Thai Restaurants – Page 6

Circling Back to Sab E Lee (Santee)

January 5, 2020 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

**** This location of Sab E Lee has closed

We’ve just torn the last page out of the 2019 calendar….it’s 2020. 2020……man, can you believe that if we’re still posting in May of this year; it will make 15 years? Sheesh….. I was recently wool gathering and looking at some older posts and I realize that there are tons of places that I haven’t revisited in years.

Some of them used to be favorites of ours…….Sab E Lee was one of them right from they opened in 2008. Over the years, they’ve opened a location in PQ, moved the original shop to a larger location down the street, and opened another, more Thai comfort food based restaurant in the old location. And of course, there’s the Sab E Lee location in Santee, which I used to call SEL2. The original owner of TOSEL sold the place to the cooks and opened up a location in Santee back in 2009. The food wasn’t truly Issan like TOSEL, but some of the dishes were quite good. I looked at my post from 2012 and realized I hadn’t been back there in over 7 years! Also, the Missus has been wanting Salted Fish Fried Rice; something that TOSEL and Thai Papaya took off their menu a few years back. Looking at the online menu for the place; I noticed that they still had it on the menu…..in Santee! I hoped.

So, this past weekend, I made the drive out to Santee to see what was going on at that location of SEL.

The place looks pretty much the same as I recalled…..though for some reason, it just seemed much darker inside.

Two really nice young ladies were working…so friendly. And yes, there it was….the salted fish fried rice on he menu. When I ordered it; the nice young lady made sure to let me know that they use fermented fish….not “fresh” fish, which made me laugh…..I’m guessing perhaps there have been some folks surprised when they actually caught a whiff of that fried rice?

Anyway; it was the first dish to arrive.

Nicely stir-fried; some wok hay going on….not as much salted fish as I recalled…the dish was not very pungent. Enjoyed the texture and this wasn’t overly salty. Most of went home for the Missus who said it was “kind of bland”……She’d expected something much more pungent. Still, not bad.

I also ordered the Duck Larb…..and was shocked when it arrived at the table hot.

The temperature really dulled the sharp flavors and the dish tasted better after spending some time in the fridge. At heat level 7, this was quite wimpy……..just not enough heat…..the duck was pretty gamey though. This was just mediocre, not made with any real finesse.

I also ordered the Khai Jeaw; a classic Thai street food dish. Basically eggs with ground pork and fish sauce.

The eggs were pretty well done; nice and fluffy, savory, and while not quite as good as what I’d had here in the past; this was my favorite dish. This did better with Nam Pla Prik – the savory fish sauce with chilies than the Sriracha that was served with the dish. Still, I missed the version they used to make here.

For your reference….from back in 2009, when SEL2 really tried stepping up their game.

I understand the economics of things….the prices here are very reasonable and I’m fairly certain that concessions have to be made for the area. This did seem like a totally different restaurant than the version of Sab E Lee I ate at in 2012. And I can’t help but wonder what Kobey; the former owner of SEL would think if he shared this meal with me.

Sab E Lee
9159 Mission Gorge Road
Santee, CA 92071

Star Anise Thai Cuisine

November 5, 2019 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

One of the first places I checked out in the Renaissance Towne Center; other than Chicago Fire Grill (not counting Pho UTC several years back) was Star Anise Thai.

Tucked in the corner of the strip mall, the interior of the place is much larger than it looks from the outside. There's even an outdoor eating area; though I've never seen anyone dining out there….in fact, during my lunch visits, I'd never seen more than two tables of customers.

Service on all my visits was quite nice; not overly friendly, but gracious and somewhat efficient.

Now, if you've been reading for a while….you'd know I got quite excited upon seeing one of my favorite dishes on the lunch menu.

The Khao Kha Moo! Unfortunately, I was told they were out of that dish on this day….so I had to come up with something to eat. I thought the Spicy Pad Kee Mao (Drunken noodles) looked interesting; so I ordered that.

It was recommended that I get the dish with beef; which was on the chewy side, but not bad. I liked that this was indeed spicy, which I enjoyed. I'd have appreciated more Thai Basil and a bit more sweetness as this was more salty than anything else. The noodles were unevenly coated and were also a bit on the mushy/over cooked side. Still, this wasn't too bad.

