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| - I can't believe that it's been over 7 years since we've been to this restaurant! It's not close to home, and I forgot about it until it was spotlighted in the LVRJ recently.
An hour before closing, we were the only ones there. (Two women showed up a bit later.) They were already doing some cleaning up, which may account for the very bright lights that weren't in evidence on previous visits.
Surprisingly, there were two Rieslings available by the glass. Our adorable server, Fon, couldn't tell me how the domestic or German offerings differed in terms of dryness, so she offered to bring a sample. She returned with a tray of four tiny sake cups, for both of us to taste the two wines. My husband was a little embarrassed, because he wasn't planning on drinking anything, but the wines were already poured. Very elegant presentation!
We ordered the grilled veggies as an appetizer. The zucchini and eggplant were wrapped with a wide slice of red pepper and topped with a drizzle of lime-infused oil. Delicious.
For our main courses, we chose Massaman Lamb Curry and Mango Tango Salmon. I made sure to say that I wanted the salmon cooked medium. Though her English was very limited, Fon repeated our order verbatim. While the curry was very good (though not the best ever), with lean lamb, as we requested, the salmon dish was a huge disappointment. It looked beautiful, with lots of basil, cashews, some mango, and a few flecks of red pepper. But not only was the salmon a tiny portion, it was thin, with one end not more than a millimeter in thickness. You can't possibly cook it medium when it's that thin. It was so dry and overcooked that we had no choice but to send it back. In its place, we ordered the Thai Pepper Steak.
While we waited for our replacement, Fon brought us a couple of complimentary cream cheese wontons. It's something that I would never order, since I try to avoid fried foods, but they were fabulous, and it was a really classy thing to do.
The beef dish was very good, with nicely tenderized beef, though not as exotic or spicy as I would have liked. While it was well-executed, it's probably my fault for not choosing something more adventurous.
Overall, we enjoyed our dinner at Panna Thai - with kudos to our server for making things right!
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