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| - NAGA is a new trendy Thai restaurant on the other side of the world from me. The restaurant, just like the neighborhood, is beautiful. Young waitresses are polite and native English speakers. The atmosphere screams of The District and good date material. But how's the food? I got my first clue when I had to flag my waitress down and ask how spicy my food would be after realizing she never asked!
I ordered the Crab Rangoon ($8.50) and one of the house specials, the Seafood Curry Coconut ($21). Lunch specials are $8.50, which isn't a bad price, but I like to try the dishes that Thai restaurants are proud of.
The Crab Rangoon were small and wrapped with a very thin pastry. I usually dislike Crab Rangoon when it is prepared this way, but these had a nice crab flavor. I believe they used real crab. With only 6 small pieces, don't expect to fill up on these.
The main course was the Seafood Curry Coconut. Served inside of a hallowed out coconut shell, this curry came with mussels, squid, fish (catfish?), shrimp, etc. The curry itself was interesting. I expected a Northern style curry, but this was something different than I have ever had before. It was a thick almost chunky paste. The flavor was very creamy. Thankfully I ordered my food spicy hot, as I think this curry would have been a little boring without it. That said, the curry was very well done for what they were going for. It lacked the complex Thai flavors that I am used to, so I guess they are going for a more Americanized Thai food. For that, they've done well, but I got a little bored of eating this curry towards the end. The squid was a little chewy for me, but other than that the preparation was very well done.
While not my style of Thai food, I can appreciate their culinary efforts here. The food matches the neighborhood and their non-Thai clientele. I would stick to the lunch specials though, as I don't think that the dish I had was worth the price.
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