I decided to return a couple of weeks later to finally get that Khao Kha Moo, which I as again told they were out off. I then tried to order the Khao Moo Dang….the young man then told me in a frustrated tone, "sorry, we don't serve those dishes anymore"! Geez, why didn't they just tell me in the first place? He did tell me that they have everything else on the lunch menu…..

So, again I had to quckly order something off the menu….I really wasn't feeling like the typical pick your prep; pick your protein stir fry kinda thing. So, I ordered the Nam Tok, which is something I enjoy so much, I make a version at home.

I had also ordered a side of sticky rice, which was very good. Nutty, sticky, perhaps a bit too hot to be eaten by hand, but not bad at all. The meat, while being a bit over-cooked, was adequately tender, especially for Nam Tok. There was a good amount of rice powder which added a nice roasted nuttiness to the dish. The folks in the kitchen went real heavy with the lime juice and shorted me in terms of savory-saltiness and sweetness. Also missing was spice as it wasn't spicy at all. It was also very "watery".

Like the previous lunch; this wasn't bad, just kinda mediocre. I'd had enough for a while and gave the place a rest….which ended up being months.

But, during this past hot October I returned…and since they had all the other dishes on the lunch special menu, decided on he Khao Man Gai. Which, unfortunately, they were out of; sigh……

Again, needing to order something off the menu; I just went ahead and picked the Duck Salad; which I was told was "spicy", it wasn't.

There was a decent amount of nicely done, if a bit bland duck breast in the salad. There was a ton of greens; I did enjoy the mint, but the vinaigrette was also really bland and not quite up to the task. The tomatoes were under-ripe and I think some cucumber might have been a nice addition to the salad. In addition, some of spring mix at the bottom of the plate was starting to brown. Still, this was a fairly substantial salad and temps were hitting the 90's outside, so a salad was the perfect thing.

Of course, trying to get something from that lunch special menu was now attaining comedic heights.

A few weeks later, I decided to give Star Anise another try; this time, I had back-up dishes (the Spicy Fried Rice had looked pretty good), just in case. But of course, this time they did have the Khao Man Gai.

The typical lunch salad and curry potato won tons were run of the mill. The broth provided was super salty and I basically just had one spoonful.

The chicken was cut very thinly, was moist and tender, but very mild in flavor. This is where the sauce comes in. I'm used to a ginger forward sauce. This one hardly had any ginger flavor and tasted mostly like soy sauce; it was too salty and over-powered the chicken. The fish sauce was also way too much for the chicken as well. To me; the sauce provided should have a good amount of ginger, for that nice cleansing zip; with a bit of acidity-sourness, and some garlicky-saltiness.

So, while Star Anise wasn't as bad as say; Di Chan or my last visit to Siam Nara, I still put it in the Ameri-Thai category.

So, perhaps folks out there can make some recommendations, now that I've given up on ordering from that lunch specials menu!

Star Anise Thai Cuisine
8935 Towne Centre Drive
San Diego, CA 92122
Hours
Mon – Thurs 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 930pm
Friday      11am – 3pm, 5pm – 10pm
Saturday    1130 am – 3pm, 5pm – 10pm
Sunday      1130am – 3pm, 5pm – 930pm

Thai Thai (Santee)

June 18, 2019 Cathy Thai Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Well, you're back reading mmm-yoso!!! and looking for another food post. Today, it will be Thai. Cathy is writing while Kirk is busy at work.

For 16 years, this location was a Japanese-Thai restaurant named Oiishi, which I only posted a total of three times despite it being a regular stop (since it is very close to home). The Japanese owners decided to retire and the Thai owners of the popular Fallbrook and Vista based Thai Thai restaurants purchased this Santee location, which opened in May.

The interior has been 'upgraded'. The area pictured here -to the right- had been the 12 seat sushi bar for Oiishi and now there is a bit more seating.

