We made the pilgrimage to Kowloon Bay for the sake of being adventurous, and although the waiting game was tiring (nearly all the restaurants at the plaza were booked full for dinner—a phenomenon which we suspect to be routine here), Thai Chili made it bearable (despite our re-branding of it as Thai fusion rather than authentically Thai, cuz it just ain’t). This fancier-than-usual mall restaurant had a colorful menu that seemed typical at first glance, but if you looked harder you were awarded with some creative variations such as the baked tiger prawn vermicelli hotpot with Thai herbs, which we ended up ordering. We also had a masaman curry beef brisket dish, a pomelo salad and some rice to go along. The salad came with a spicy red sauce that matched the zestiness of the clumsily chopped clumps of pomelo and lettuce leaves, and the beef brisket in the thick pale yellow curry broth was pleasantly chewy. The vermicelli hotpot, although laced with celeriac (which was more of an “ugh” than an “mmm” for us), was a borderline winner with its enormous full-bodied prawns and aromatically herby noodles served steaming hot. It could’ve easily been eaten as a dish on its own, without any need for sides to carry the flavors through. Although not enough to make us MTR our way back, Thai Chili is a good go-to if you ever find yourself in this part of town.