Thai Restaurants – Page 19

Road Trip: Krua Thai Restaurant – West Covina

August 28, 2005 mmm-yoso Los Angeles County, Thai Restaurants

After our brief browsing and shopping foray at Hong Kong Market, we made our way in the slowly rising heat to Krua Thai.

Though only on the other side of the mall, the heat almost got the better of us, and we almost stopped at other restaurants twice. But after reading Elmo's Krua Thai review on Monster Munching, I really wanted to give this restaurant a try. After what seems like a half hour (it's amazing how the heat can really slow you down) we crawled in through the door at Krua Thai. The first thing the Missus said was "Picturessss, I like pictures!" She has a thing about food photo's, I guess they help her make decisions on what to order. Though they sometimes sent her into complete analysis paralysis. The decor in Krua Thai is nice in a Eighties kind of way – the only thing odd is that the counter area is separated from the dining area by a divider, which has a sofa on one side. I found that a bit odd. I did like the glass exterior of the restaurant, though the view of Glendora Ave is less than thrilling, it kept the restaurant from being too dark.

After seeing the Pad Kee Mao($5.25) on Pam's site Daily Gluttony, I knew that I needed to order it.

The Pad Kee Mao($5.25) was cooked to perfection, the noodles smooth and slightly firm, provided the perfect amount of resistance. The ground chicken was excellent, the chunks not too small, moist, and with a nice taste. The tomatoes were tangy and added a nice sweetness to the dish. I'd have enjoyed the Pad Kee Mao alot more if it was more aggressively seasoned, in my opinion, it was not spicy enough, and there was not enough basil. The menu says mint, but it was Thai Basil that was in this dish. Good, not great.

Green Papaya Salad with dried shrimp and salty crab ($4.75):

I'm a big fan of Papaya Salad, in fact, one of the dishes I had the first time I ate Thai food was Green Papaya salad. I usually don't order Papaya Salad in most Thai restaurants, because I'm usually disappointed. It's usually a sour – salty mess, especially with salty crab. This version was very good, the papaya and beans crunchy; the tomatoes added sweetness, the chewy texture of the shrimp, and the briny crab together created a nice dish. I could've done with a bit more heat, but I'd order this refreshing dish again.

On the other hand, the Nam($4.95), or sour sausage was a complete failure:

Bland and mushy, this almost tasteless sausage was totally over-powered by any of the "garnishes".

We also ordered the Catfish with Chili Sauce($6.50):

The catfish was fried than topped with a sauce that featured Thai Basil, Mint, and Kaffir Lime, this was nice and tasty, though again it could have used a bit more heat. The catfish was prepared well, but you'll have to maneuver around some tiny bones. A nice dish with rice.

The best? The Papaya Salad; the "dressing" was excellent, darker than any I've seen, with sweet, sour, and salty tones. The Missus ended up pouring the dressing over rice to finish up.

You'll be really hard pressed to find anything over $6.95 on the menu, and the hours are great. The Missus first glanced at the hours and said, "so this place is only open for lunch". I had to show her it's 11am to 330am, that's three thirty in the morning. I'd say you get your money's worth here.

Krua Thai
935 South Glendora Ave.
West Covina, CA 91790
Open Daily 11am to 330am

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Plaza Sorrento Food Court – Greek Bites and Amarin Thai

August 3, 2005 mmm-yoso Greek Food, Thai Restaurants

***** Both of these places have closed

I'm a true believer in Food Courts; not the cookie-cutter shopping mall type, mind you. But those found in areas of the San Gabriel Valley, with interesting variety and decent quality. You'll hardly ever find "great" food in a Food Court, but it's the "hunt" that counts. Two of my favorites are The Quincy Market in Boston and Union Station in Washington DC. The usual program would go like this; we'd each take $20, head off in opposite directions, with instructions to meet at a central location in 15 minutes to share our bounty. Honestly, there are more "clunkers" than winners, but it can be fun. So when we came across the Food Court in the Plaza Sorrento during our visit to the Sorrento European Bakery, we became very interested. And since we were starving, and one Banh Mi would not quench our hunger, the hunt was on.

In this food court is a Indian Tandoori place, a Vietnamese restaurant, and Japanese restaurant. I started noticing that many of the places in this "food court" had it's own dining area, making the description of food court into a misnomer, this collection of eating establishments was more of a "restaurant row". On this trip we decided on Greek and Thai.