There is a Monday-Friday Lunch Menu featuring 14 choices with prices based on the protein ordered ($8.95 vegetarian/tofu, $9.95 mock chicken or mock duck, $10.95 chicken, pork or beef, $11.95 shrimp, calamari or duck, $12.95 for combo of shrimp, chicken, pork and beef and $13.95 for seafood combo of shrimp, calamari, scallop, mussel and fish). #L13. Lunch Special of yellow curry with tofu ($8.95). Wow. This was great. The lunch specials come with a vegetable soup, vegetable egg roll, fried wonton, rice and cucumber salad. The curry- smooth, coconut based, potato, onion and carrot with the tofu. Very nice, mild curry. We asked for a lower heat level (2/10) to be able to taste the ingredients. Wonderful, fresh- everything. The cucumber salad is available as an appetizer for $5.95 and is quite large. We shared this with a dinner meal one evening.
#15. Pork Larb ($10.95) A trio of condiments are brought out, with the chili powder pointed out as what works best with the larb…so you can make each bite as spicy as you wish. The rice powder, mint, cilantro, red and green onion, lime juice and a touch of dried chili made this good enough to eat on its own with a sliced pieces of cabbage before I ventured further with the tabletop condiments.
#13. Nam Khao Tod ($10.95) Crispy Rice Salad, as it's described on the menu, is something we look for at every Thai restaurant, since each version is a bit differently prepared despite the use of the same ingredients (the same way we look for egg foo young at Chinese places). The sour pork sausage was chopped into small chunks and plentiful, mixed in with the crispy rice. It had a good flavor with a touch of sour. The red onion slices, Thai chili, cilantro, mint, fresh ginger, cashews and lime juice were a wonderful, bright blend of freshness.
#56. Pad Prik-Khing with chicken ($10.95) is made with sautéed green beans, red and green bell peppers, kaffir lime leaves and curry paste, served with rice. This was really good and each ingredient was distinct with fresh flavor.

There are 12 choices on the soup menu at Thai Thai and we are slowly exploring. #82, Yen Ta Fo ($11.95) was a Friday choice. Clear broth with a vinegar base (it's pleasant, not strong) fish balls, squid, fungus, fried tofu and, as your vegetable, morning glory. Served with the wide Thai noodle, which stays firm throughout the meal, this is a new favorite.

There will be many more postings. Thai Thai is the third (there are two other Thai restaurants) Thai restaurant in Santee.

Thai Thai 10251 Mast Blvd Santee, CA 92071 (619)596-5852 Open Tues-Sun 11a.m.-9 p.m. Closed Monday

San Francisco – Kin Khao

December 19, 2018 mmm-yoso San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Thai Restaurants

I wanted something interesting for our last meal in San Francisco. We'd had dinner at Mourad the night before, so I thought following that up with a Michelin Star Thai Restaurant might make a nice pairing for this trip. To make it more interesting; the owner of the restaurant is former uber blogger Pim Techamuanvivit; who ran the super popular food blog Chez Pim. The restaurant claims to create Thai Food that is seasonal, sustainable, and yet stays true to its roots.

The rather tiny restaurant is located in the Parc 55 Hotel. The place was pretty packed when we arrived; luckily, we had made reservations.

There's a certain "hipsterness" to the place and the menu. Our Server was wonderful, sweet, friendly, and while not quite displaying what we'd call Michelin Star service, was very nice. She helped us make some decisions on dishes. We were looking for items with some spice….when we mentioned enjoying Issan-style dishes, she told us she is from Issan and helped us select items for our meal.

Instead of going with some of the heavier or entrée dishes; we kept it rather light and tried four different items.

Starting with the Yum Kai Dao ($12).

To be perfectly honest; we were drawn to the "Wok Fried Duck Egg" in the description and it definitely delivered a perfectly runny, richly flavored yolk. We both enjoyed this elevated Yum Kai Dao; basically a fried egg salad. There was a nice variety of sliced and torn vegetables; cilantro, mint, shallot, kale added a mild bitterness, and there were a few slices of sneaky sliced Thai Bird Chilies. This was very lightly dressed which suited us just fine as we could make out all the ingredients.

Next up was a dish I'd read about, being a fan of Nam Tok (I still make Neua Nam Tok on occasion); we both thought the Nam Tok Beans ($14) would be worth trying.

The earthy flavor of the Rancho Gordo Cranberry Beans came through nicely, but was quite dry. This dish really lacked the savory-sweet flavors along with having not enough herbaceous (mint-lemongrass-cilantro), nor enough spice and lacked enough nutty rice powder to suit our tastes.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Chiang Mai was the nam prik; basically dipping sauces for your sticky rice. So I just had to order the Nam Prik Ong ($18) a take on the classic Tomato and Pork dipping sauce. We also got sticky rice to have with this; sorry no photo….sadly the rice was too soft and wet.

