When we first moved to San Diego, Bai Yook was one of our favorite Thai Restaurants. I had always enjoyed the Grilled Beef Salad(Yum Nua) at Bai Yook; and though we had a found a few Thai Restaurants we enjoyed more, we still used to return to Bai Yook every so often. Still, we hadn’t been back to Bai Yook since we moved a bit farther away from the Hillcrest area several years ago. Our not so great visit to Saffron had kind of left us reeling, and also craving some decent Thai Food, and Bai Yook came up in the conversation. So we decided to have dinner at Bai Yook a few nights ago.
Located in a fairly quite corner in the busy Hillcrest Shopping Colonnade, Bai Yook is a small but quaint and relaxing little restaurant. Sitting in the dining room of Bai Yook, you wouldn’t even know that a few doors down is a Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, or Lalo’s Al Pastor Taco Shop.
We arrived at about 530 and found the restaurant to be completely empty, we requested a table outside, and was quickly seated. As we looked over the menu we noticed many changes since or last visit. A few of our favorite dishes, like a seafood clay pot dish were missing.
But at least my "old favorite" Yum Nua(Grilled Beef Salad – $7.95), was still on the menu. I eagerly awaited my old favorite beef salad; nice and tender grilled beef on a bed of lettuce, crisp cucumber, slices of tomato, julienned carrots, lot’s of thinly sliced onion, cilantro, all in a spicy lime and fish sauce dressing. The coup de grace was the nice sprinkling of roasted ground rice powder that would add a nice nutty flavor to the salad. What I got brought me down to Earth :
I could literally smell the salad before I saw it! Waaay to much fish sauce, made the dish quite salty and fishy, and not enough lime to balance the dish. The lettuce was a single wilted leaf, on which lied sliced beef that looked pan fried, and though very soft, left an oily film on your tongue. The oily beef was surrounded with two meager slices of cucumber and tomato "lying in state". There was a bit of rice powder, but the overwhelming amount of fish sauce blocked everything else out.
I still had Pad See Eew on my mind, so I ordered the Pad See Eew with Shrimp ($8.95):
Now on the menu I read that the Pad See Eew was prepared with "black bean sauce" and came with Chinese Broccoli. I dunno, maybe this is a new type of Chinese Broccoli(Gai Lan )? Sure looks like ordinary (Brassica oleracea Italica) broccoli to me. The Black Bean Sauce should have scared me off, but unfortunately, it didn’t. These really weren’t black bean like I know it, but some other fermented bean that was extremely salty, bitter, and astringent. To quote the Missus; "it tastes like Chinese medicine". Too bad, the shrimp were cooked to a nice tender state(and fortunately hadn’t absorbed the bitter taste), and though not fantastic; the noodles were also cooked well. I drank three glasses of water trying to finish this.
The Missus had wanted the Salmon Curry($10.95), but they were out of salmon, so we got the "Choo-Chi", a Fried Fish (we were told it was snapper) Curry($12.95).
Though the peas kind of threw me off, and I found the "curry" to be very watery, this dish was by far the best of the evening. The fish fillets were breaded and fried to moist perfection. The curry though thin and runny, was passable, though a bit heavy on coconut milk and salt. We did finish this dish, so it must have been pretty good.
As I licked my salt-chapped lips, I wondered what had happened to my beloved Beef Salad? What happened to Bai Yook? And even with more dread, I remembered that I had recommended this place to more then a few people! Yikes!
Bai Yook Thai Cuisine
1260 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92103
Monday – Friday Lunch: 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Dinner: 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Saturday 12:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Sunday 4:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.