From Greek Bites we got a combination platter ($8.65).

This pretty sizable platter was a big dissapointment, even at food court standards. The gyros meat was very dry, the chicken kabobs were dry and tasteless, and the chicken wings were – eh, ok. The salad was short on feta and the dressing tasted bottled. The rice pilaf was over-cooked. The tzatziki was good though, and we ended up slathering it over everything, and even bought another one ($.40). Seems like the name Greek "Bites" was somehow appropriate. At least we had leftovers for Sammy and Frankie.

Our other choice was Thai from Amarin Thai Restaurant.

I asked if this place was under the same ownership as Amarin Thai in Hillcrest and was given a positive nod. I ordered the Thai Sausage ($5.95) and Grilled Beef Salad ($7.25). One quick thing, unlike the speed of most food court type places, there was quite a wait here – even though it was sausage and a salad I ordered.

The Thai Sausage was nicely portioned with all the usual condiments, the sausage was alot milder than I'm used to (i.e. LOS in Vegas), not as salty, a bit more herbacious, and softer in texture. The sausage tasted fine with a squeeze of lime and wrapped in a cabbage leaf, but I could've used a bit more peanuts.

Yum Nuah (grilled beef salad), is one of my favorite dishes, especially on a hot summer day. This version had a generous amount of beef, lots of cilantro, cucumbers, lettuce, and tasty ripe tomatoes. The dressing was a bit one dimensional, I know that sounds strange, but it had too much fish sauce and not enough lime. I ended up squeezing the lime from sausage dish to balance the flavor out. We ordered this dish hot and the heat was excellent, though in spite of the amount of beef, the overall portion size was on the small side.

Best dish of the day – the Thai Sausage. We finished almost everything (Greek stuff leftover), and could have gone for more, but it was getting a little late, so we headed home.

So not quite a food court, The Plaza Sorrento " International Food Court" features a great variety of restaurants, putting everything from Boba and Pho' to Tandoori Chicken within reach. Obviously your mileage may vary in these type of places, but it's fun to be able to grab a good variety of dishes. And besides, there's great sport in the hunt! Do you think there's a future for an organized food court eaters league?

6755 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92121

The Thai Grill

June 4, 2005 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

*** The Thai Grill has closed

In the mood for Thai food we decided to forgo a visit to one of our favorite Thai restaurants, and instead went to a new restaurant we saw a few days ago. The Thai Grill, located in Hillcrest, is very, very small, with only 4 tables in the restaurant, and 2 outside, one of which holds up the menu. Our waitress said that they’ve only been open 7 months.

Not being very hungry we ordered two dishes:

The first was, the top item on the Chef’s specials part of the menu. Crab Fried Rice ($10.95). The dish arrived steaming hot with flakes of real crab, peas, carrots, and bean sprouts. The good; rice was cooked perfectly, there was real crab in this, and the plate looked reasonably appealing. The bad; this dish tasted only of fish sauce, not that there was too much, it’s just that the combination of fish sauce and crab, with no other real flavor to balance the fishiness, made this dish very boring. Other Thai fried rice dishes that I’ve had have always had some flavoring other than fish sauce to add some depth of flavor to the dish, be it garlic, tamarind, sugar, etc…. This was a singularly uninteresting dish. I didn’t even finish this, which for anyone who knows me is an amazing thing, I usually easily finish anything I order.

The second dish was Rice Noodles with Hot Basil and chicken. The good; again this dish was cooked perfectly, the texture of the noodles was perfect, just enough chewiness. The chicken was also cooked very well. The flavoring of this dish was Superior to the fried rice, with nice heat and a nice tomato-ey taste. The bad; as you can see, only about 5 Thai Basil leaves, that means only 5 really “good bites” in the whole dish. I may have a big mouth, but there’s no way I can eat this dish in 5 bites. The heat was easily identified, Thai chili paste, and which adds nice heat, but is usually combined with other flavors to create a better taste profile. Again the dish lacked real depth, very one dimensional, and not enough to really keep you interested.

It could be that we didn’t order the dishes that Thai Grill does well. But I would think that the #1 item under Chef’s Specials would probably be the best the kitchen produces. In my opinion$10.95 is really steep for mediocre fried rice. Try it out and let me know if I’m wrong, or what I may have missed……

The Thai Grill
420 Robinson Ave. Suite E
San Diego, CA 92103
619-683-7725