The pork rinds were nice; crisp, light porky goodness. The nam prik was much too thick for our taste and just had too much pork. The acidic tomato goodness was missing……along with having enough spice. This really did seem to taste more like a "ragu" we had in Emilia-Romagna than a nice spicy-garlicky-tomatoey nam prik ong.

If you've read our little blog long enough; I think you'd be able to predict what our last dish would be; the Sai Ua and Nam Prik Noom ($19).

Finally, there was something that brought on the heat (I'm glad we weren't asked how spicy we wanted things – this place served items the way they thought it should be)…..the fruity-fragrant and spicy chili paste – nam prik noom; had a nice variety of chilies. Our wonderful Server told us that this would be the dish we should order and she was right. It actually tasted great with those pork rind strips. This version of Sai Ua was very dense with a definite porkiness to it. It really didn't have as much herbaceousness as other versions we've had, but was quite good. The perfectly ripe cucumber was just the right foil to cure the richness of the sausage and temper the heat of the nam prik.

Overall, while kind of a mixed bag, it was a fun meal. The dishes try to keep a modern edge and a Thai soul, while creeping close to being fusion. While I don't think we'll return the next time we're in San Francisco, I'm glad we tried Kin Khao.

Kin Khao
55 Cyril Magnin St. (In the Parc 55 Hotel)
San Francisco, CA 94102

Soi 30th

September 11, 2018 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Thai Restaurants

Soi 30th opened up right next to Lefty's on 30th Street last fall. My good friends and I actually went and ate there at the end of September, basically going through a good part of the menu on that evening. But the focus was on what was going with each other; work and other things have been keeping me from seeing them as much as I'd like to.

I decided not to do a post after that visit; mainly because we were just enjoying each other's company and catching up on what was going on.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the food….I did enjoy a couple of the dishes. Though some were quite uneven; I attributed that to being newly opened. It did help that the place was being opened by the former owner of Krua Thai in Chula Vista.

I decided to do a couple of visits on my own; which stretched out over almost nine months. But finally, think it's time.

The restaurant is small; the interior tiny, with some outdoor seating. The set-up is perfect for the "North Park Brewpub" type; you order at the counter, get a number, have a seat.

On my first visit; I went with a dish that I usually use to gauge the cooks Wok Skills; Pad See Eew with Shrimp ($13).

Not an especially generous portion; the shrimp was cooked perfectly, a wonderful tender and plump. I liked the fact that the sauce wasn't overly sweet, but the noodles, while nicely coated, was on the over-cooked side and lacked the smokey "wok hey" that I look for in this dish.

I did enjoy the Thai Jerky ($7); which had been nicely dried, then fried.

Edging just on the precipice of being hard; I loved the chewiness, the flavor, salty-savory, was quite good as well.

On my next visit; two more Thai staples…..

The SomTom E-san ($7), was a bit disappointing.

While the papaya was expertly shredded, this just wasn't spicy….especially for Issan Papaya salad. I wasn't asked for a spiciness level and this was too mild. Not very much salted crab, nor enough tomato. Too much lime and not enough fish sauce; this just wasn't what I wanted.

I had mixed feelings about ordering the Thai Sausage. You see, on my visit with friends the sausage wasn't sour enough and the meat quite mealy. This however, was very good.

Nice light sourness; pork skin, great firm, but not hard texture. Very nice! Sadly, much like CC's visit (check out her post), no ginger, and sliced serrano peppers instead of Thai Chilies.

A few weeks later; it was the Khao Man Gai, which was very disappointing; the chicken was super dry, the rice not flavored enough and hard.

The ginger based sauce needed….well, more ginger as it really lacked zip.

I also ordered the Crispy Chicken Wings.

Much of the rather light batter was flaking off the wings; broken bones, and the meat was moist and tender it had dark spots. I thought it a bit too sweet for my taste and I felt it needed more zip and a crunchiness that would hold out a bit longer.

After this; I decided to give the place a rest for a couple of weeks; which turned out to be months.

When I finally returned; I saw that Soi 30th had Pad Ped as a special; so I decided to order it. The portion size was quite large and that egg was nice and runny.

I found the sauce a bit too "gloppy" and the pork dry. The were lumps of sauce; you know, when you're not on your stir-fry game and you add in the sauce to finish and it lumps up under the heat.

On my next visit; I had what is perhaps my favorite dish at Soi 30th; in fact, I've had it again recently and it was the same; It's the Pork Belly and Chinese Broccoli.

