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| - We had Lots of Siam recommended to us by a former local but we decided to opt for poke on our first day in Vegas instead. When a shuttle bus driver in St. George, Utah also recommended it our interest was piqued enough that I did some research. Great reviews in all the food mags and a 2011 James Beard award had my interest piqued. Since I love Thai food (and Northern Thai food in particular) we had to check it out.
The restaurant is shockingly huge. It is situated inside a half closed strip mall that has 4 Korean BBQ places, a Korean Grocery store, a saloon that was pretty hoping at 4:30 on a Sunday and the Green Door.
We had tried to get advance reservations, but were too late (next next available online reservation was like 2 weeks in advance) and couldn't get through on the phone, so we decided we were going to have to deal with the line. Lotus of Siam opens at 5:30 for dinner and we had heard that the line gets pretty long. Since we were trying to grab a quick meal before catching our flight home we came early and wandered the strip mall for 20 minutes to see what else was there. There was no line at 5:10 and we were just about to go to the saloon for a drink when suddenly two families queued up. We decided to forgo the drink at the stand and stand in line, despite the heat. 10 minutes later the line was probably 40 people long. We were, however, able to get right in and it took a little while for the restaurant to fill up. Still, when we left there was a big line. In line we talked with folks about what they were ordering and they were all picking Americanized Thai food even though the reviews all said go with Northern Thai stuff.
The Khao Soi was the best dish that we ordered, though it was a bit confused. When I had it in Chiang Mai it always had dark chicken meat in it. The waiter tried to get me to order it with beef, but that seemed weird so I said chicken. I ended up with sliced (and dry) chicken thrown on top. Looking at the pictures online it seems that Duck is how Lotus of Siam does it and that it would have been the best way to go. Sai Oua was a good northern style sausage. We ordered sticky rice with it and that was the second best. Then we had Nam Prik Ong. Also good, but flavored a bit similarly to our Sai Oua. We could have skipped this and tried something else. Finally we had the garlic prawns, which we could have done without all together.
The restaurant is really efficient in terms of timing. Everything seems very professional, but the whole thing is also really cold. No real personal interactions. We ended up ordering 4 dishes. The northern Thai food was good, but not better than what I get back home in DC. The garlic prawns that everyone raved about, including our waiter, was ok but silly expensive.
Overall it was an ok experience, but I wouldn't run back.
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