Little Elephant SG Thai Bistro is a neighbourhood Thai kitchen on Eng Hoon Street in Tiong Bahru, serving the classics — tom yum, curries, holy basil stir-fries, seabass and phad thai — for dine-in, takeaway and delivery. Its Weekday Classic Set Lunch (Monday to Friday, 11am to 3pm) packs single-plate favourites like grilled pork neck with rice, braised pork leg and green curry chicken into a quick midday format.
The menu stretches from homemade starters — prawn cakes, fish cakes, pandan chicken — through spicy salads like larb moo and green papaya, to whole seabass preparations and a full rice-and-noodle line-up. Chilli icons flag the heat level, and allergen notes call out peanuts in the red curries and rice wine in the prawn glass noodles.
Plant-based diners are well covered too, with a dedicated Vegetarian section plus an Impossible Series of plant-based takes on Thai stir-fry classics. Orders can be placed online for pickup or delivery, with timeslots assigned by the outlet.
Tucked into the ground floor of Blk 57 on Eng Hoon Street, Little Elephant SG Thai Bistro brings the bright, chilli-laced flavours of a Thai home kitchen to one of Singapore's best-loved heritage neighbourhoods. Tiong Bahru's conserved shophouses make an easy backdrop for a meal here — a quick weekday lunch, a slow dinner built around a whole seabass, or a pickup order grabbed on the way home through the ordering site.
Meals tend to open the Thai way: with something sharp and crunchy. The salad list runs from the Original Thai Papaya Salad — proper som tam, spicy and sour — to a sweet Corn Salad, a tangy Thai Mango Salad, Larb Moo (the north-eastern minced pork salad) and a chilled Glass Noodle Prawn Salad.
Starters lean homemade. Prawn cakes and fish cakes are made in the kitchen, pandan chicken arrives wrapped in its fragrant leaves, and the fryer turns out spring rolls, garlic pork, garlic chicken and chicken mid-joints. For something off the grill, the pork neck is the order regulars reach for.
Tom Yum Kung is the benchmark here, and it comes your way: clear and briny or creamy and rich. If you would rather go gentle, the Creamy Coconut Chicken Soup follows the tom kha style, and the Minced Pork Tofu Soup is pure comfort. The curry list covers green curry with chicken or pork and red curry with either — the menu notes that the red curries contain peanut.
Holy basil is the workhorse flavour. Pad kra pao shows up with minced pork, minced chicken, sliced beef at set lunch, and even as plant-based Impossible mince. Around it sit wok favourites: chicken with cashew nuts, Thai lemongrass sweet and sour pork, and slow-braised pork leg. A full page of omelettes — plain, onion, minced pork, prawn and a newer soft omelette with crab meat — plus morning glory, kailan and eggplant with sweet basil rounds things out.
Seafood is a genuine strength. Seabass appears deep-fried with a three-flavour sauce, steamed in lime and garlic, glazed with fish sauce, or in a more manageable fillet portion. Prawns come with lemongrass and honey or in tamarind; squid turns up salted egg, lemon-garlic steamed, or in lemongrass-honey; and a peppercorn seafood stir-fry raises the heat for two-chilli diners.
The rice and noodle section is where many regulars live. Thai chicken and pineapple chicken fried rice sit alongside a newer crab-meat fried rice, while the noodles span Phad Thai, drunken-style spicy noodles, wide fat noodles and glass noodles. A creamy tom yum rice noodle and a Tom Yum Mama Noodle turn the classic soup into a one-bowl meal, and a new Prawn with Glass Noodles — the menu flags that it contains rice wine — rounds out the page.
From Monday to Friday, 11am to 3pm (public holidays excepted), the Weekday Classic Set Lunch distils the menu into single-plate classics: grilled pork neck with rice, holy basil with sliced beef, green curry chicken, braised pork leg, deep-fried garlic chicken rice and more. It is dine-in and takeaway only and cannot be stacked with promotional discounts — a small trade-off for one of Tiong Bahru's easiest lunches.
Plant-based diners get more than a token dish. The Vegetarian section holds an olive fried rice, a vegetarian green curry and mixed vegetables in mushroom sauce, while the dedicated Impossible Series uses plant-based minced pork in a spicy holy basil stir-fry and an eggplant version with sweet basil. Chilli icons flag the heat, so there are no surprises at the table.
Much of the bistro's trade flows through its online ordering platform, which handles pickup and delivery and allocates timeslots by outlet — handy for timing a Tiong Bahru collection between errands. Promotions run on the site from time to time, dessert and beverage lists finish the meal, and one rule of thumb holds everywhere on the menu: one chilli means gentle heat, two means business.