Not over sauced; the star was the pork belly; crunchy, not hard, which gave away to a nice tenderness. Mild garlic tones and I could actual taste some heat here; not much mind you, but at least it was there. During this visit the Gailan was too hard and crisp, but on my subsequent visit, it was cooked nicely. On both visits the fried egg was over-cooked for my taste; but maybe the clientele freaks out over soft and runny eggs? Still, a good dish.

On my last visit, I was curious about the Khao Moo Krob – Moo Daeng; basically red pork (like charsiu) and pork belly. The fluorescent red sauce really caught my attention.

The "red" pork was on the dry and tough side and really lacked flavor. The pork belly though was again nicely fried up, making it crisp and delicious. The sauce was too sweet and missing the nice tangy-savory component used on Moo Daeng. The rice was perfect and fragrant, though the boiled egg was way overcooked, the yolk quite dry.

So, why all the visits? Well, there's something about this place that I like….perhaps it's the vibe…..the dishes I enjoyed had that "hint of Thailand" and while on the gringo side, were not bad. Perhaps I need to do this a some other Thai places that missed the mark previously?

The service was amiable and the prices not bad.

To quote reader EdwardW who emailed me about Soi 30th back in September - "I want this place to do well. It’s close to my home and about as honest Thai cooking I’ve found in San Diego." Well said! And thanks for reading and taking the time to send us an email!

Soi 30th
3442 30th St
San Diego, CA 92104
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 3pm, 430pm – 930pm
Fridays 11am – 330pm, 430pm – 930pm
Sat – Sun 12pm – 930pm

Siam Nara Revisited

September 6, 2018 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

A reader recently asked me if I'd been to Manila Fast Food and Desserts recently, because she thought things had changed. I hadn't been in about six months so I thought I'd check things out….problem was; it was Monday and the place is closed on Monday. Duh…. So, I had to find a place for lunch. There are quite a few options in this strip mall and I chose Siam Nara since I hadn't been back in over seven years!

The place still looks quite nice inside.

I hadn't planned on having Thai, so I really wasn't prepared and ended up choosing something off the lunch menu.

Which started with a very bland, water-logged "soup".

Soon enough my plate of food arrived….good lord, this was pretty large. Since I hadn't been to Siam Nara in so long, I'd forgotten a couple of things….like, even though I ordered the som tum "spicy", it had barely any heat at all, was light on the fish sauce, and too sweet for my taste. I totally got "gringo'd" on this one. Or perhaps that is basically how they make the food. The sticky rice was very moist and perhaps the most unsticky, sticky rice I'd had in a while.

Man, that's quite a bit of fried chicken; which was nicely fried, crunchy, but very bland. I wasn't going to use any of the sweet chili sauce, until I bit into the very dry chicken….it was so dry…then I recalled that all those years ago; I thought the kai yang here was on the dry side as well.

I'm going to stop here and not even go into the egg roll and the potato curry won ton thingy.

Yes, it's a very generous amount of food, but it's just not my kind of Thai.

Siam Nara
8993 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Open Daily 11am – 10pm

What we eat to beat the heat – Thai Papaya by Sab-E-Lee

July 6, 2018 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

**** Thai Papaya has closed

Man was it hot today in San Diego? Man; it was hitting the high 90's over here in Bay Park! And as always with temperatures this high; the specter of fire danger hovers overs us. We hope everyone, their families, pets, and homes are safe.

I've mentioned in previous posts, that's it's not Sab-E-Lee weather for us until it starts getting into the high-70's or 80's. And well; today it surely surpassed that. It had been a while since I'd dropped by. The Missus was going to get home after me today; so I dropped by Thai Papaya for take-out.

Maylee was in the kitchen and came out to greet me with a smile…..things are just better when she's there.

Of course I got the Missus's favorite; the Som Tom Khai Kem, papaya salad with salted egg. Savory-salty, with the acid balancing things out. The duck larb was outstanding on this visit, great mildly-gamey, almost beefy with sweet tones; just enough acid, great with the wedges of cabbage.

And yes; there are several places that make a better Thai Sausage than what SeL sells; but we still order it; it's very consistent and along with sticky rice fills out the meal.

Thai Papaya has changed up their hours a bit. Now closed on Tuesdays and open from noon to eight pm the rest of the week.

