Recently, the Missus asked an acquaintance of Hers, who happens to be Thai, for some Thai Restaurant recommendations. She came back from work, and told me this person recommended Sala Thai. My response: "huh, are you sure?" She responded with: "Well He said first off, that the Owners and Kitchen staff are Thai"
"So what did he recommend?"
"The Pad Thai?"
"Really?"
"Yep, really….."
And so we made our way to Campus Plaza, up the street from San Diego State University. I knew exactly where Sala Thai was located.
We arrived for an early dinner, and was shown our table in the small, and simple, but very clean restaurant.
As we looked over the typical San Diego Thai Restaurant menu, with Americanized dishes such as Crab Rangoon, Shui Mai(!!!), and the usual "pick the meat, pick the sauce" stir fry options, I tried to remain positive. Finally, we found a few items and placed our order.
The Som Tum(Papaya Salad – "Papaya Pok Pok" $6.95):
The Papaya Salad was nice and crisp, but very "flat" in flavor. We ordered all our food at a medium heat level, and the spice level was adequate. But the salad was very tame, lacking in salty, sour, and sweet flavors. The shrimp were fine, but we could have done with stronger flavors, such as dried shrimp or salted blue crab. I started wondering if they make things different here for their Thai clientele?
From the "Wok" portion of the menu, we ordered the Chicken with Garlic Sauce($7.95):
This was the "pick he meat, pick the sauce" item. Slices of fairly dry white meat chicken, with a light sauce, tossed with fried garlic, and various peppers. Not very good, plus the garlic tasted burnt and bitter.
Pad Thai($6.95):
Ah yes, the recommended Pad Thai. On the positive side, this dish used the thinner style rice noodles, which were cooked to an excellent texture. The shrimp and all of the accouterments were fine. The Pad Thai had a decent salty-sweet flavor, but tasted a bit off. We requested some lime, which rounded out the flavor. In retrospect, the Pad Thai was also short on egg and bean sprouts, but was not a bad dish.
Catfish Red Curry($8.95):
I thought the chiffonade of Kaffir Lime leaf in the curry allowed this dish to be thought of as decent. The curry was thick, though not heavy in coconut milk. The heat was very mild for "medium heat", and the sprig of basil was not enough to provide flavor for the curry. The fish was over-cooked, nearly black, making it quite tough. The portion size was pretty small as well, three 1/4" cross-cut fish slices. The curry was okay, the fish not very good.
Based on this meal, I’d say that Sala Thai is your basic San Diego neighborhood Thai restaurant. Nothing wrong with that, but not worth an out of the way drive. The prices are in line with other San Diego Thai restaurants, and service is very nice as well.
Sala Thai Restaurant
6161 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
Mon-Sat 11am-930pm
Sun 4pm-9pm