Nhung N.
Yelp
New Thai restaurant replacing Maekhi Thai. If you've been to the old Maekhai Thai, you would know there is very limited parking in front of the restaurant, only three spots. However, there is parking on the side street and also additional parking in the adjacent Dollar Tree lots. This was posted on their Facebook website so I am assuming you won't get towed for parking in the Dollar Tree lot. Just inquire within to be sure.
First impression, I love the new wall mounted decor with the mason jars and plants. It did take a few minutes for the one waitress running the front to notice us and seat us. The restaurant has dim lighting and plays soft slow music in the background. The restaurant was busy on a Friday night at 7:00pm. There were five tables with patrons and only one server and a woman I presumed to be owner managing the front, helping with the checks, takeout orders, and mixing the drinks at the bar. The restaurant is so quiet that I had to constantly remind my loud-mouth four year old to use an indoor voice and then to use his whispering voice, and finally the "whoever talk first loses" game.
I checked in via Yelp to claim a free Thai iced tea. The restaurant is also running a promotion going on of 20% off your first takeout or delivery order. Sadly for some folks, they only deliver to Revere, North Chelsea and East Malden at the moment. My husband had the Thai iced coffee. For the first time, I actually like the Thai coffee better than the Thai iced tea. The Thai iced tea here is a little bit weaker than most I have tried. In my opinion, they need to use more tea leaf.
For entree, we had the country style shrimp pad Thai and the sea food flame pot in curry soup. The portion of pad Thai was a bit small but tasted very good but I felt like something was missing. Maybe a lime wedge, or just more noodles would be nice. The seafood flame pot was plenty for two people. There were huge pieces of fresh seafood, scallops, shrimps, squid, and salmon. The curry broth had mushroom, tomato and cilantro in it. I added fresh boiled noodles for an add a $2.00. The curry had lemongrass in it, which you don't eat. Overall, I wished they served this dish piping hot and already cooked through rather than finishing the cooking in the hot pot at the table, Waiting for the last shrimp to cook and the soup to heat up was painful when you're so hungry. I also couldn't wait to dig in since it looked so good.
For dessert we had the sticky rice with mango. This was the best sticky rice I have had. I would definitely recommend this. My suggestion is if they could also served it with hot coconut milk cream and some toasted sesame seed. That would make it so much better. But it's also very good as is. Very simplistic.
Although service was slow, the owner frequently checked in to see how the food was and if we needed anything. I am serve the waitress was frazzled running the front by her self, answering and taking phone orders, walk-in takeout orders, and the dine-in patrons. They could use one more waiter/waitress. The owner also gave my son a fabric elephant key chain when we left which was so nice of her. We will definitely be coming back to try the other dishes. See my pictures.