Thai Papaya by Sab E Lee
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

Yes, it's just a short post today…….it's probably too hot to be sitting around reading a post. And I'm sure you really didn't want to read about my most recent bowl of pho, right?

Aaharn by Koon Thai (National City)

May 6, 2018 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

**** This location of Aaharn has closed

The weather's been warming up, so the Missus decided it was time to start hitting up Zarlitos again for Her weekend poke breakfast. While driving past National City Boulevard, I noticed this.

At street level of Bayview Towers. The thing that caught my eye was the "by Koon Thai" on the signage. Returning home, I did a bit of searching and found out this is a new "concept" by Koon Thai. Along with this National City location, there's one on Kettner near Santa Fe Depot. Shows how long it's been since I've been around those areas, huh?

Anyway, that evening, with the Missus working, I decided to drop on by….yes, back and forth to National City twice in a day! Now that's dedication, right? Actually, I was that curious about the place. Which was small, but I liked the décor.

The young lady working was so warm and friendly.

The menu can be described as Koon Thai "light"……stuff like gyoza? But there were still some ungringo dishes on the menu. I placed my order, not really thinking a couple of things thru.

I started with the Nam Tok, which I ordered spicy. The poor young lady was so concerned about my personal welfare….I assured her that I'd be able to take the heat…evening mentioning Sab e Lee. But she looked so concerned (more about this later), that I ordered it medium.

This was definitely not a "Thai sized" portion. Holy smokes, there was a decently sized steak under the herbs and veggies. On an interesting note; unlike what I've had at Koon Thai, the lime-sugar-saltiness was decent if a bit on the mild side for my taste. I've usually found the beef at Koon Thai on Convoy to be pretty tender. This on the other hand, looked great, but was cut way too thick, and was really sinewy and tough. I'd have appreciated more lemongrass flavor and roasted rice powder, but at least this wasn't too sweet. Oh and it wasn't hot at all….barely tickling my tongue.

I was happy to see a Koon Thai favorite on the menu; the Khao Karr Moo ($10). Again, I found the portion size to be quite large.

There was quite a bit more pork that what I get at Koon on Convoy. There was a nice balance of sweet-soy sauce going on. The pork was a bit drier and tougher than I prefer; except for the darker, fattier slices. There were boiled eggs, decently done for this dish which takes me back to Thailand. I wish the usual pickeld greens were used instead of the gringo broccoli and carrots.

Still, not too bad. The young lady was very nice. When I mentioned the spice level not being up to par, she apologized and told me a couple of stories about folks not quite knowing what "real" Thai food was like and the various questions, challenges, and folks basically almost dying from "mild" level heat. I get it.

I decided to return yesterday and there was this really nice young man working….same friendliness and warmth, a really nice guy. As temperatures had soared to the mid-eighties, I wasn't in the mood for any curries or soups. I saw something called "Herby Chicken" ($12) on the menu and asked if it was "Kai Yang" and he smiled and said "yes". A whole half chicken arrived.

The photo above really doesn't do the portion size justice as it is a pretty hefty half chicken. As with most American birds, the thigh and leg meat was vey nice and moist, but the large and hefty breast was really dry and didn't absorb much flavor. In terms of taste, well, this was quite mild for me. It was salty enough, but definitely needed more. I use lemongrass, garlic, and ginger in my recipe. It could have also been a touch sweeter. The skin was tough and rubbery.

Still, this wasn't bad by any means, better than many Thai restaurants in San Diego.

I also got free Thai Coffee/Thai Tea with my entrée. I'm guessing this is a grand opening perk.

I love the artwork and really enjoyed chatting with the folks working here. I was told that someone actually came in and had no idea what Thai Curry was!!! The top selling dish? Pad Thai.

I hope they do well. I might return one of these days. I was the only customer in the place during both my visits. I hope and wish them well.

Aaharn by Koon Thai
801 National City Blvd
National City, CA 91950
Hours:
Mon – Fri 11am – 3pm
430pm – 9pm
Saturday 430pm – 9pm
Closed Sunday

There are three or four parking spaces behind the building specifically assigned to the restaurant. Though I parked along A Avenue. After driving in Italy and France, I've kind of learned to appreciate roundabouts and there's one here.

I also enjoy the historic homes in the area.

Right next to the quite 70's looking building is Morgan Square Plaza, a colorful little oasis. And on this day, it looked like some teens were having their graduation pictures taken.

