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| - I had high hopes for this restaurant. It was a 30 minute drive from Laveen, as all are the Thai places in the area. I ordered two of my staples (Tom ka Gai soup and Green Curry) and tried a new dish (for me), Holy Basil. I got everything takeout.
I'll start with the Holy Basil. It was very good. A nice balance of Thai flavors, and I thought it was quite similar to an Ayam Basil dish I used to get at a Malaysian place in Mt. View, CA. My only complaint was that the chicken was big, thick chunks, like a fajita-style. I expect delicate, tender meats at a high end Thai place.
I opened my green curry and said: "WHERE'S THE SAUCE"? I am VERY upset at the lack of sauce. There was so little I can't comment on the flavor of the curry. And, they had 2 different types of green beans in there: chinese long beans, and American green beans. The larger Amercian green beans weren't cooked. That sucked. The beef was tender enough but the peices were too big. The one redeeming part of this dish was the fact that they had eggplant in it. There is something about eggplant in green curry....
The Tom Ka Gai soup was fantastic. My only complaint would be the chicken, which again, was large fajita-style slices. Doesn't make sense to me.
While I was waiting at the bar for my order, I remember looking into the kitchen and wondering how they could possibly prepare everything on the menu in that tiny space. Now, I think I know: I suspect they prep all of their meats ahead of time and use the same size/shape/cuts for each dish to save time. This results in a fajita-style cut of chicken that leaves me less than thrilled.
Overall, the menu is brief and the food is good, but I don't think it's worth a long drive. I don't expect to return when I could make the same drive to get to Swadee, which was just fabulous. I gave this place a 3/5 because the Tom Ka Gai soup and Holy Basil were VERY good. I am however disappointed in the green curry, the cuts of meat, and by the way they completely ignored my request for Thai spicy; everything was rather mild in my opinion.
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