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| - I finally got a chance to try Thai Suan Thip this week. I've been meaning to, but they don't deliver, and I just hadn't gotten around to it.
This is a great place to have in Bellevue. The atmosphere is very charming, though personally I could do without the tall tables; that's just me and my dislike of elevated chairs. We were seated right away around 7:30pm on a Tuesday. The place was full shortly thereafter; there aren't many tables, but they do have a nice patio. It's BYOB, being in dry Bellevue.
Service was slow in the extreme, but very friendly. It took about ten minutes before the waiter came to our table at all. He did let us know right away that a few menu items weren't available (chicken satay and something else), and answered my friend's questions about a couple of dishes. Two of us ordered Thai iced tea, which sadly didn't arrive until about halfway through the meal, which itself took a very long time to come out. That said, they do only have two cooks, and the place is so cute we didn't mind the wait.
One friend ordered the Snow Angel at first, but we were informed that you need to call ahead for it as the preparation takes a long time. She went with Shrimp in the Garden instead, which I've seen praised to high heaven in other reviews (not necessarily on Yelp). It was in fact really good, but it's basically shrimp and broccoli tempura with a tasty pineapple-chili dipping sauce. Well-executed and delicious, yes; novel and worth $10, not so much.
I had the tom kha soup with chicken. Tom kha is the one food I would pick if I had to eat only one thing for the rest of my life, and this was an excellent example. It was perfectly balanced in terms of sour, salty and sweet (cookbook nod, anyone?) with a good tang of fish sauce balanced by the freshness of cilantro and galangal. Oddly, there were sweet bell peppers involved rather than roasted chiles; instead, the heat was added by crushed red pepper flakes. Understandable with the ability to specify different spiciness levels, but not optimal. Still, one of the best instances of one of my favorite foods. I wouldn't kick it out of bed for eating crackers.
We also had shrimp pad thai, which was again very tasty. The noodles weren't overcooked, thank goodness, and the shrimp were large and perfectly done. The sauce was delicious, though I wish there'd been more of it.
There was obviously a lot of attention given to the presentation of the dishes, both ours and the ones we saw go past on the waiter's arm. The portions were of reasonable size; when I go to Lulu's, say, or Thai Cuisine, I end up with a giant carry-out box of leftover pad thai, but here it was just the right amount for one meal. It could be argued that it ought then to cost slightly less, but I think they're going more for a nice upscale experience than "neighborhood Thai joint."
Given the gorgeous interior, the friendly-if-slow service, and the readily apparent care that went into the dishes, I'll certainly go back. It's the kind of place that would be great for a date or for catching up with old friends. Next time, I'm getting larb, which is another barometer of good Thai food to me.
Parking, by the way, is on the street mostly, and you may have a tiny bit of a walk, but no more than you'd find in Oakland.
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