Thai Cuisine Review: Revision

Thai Cuisine: Some heat in the dead of winter
Marni Newell
2/08/09
Apple red wallpaper donned with golden Buddhas and shiny colored mirror ornaments greet the customer of the recently added restaurant, Thai Cuisine, on the corner of Drake and West Main. Chic white square tables are generously spaced around the tidy room and waiters dressed in white and black give off the air of an upscale restaurant. With a closer look, however, the white sheets of paper covering each tablecloth and the printed cover sheet of Buddha on the menu gives a slightly more elementary feeling: finger painting day and Microsoft WordArt.
Thai Cuisine is consistent in its almost-there mood, right down to the food that is almost-Thai. Kudos should be given to the cooks for keeping with Thai tradition and giving the option of severely spicy entrees that are the norm in Thailand. Whereas in Thailand a normal spicy dish includes eight or so chili peppers, at Thai Cuisine diners have the option of “mild,” “hot,” “very hot,” and “Thai hot.”
“Mild” entrees still induce moderate nose-running, but it’s offset by the options of popular Thai drinks like the bright orange sweet iced tea and equally sweet iced coffee with a douse of condensed milk that’s reminiscent of the bags of drinks travelers can buy from kiosks in downtown Chiang Mai. These drinks seem to solidify the idea that Thailand isn’t only a country of intense heat in dishes, but instead intensifies all flavors.
The lunch entrees come with a cup of the soup of the day to start, but the experience would have benefited without the hot and sour soup that was filled with too many red pepper flakes to be ingested without coughing. The sour aftertaste was consistent with Thais’ love of extreme flavor, but hot and sour soup is generally a Chinese dish which has been done better at grungy Chinese restaurants and definitely not good enough to redeem the discomfort of the spice. Fortunately, entrees come soon enough after the soup to serve as a forgettable mistake.
The Gang Garee was plated beautifully on circular white porcelain plates with dollop or two of rice as a contrast to the smooth pale orange of the curry. The curry succeeded at being all at once sweet, spicy, and smooth, but the baby-carrot-sized chunks of green pepper could have been chopped more finely to evenly disperse the strong onion flavor. Substituting traditional Thai ingredients for what’s readily available in America only slightly inhibits the integrity of the dishes: the crinkle cut carrots--much like French fries--distracts from the rich sophisticated curry that covers it, but doesn’t compromise the experience altogether.
The heavy potato and tofu curry lends itself well to leftovers giving an excuse to stop early and order Thai Cuisine’s only dessert at the moment: coconut ice cream. It’s hard to tell if this coarse dessert is coconut flavored ice cream covered in shredded coconut, or vanilla ice cream blended with shredded coconut, but either way the flavor is sweet with only a mild coconut flavor. The ice cream is enhanced by the shredded coconut which gives a satisfying bite to savor the sweetness.
Averaging at nine dollars a meal for lunch and twelve for dinner, the large portions are consistent with a casual dining experience but coupled with an almost-classy environment. Compared to typical delicious-but-grungy Asian restaurants, Thai Cuisine offers an entire experience rather than just the order ahead and take out mentality for nearly the same price.