A Thai restaurant on Telok Ayer Street, Thachang @ Telok Ayer sits among the shophouse dining rooms that make this corner of Chinatown a draw for the nearby office crowd, holding a 4.4 rating on Google and taking reservations through OpenTable. A good Thai kitchen lives or dies by balance — sweet against sour, salt against heat — and the surest tell is freshness: curry pastes pounded in-house, herbs going in at the last minute, papaya salad made to order. Ordering for the table works best: a curry, a stir-fry, something sharp and herby, plenty of rice, and no harm asking for the chilli to be toned up or down. Streets like this one fill fast at midday, so an early seat or a booked table makes for a calmer meal. For the Chinatown lunch crowd and evening wanderers alike, Thachang @ Telok Ayer puts a solidly rated Thai table on one of Singapore's most food-loving streets.