a lunch review - thaiphoon

the other day, i was talking to a friend about thai food. he was wanting to try it out, and i said we should have some thai food for lunch on saturday (before watching football). so, a couple of us went out for lunch. we first walked over to million elephant cafe. i knew that they had stopped serving lunch on weekdays, but thought that maybe they might have a weekend lunch. nope. but that's alright. so, we headed down olive towards thaiphoon.

now, i actually had wanted to go to thaiphoon, but figured that i'd check on million elephant because it's a little closer. i am glad that it worked out and we we able to make a first visit to thaiphoon.

we started out with the appetizer sampler plate (2 spring roles, 2 shrimp, 2 cheese crab crab dealies- i can't remember the actual name of the last one) served with a plum sauce. i think it was for $7. all the parts were good, but the crab won ton-ish thing stole the show. fantastic. i could eat those all night at a party. or, i'd definately have just that appetizer on its own.

all the meals came with a complimentary pepper soup. cabbage, chicken, and a little other stuff. delicious but spicy. not spicy hot, or overbearing, but definately had some kick from the pepper. but the taste was good. what made it even better was that we didn't even know we were going to have it. a pleasant surprise.

for entrees, we ordered a curry noodle w/beef, a pad thai w/shrimp, and a fried rice w/beef, broccoli, & snow peas. i think we all ordered medium (none of us wanted to weep right away from ordering some crazy spicy dish.)
-the curry noodle - came with a coconut curry sauce. it was mildly spicy, but did provide a bit of warmth on the tongue. overall, i think this was the best dish of the three. the beef was nice and lean, and worked well with the noodle.
-the pad thai - good, shrimp wasn't overcooked. the person that ordered it thought it was spicy, but the other two of us that it was fine. in fact, i think it could have used a little more kick. but, the combination of flavors was nice.
- the fried rice w/beef, etc. - i think this was the weakest link of the meal. it tasted fine, but it just didn't stand out. it really could have used more heat to it. my buddy that ordered it tried two of the different hot sauces on the table, and felt it was best with the really spicy one. i tasted the dish as well and thought it was good, but it just didn't stand out.

overall, we really enjoyed the food. everything tasted good and we were all happy with what we had ordered. i think we would recommend the spicier rice though. the portion sizes excellent as well. at first, i thought it looked a little small, but as we dished it all out it was actually quite a bit of food. we also had two sodas and a beer. i didn't ask, but it looks like they don't have their full liquor license and just had beer and wine to offer. i also appreciated the decor. very clean looking, with nice etched glass. i'll definately go back, and would love to have dinner there with some friends.


(this is also being posted on my fresno famous blog.)