Andrew G.
Yelp
Were over a bit further west than Eastern helping wife with an errand when we decided to stop and get some food. We stopped here, remembering friends complimenting it in the past, being in the mood for Thai.
It's a Friday night, right around 6pm with monsoons that passed moments before (still drizzling) but still, most places we passed to get here had a line out the door. We figured we'd check the wait times and decide from there. Amazingly, while it was busy, we were seated as soon as we wiped off our feet on the welcome mats.
Right away we were offered drinks and apps, but being first timers we asked for a few minutes.
Drinks: Hers was a lemon drop. While I normally get an old fashioned to see how the bartender is, I decided to go a bit more floofy and got a tropical-esque drink, but I can't remember the name of it. It wasn't the lychee martini, but very similar. While I do wish I'd stuck with my regular, it was fun to try this, but a bit sweet for me. Wife liked it, and said her lemon drop was one of the best ones she's had.
Apps: fried chicken skins and fried spring rolls. The skins had some seasoning on them, but not a lot. The dipping sauce was basically the same orange (colored) yum-yum style sauce used on sushi. Overall it wasn't bad, had the flavor of fresh fried skins, but the seasoning was underwhelming overall.
The spring rolls were good. I'm one of the rare people that doesn't gush over eggrolls/spring rolls/whatever Asian fried crispy pastry with veggies and meat inside you can get. Usually even if the outside is nice and crunchy, the inside is just a soggy mess. I just don't like em. These actually weren't bad. Good crisp on outside, and the veggies still had some body, not just a slimy mass. The best part, both of the apps were only 8.95--actual appetizer prices!! Can you believe it?? I haven't seen an appetizer under 15-20 bucks since Rona.
Mains: I got Chinese Broccoli with fried Pork Belly in oyster sauce. She got Red Curry with Chicken. Both of us felt like some spice, but not burning. I'm a heat-seeker, usually getting the hottest, but because I wasn't in the mood for that tonight, I can't attest to how hot they can get. We went with a 3, expecting a slight burn and consistent tingle.
I thought mine was great flavor. It's a mass of greens with a much smaller amount of belly. The belly is fried perfectly, good crunch on outside, tender chew on inside. If you don't eat it quickly, however, the crunch will turn soggy, but the flavor was still great. The greens were well done, just a bit more than steamed level--still had good body without being super crunchy.
Wife really liked her curry. She said it was great flavors, good amount of chicken, and for her, they did not over-do it on the basil. Our former regular place has been shrinkflating us. As the price goes up, the portions go down. Last time we were there I barely had any chicken, and we haven't been back. She said the ratio was good and the portion was enough to finish in one sitting (usually we get leftovers, but it's mostly just sauce and rice). I found it on the sweet side, but she said it was perfect.
Down side: our spice 3 was a spice 0. Neither of us even got a hint of tingle. I usually write this off for me as my buds have been so abused with multi-million Scoville sauces I'm usually adding to my food, but for her not to feel any spice as a mid-to-low level heat seeker means there was barely anything.
I hate ordering from places that have a spice rank because it seems to be dependent on the cook, the place, the kind of food, etc.
Overall, definite quality, friendly folks, quick service, good food. Other than the spice level, we didn't run into any problems. If it wasn't on Eastern (yuck), we'd probably make it here more often. On the plus side, if cruel fates to bring us back to that God-forsaken stretch of road, we have a great place to eat!