Steve A.
Yelp
Visiting my family in the Caldwells, we were looking for a restaurant for dinner and my mom suggested Thai. I looked at the various Thai in the area and this came in highest-rated on Yelp, so we went here to check it out and evaluate for ourselves. The verdict: Mixed bag. And it's an interesting reason why.
* Red curry fish cakes: 5 stars. Excellent flavor, the right ingredients done right. Comes with a nice sweet/spicy dipping sauce, otherwise they're not really spicy on their own (despite the menu claiming medium spice). But compared to everything else, I can't complain.
* Lemongrass wings: My dad wanted these. I tried one. They're done well on the outside, to the point of being overdone. But it's delicious flavor overall. I am not complaining one iota about the flavor. And the meat was done just right inside, it's only on the outside that it was too crispy. Disclaimer: I, myself, love it that way. But others in my family found it hard to get past. This review is for everyone!
* Chicken Sate: My mom wanted this. It was decent, I'm not a big peanut fan but in hindsight I should have dipped it for a fair assessment, so I'm not gonna penalize them for what seemed like bland chicken dipped into satay sauce. Incomplete picture on my part.
* Pad thai: The big divider. My mom loved it because the flavor is different than regular pad thai at most other places. My brother-in-law dislikes it for the same reason. I tried it, I can tell the flavor is different, and I think I'm on the side favoring the difference, but overall pad thai is not my thing so I don't have a good basis to go by. Just know that if you are a standard pad thai consumer, this place is going to deft your expectations a little.
* Basil kee mao with chicken: I ordered this, I took home leftovers in the fridge and had more the next day, I used the hot oil on this, and this is where the 3 star settles in. The menu claims it is spicy. It is not. No spice in the meal, and for that matter, no spice in the hot oil! The oil is full of pepper flakes and seeds! How is it not spicy?! But it's not. Nothing I did with their foods gave me the remotest sensation of spicy other than the sweet/spicy sauce with the fish cakes. And I loved the noodles the first day and there's a good amount of chicken, but when I reheated the second day, all the noodles were rubbery and chewy! How does that happen? I've never had that happen before, and it got me questioning what's going in there. And that's never good.
So I'm gonna pass on this place and stick to the one in Caldwell next time. It may not be the greatest Thai ever, but at least the foods there meet expectations - spicy when they say spicy, pad thai tastes like pad thai, noodles taste like noodles.