They added some life to a rather desolate area on a Saturday evening.

Circling Back to Di Chan Thai Restaurant

April 18, 2018 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

Right before our office moved from the Kearny Mesa area, I noticed that Di Chan Thai had new signage. A bit of a more modern freshened up look. It had been 12 years since my last visit. I hadn't been too impressed with the "Ameri-Thai" style food. But heck, a new look, a new leaf, right?

Man, look how bright it is here now!

The woman working was really friendly and quickly brought me a menu.

It was the typical "pick your style – pick your protein" menu of most Thai places.

Not really sure what to get; I went with the Garlic and Pepper Shrimp ($8.95) spice level 10…….I figured that it would be basically a five.

First up; the worst soup that I've had since my visit to Appethai.

Talk about bland…..

Soon enough my plate arrived.

Let's just forget about the wonton and other stuff. Focusing on the main. The broccoli was soggy and over-cooked, the shrimp was as well…..quite rubbery. The sauce was watery, too sweet, and lacked almost any spice at all. There was garlic, not so much pepper…….not so much my taste either. It seems like the veggies and shrimp were cooked over too low heat as there was a lack of wok hay.

I'm sure folks who just want "some grub" for less than nine bucks might like this.

In the back of my mind, I thought if lunch was even half way decent, maybe I'd come back for dinner. I think I'll pass for now.

Di Chan Thai Restaurant
5535 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Revisits – Supannee House of Thai and Pho Xpress

January 28, 2018 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

A couple of revisits for a quiet Sunday.

Supannee House of Thai:

It's been quite a while since I did my post on Supannee back in 2013. I'd been back a couple of times, though not in a year or two. Over time, it seems that Supannee has become a favorite of CC and even Cathy.

On this day, I needed to drop by Trader Joe's in Liberty Station, so I thought I'd head a bit further south and have lunch at Supannee.

Of course I needed to get the Thai Sausage which is now $11.

This sausage that is made inhouse was what brought me to Supannee in the first place all those years ago. And while it was a bit drier that I prefer, it did "hit the spot". In fact, I think they've adjusted the recipe a bit as it's even more flavorful, the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf somes shining thru, and there's more of a chili kick. Nicely grilled, this was a great start to lunch.

I wanted to try a curry and went with the Roasted Duck Red Curry ($16).

This was very nice; in spite of the decent amount of spice, I could make out the flavor of the coconut milk in this. I often stay away from Thai Curries at restaurants because it's often too sweet….and I'm really not a big fan of fruits in my curries. But let me walk that back here. In this case, other than the curry being on the "thin" side, all the flavors worked in harmony. There was a generous portion of duck in the curry as well. All flavors of the ingredients, the duck, pineapple, tomato (added a nice acid), and grapes, worked both in harmony and individually in this dish.

The service was also very nice. When I took the leftovers home, the really nice young lady gave me an order of rice (I'd finished my bowl…a rarity these days) as well. Same young lady was so gracious and helpful to the woman who told her, "no meat, no dairy, no shellfish, no gluten, low sodium, and I'm allergic to peanuts".

I gotta get back here more often.

Supanee House of Thai
2907 Shelter Island Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
Hours:
Mon – Fri 1130am-230pm, 5pm – 9pm
Sat – Sun 12pm – 9pm

Pho Xpress:

So, since our office moved, I'm outside the free shuttle range for the folks who work on my car. So these days, I need to go Saturdays or Holidays. The first time, I took the trolley and just went "cruising". On my latest visit, I waited the three hours.

After paying and heading out, I decided to grab something to eat. It was pretty chilly out and I hadn't been back to Pho Xpress in nearly two years.

Instead of ordering the pho like I usually do; I went with the Banh Mi Bo Kho. What I got was disappointing.

This tasted like pho broth with some bo kho seasoning dumped in it. It lacked any kind of rich beef flavor, tomato, etc…..it was so bland. The carrots were still raw, the beef very tough. This was so thin that I thought I'd read the menu wrong….but no, it says right there "Beef Stew". At least the banh mi was warm and fairly crusty. But this was disappointing as a whole.

Also, since the guy who took my order insisted on correcting my pronunciation of "bo kho"…they should have actually made me a real bo kho, right?

Pho Xpress
6533 Mission Gorge Rd
San Diego, CA 92120