date: 1/31/07
location: st. paul
grade: b+

the best pad thai i've had in ages. i'll have to add one or more of their locations to my list of places i can now go where i crave pad thai (the places i used to go either stopped serving it or now serve crap versions... so it's a short list).

but let me start at the appitizers, as that makes more sense. i went with the cream cheese puffs, as i feel i am morally obligated to work cheese into every restaurant club meal. (which reminds me, i forgot to bring up don shelby, but that's another story... i wonder if paul douglas is an acceptable substitute?) though a bit cold, they were cripsy, and a nice balance of cream cheese and dough, which many places can't get right.

the spring rolls were reportedly good and the vegetarian egg rolls were pretty perfect. some of the soups on the menu looked good too, like the tom yum. i'd like to see what the cucumber soup is, for that matter. it's kind of hard picking things off the menu, as the choices are overwhelming, pretty much.

two people got the pra ram long song, which is not a porn star but a mild peanut curry sauce on steamed spinach... cut and paste, gotta love it. the sauce was lovely and peanutty. i thought it went better with the tofu (creamy) than with the slightly overcooked chicken, but i may have been in the minority on that. someone else got pad bai kra prao with shrimp, which is stir-fried sweet basil leaves, onion, fresh mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, red and green bell peppers. a bit hot for me on the medium, but they put in extra basil by request. it was good, but the shrimp was also a shade overcooked i think.

the pad thai was surprisingly good, mostly because it's been ages since i've had anything but a crap version. i got the vegetarian one, which didn't have tofu in it (that would've made it better), but still, everyone was surprised. like most places, i did have to ask for extra lemon. i was working on my theory that if a thai place can't do pad thai, it's never a good sign that they could do other things well.

someone mentioned they found a staple in their food when they ate here. i will say i kind of expected to see something in mine (brk), but unless i ate it without noticing, it was staple-free food.

i won't say this place is big on atmosphere. it's one of those neighborhood dive type places... very comforting to go to on a cold snowy day. smells great in there, at least. takeout is always an option, anyway. i didn't want to look in the restrooms, though.

service-wise, they had a water pitcher on the table, so that was good, as once we got the food no one checked back in to see if we needed anything.

this place has 5 locations now- two in st. paul, one minneapolis, one fridley, one in apple valley (which doubles the good places to eat in apple valley, pretty much... satay 2 go being the other place). i'd like to hit the lunch buffet here to see what else may be good, to help winnow down the vast menu choices.