Steve H.
Yelp
Very good Asian restaurant featuring cool drinks made with fresh squeezed sugar cane. Off the beaten path and parking is a cumbersome process.
We had no foreknowledge of this restaurant in since we aren't often in this part of town. We were in the mood for Asian food and it was within several minutes of our destination, so we made a detour. Getting there is a little bit of a process. It's not on what I would call a main road but it is fairly near to some main roads. It is in a shopping center with oodles of shops and restaurants. So, if you make it here, there appears to be plenty to do as far as shopping and eating.
We looked for parking (a fools errand) and discovered that, unless you are lucky enough to win the lottery, you may as well just park in the free parking garage, which is central to most of the shops. We went on a Saturday, at lunchtime so there was an abundance of traffic. I suspect on a Friday or Saturday night it would be even busier so if you have kids, especially small ones, you'll want to be super careful with them because of all that traffic.
The parking garage is probably the main source of the issue. Plenty of people coming and going and much of the foot traffic is right at the entrance/exit.
We finally made it to the restaurant, and we were seated immediately. Cool water and glasses were brought to our table which we appreciated very much due to the unseasonably hot Texas Sun. My wife ordered some sort of margarita and it was prepared with fresh squeezed cane juice. Kind of an interesting thing. I tasted the margarita and I thought it was very good. I ordered one of the craft beers and it was very good also. They brought to the table what was their version of bread. It was a about 2 ounces of banana wrapped sticky rice. We tried it and it was fine, but we thought it was a little much. The sauce that came with it wasn't that great, and it was just some more carbs, really. Everything on the menu sounded good enough to eat, so we decided we were going to try a few different things. We first ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna Spring Rolls and Spicy Beef Samosas. The spring rolls were filled with delicious greens and even more delicious tuna, and were accompanied by a couple of sauces.
I was a little concerned that the spring rolls would be greasy, but they were not. They were absolutely perfect.
The samosas came piping hot, and they were good, but not great. They lacked flavor I thought. Just saying, if they have "spicy" in the name....
They came with a yogurt-based sauce I thought was really good.
My wife ordered the North Atlantic Arctic Char, and I ordered a Bangkok Street Rice. I also ordered a small bowl of Thai Lemongrass Soup with Shrimp, which arrived before the entrees.
I asked the waiter to make the lemongrass soup spicy and it was.
I've had lemongrass soup before that tasted like eating rice with lemonade. This soup was well balanced, spicy, and I will definitely eat this again.
The wait staff were efficient, willing to describe menu items, and friendly.
The star of the show was the arctic char my wife ordered. It was beautifully done on a bed of snow, peas, celery, and onions with a wonderful sauce. The fish was perfectly done, and it was very very good. The Bangkok Street rice I ordered was OK but I thought it could have been better. It had a very mild coconut flavor to it but there were no real prominent spices. I would've preferred it to be a little spicy or a little lemony or a little more coconutty.
All in all, I would say, this restaurant is worth driving to, even if it's not directly on the way. The portions were plentiful, the food was really very good, overall, and the pricing was reasonable.