This afternoon, I found myself in the Mesa Bookmans, waiting in an enormous line for my trades (and my friend's numerous boxes of trades) to be picked through by the discerning staff. I was absatively posolutely craving Thai food. I whipped out my shiny new iPhone, launched the Yelp app and discovered Benjarong Thai Restaurant was the closest Thai food establishment to where I happened to be standing.
One painfully long hour later, my friend and I were in the parking lot, walking past the church next door where hymns were being sung (loudly) and I had a moment of panic, realizing it was Sunday and hoping that we were lucky enough to choose a place open Sundays. Thankfully, there was a big sign in the window that said "Open Sunday for Father's Day". Apparently, they're usually closed on Sundays (as are most Thai restaurants in my experience). There was much rejoicing.
The restaurant appeared clean, the staff was very friendly, and, as the place was mostly empty at the time, we had our food a few minutes after orderings. I had the thai fried rice and my friend had the pad thai. In retrospect, I should have gone for the pad thai, as the fried rice was merely average. We both ordered our food "HOT", but were given what I describe as "Hot for Americans", i.e. we both found it necessary to add more spice (which was thankfully readily available).
I'll probably go back to Benjarong Thai eventually (perhaps next time I find myself in Bookmans with a hankering for Thai food), but I didn't see (or taste) anything that would cause me to make a special trip out of Mesa. I much prefer Thai Lahna (in Phoenix) and Thai Elephant (in Tempe).