versions you get locally, his floss is darker, golden from deep-frying, made from pork loin for texture, cooked in shallot oil, and dehydrated for 12 hours for an extra-crisp bite. 

It also features in his dishes, such as the pineapple fried rice, so you can see and taste for yourself just how good it is! 

Our verdict

Im Jai by Pun Im delivers punch after punch, in both its savoury and sweet offerings. The menu stretches across appetisers, curries, seafood, rice, noodles, and desserts, but the unifying thread is generosity — in portion, in flavour, and in spirit.

Seafood is a highlight: The seasonal river prawns arrive plump and sweet, needing nothing more than a squeeze of lime or a dip in their accompanying tangy chilli sauce. 

The curries, too, don’t hold back in flavour and fire — if they’re not fiery, they’re boldly seasoned, begging to be mopped up with rice.

And desserts, often overlooked at Thai restaurants or simply a short list of mango sticky rice and Red Ruby, are anything but an afterthought here. There’s a grand total of eight desserts, including three sticky-rice variations, and we think they’re worth saving space for.

To wash it all down, Im Jai by Pun Im serves a selection of unique Thai craft beers and housemade traditional Thai beverages to quench your thirst — a colourful selection, not unlike its food.

What it’s good for

Im Jai by Pun Im thrives when it leans into its sense of generosity.

The pineapple fried rice with wild-caught tiger prawns (S$18.80) is more than a filler dish — its deep, roasted notes and savoury pork floss (yes, the same ones by Im Sabaii) make it a one-plate meal for those looking to eat light yet leave satisfied.

With plump prawns, fragrant rice, and a crown of pleasantly salty pork floss, this is the kind of dish that keeps me returning for more. As I took in the crispy pork floss with the fluffy rice, it was easy to see how the floss itself makes for a good, addictive snack on its own.

The grilled river prawn (S$22.80 for a half-portion) bears testament to the quality of his seafood dishes, especially since these prawns are wild-caught in southern Thailand exclusively for Im Jai. If you’ve never had prawns from the region before, they’re prized for their impressive size, tender flesh, and umami roe.

It’s clear why chef Vincent goes to the lengths to get the prawns in. Getting the perfectly charred, and firm yet tender flesh out of the shells was a breeze (granted it was served in a manner that was accessible and fuss-free). 

Admittedly, one of the plumpest prawns I’ve enjoyed in quite a while, the flesh carried a subtle sweetness that went well with the accompanying sauces — one’s a tamarind-garlic sauce, and the other, a sour and spicy one.  

In fact, the flesh is so sweet you don’t really need the sauce, but the sauces are so good that you’ll want to have them anyway. In fact, the sour-spicy sauce nearly stole the show (from the prawn), and was so good that it stayed on my table till the meal ended because I wanted it with a bit of everything. 

At slightly over twenty bucks for a half-portion, it’s a pretty penny, yet it’s worth every dollar, I say.

The smaller plates at Im Jai by Pun Im, which feature a selection of fried and grilled shareable snacks such as moo ping (pork skewers) and crab balls with tom yum spices, showcase chef Vincent’s knack for balancing richness with restraint. 

For one, the crispy Cloud egg ($16.80) is a visual stunner, arriving puffed and golden, crowned with cured egg yolks so jammy that they’re spreadable.

It’s a dish inspired by chef Vincent’s stint at Wana Yook in Bangkok. In this dish, the egg yolks are cured for five hours in his own marinade recipe, a combination of sugar syrup and seasoning sauce.

The best way to enjoy this is to crack the crisp egg into smaller pieces and smear yolk generously on your piece, as you would with jam on toast. 

Don’t forget to top it with the accompanying red onions, green chillies, and a spritz of lime for that extra zing!

It’s indulgent, yet surprisingly light on grease, making it an ideal companion to the heavier curries. While the fried omelette appears puffed and airy, it actually has a crispier texture — something I didn’t mind at all, but a detail to note if you’re more inclined towards fluffier omelettes. 

It’s easy to see this as just rice, but we could tell that even this gets the thoughtful treatment.

The coconut kaffir lime rice (S$3.80) is tinged with citrus notes, which not only add a hint of zing to the palate with every bite but also prevent your meal from becoming too cloying. 

Drinks and desserts round out the experience with equal charm. 

The imported pomelo beer by Khon Thom Craft (S$10), brewed by a craft brewery in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, is almost dangerously drinkable, with more fruity fizz than hoppy notes, but still oh-so-delicious in our tropical heat.

On the other hand, the housemade Thai orange juice (S$6) — pulpy, tangy, and unsweetened — cuts through the heat of the meal. Known locally as “nam som”, it’s the sort of street-food staple that works brilliantly here to temper spice and richness.

At Im Jai by Pun Im,  we understand the orange juice is made with three types of oranges, for contrasting sweetness and just the slightest hint of tangy sourness to balance the flavours.

While I do bemoan the run-of-the-mill desserts that typically show up on Thai restaurant menus here, the ones at Im Jai deserve mention.

Firstly, the palm sugar and coconut pudding (S$5.80 for three pieces) is an easy treat for when you want just a small sweet treat after a delicious, hearty meal.

It’s steamed into shallow cups, resulting in a light and bouncy treat that’ll hit the spot even if you might’ve had one too many slurps of delicious curry.

The best part is that it’s so easy on the stomach that I could’ve polished off all three cups, if I weren’t supposed to be sharing.

Another dessert that you’d be remiss not to order is Im Jai’s yellow mango sticky rice (S$9.80), especially when it has so far shown an elevated, unique spin on many of the seemingly familiar Thai dishes.

Im Jai’s uses Alphonso mangoes from India (also known as “the king of mangoes”) to create a sorbet, known for their creamy and aromatic flesh — just the way I like my mangoes.

The dessert impressed me thoroughly, especially with its caramelised take on the mango and crisped-up mung beans, which added bite to every spoonful.The rice is dependably sticky, chewy, and contrasted beautifully with the icy sorbet and crisp mung beans.

It’s hard to go wrong with mango sticky rice, but Im Jai’s version is undoubtedly one for the books, both visually and taste-wise. 

What it could improve on

On paper, the signature duck confit red curry ($25.80) promises to be a fiery, coconut-rich gravy layered with cotton fruit and pineapple, but perhaps we had our expectations a bit too high, with hit after hit during our meal. 

I wished the duck flesh were more yielding — it required quite a bit of force to cut through. Luckily, it still tasted great, but perhaps the duck might have been seared too long, resulting in a tougher consistency.

Regardless, for those who live for spicy food, it’s a dream: The punchy, creamy, thick red curry gravy helped redeem the dish.

That said, it definitely felt the least polished of the evening’s spread. But hey, given that it’s a miss on one out of the four savoury dishes we had, we’d take that as a win.

Even with the minor flaw we stumbled upon, the food at Im Jai makes this new place worth a visit. I could taste the sincere love and effort in each dish, and nothing was bland, or God forbid, boring.

Its location is ideal, the prices are reasonable, and the dishes were delicious enough that the memory of the pineapple fried rice still lingers in my mind as I write this. 

Our quick takes

Is it conducive to conversation? Yes, Thai music softly pipes in in the background, making it ideal for lunch or dinner meetings.

Is a reservation necessary? We would recommend a reservation as the seating capacity isn’t substantial. Also, it’s located in the CBD, so we reckon it might get busy during peak meal times.

How to get there? Im Jai by Pun Im is a 3-minute walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT Exit A.

HungryGoWhere paid for its meal at this restaurant for this review.

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