Thai House

Last Friday was nice compare to the previous 2 weeks, it didn't rain. We also had full member plus a bunch of extras. Our target was the Thai House, located on 2080 S. Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. It is located in a mid size plaza, parking was plentiful, and there are plenty of other shops around it. This little restaurant was unique in many ways, anyone who's ever been to a Thai place would almost certainly noticed that they like to make the atmosphere to be ....Thai, ...Buddhist statues, Thai emperor picture, somewhat dim, and to be honest, somewhat dirty feel. Not here! They did this place to be contemporary, lighting was bright but not blinding, chairs and tables were of modern design. It gave the feeling of youth, energetic, modern, lively.

So we got our table of 7. We had with us, BETZ, the extra E, teenage boy wonder Mr. R, and special guest star Mr. V who happens to be B's hubby. We waited about 10 minutes to be seated, considering they were pretty packed that was fast. We decided to order a bunch of dishes and share. They had a decent size menu, and we were somewhat at a lost as to what to order, they all seem so good. We ordered our drinks first, and here is a slight disappointment, no alcohol. Oh well, guess its the heaven's way of telling me not to drink. So pretending to be underage, we ordered 4 Dr Pepper in decanter, 1 Pepsi in decanter, 1 ice tea, and 2 Thai Coffee with Boba. That's right, they don't serve soda in cups, they serve in decanter. Very nice touch. Both E's wanted appetizers, so we had, Fried Tofu with sweet and sour sauce topped with peanuts, Avocado Rolls, and chicken satay. The tofu not everybody liked, but then some people just doesn't like tofu to begin with, so wouldn't try. The Avocado rolls were quickly consumed, as were the chicken satay. The tofu had maybe 5 pieces left when we finished.

The main course:
2 orders of Pad See Ew chicken
2 orders of Spicy spaghetti with beef
1 order of regular chicken fried rice
1 order of spicy chicken fried rice
1 order of Orange chicken
1 order of Thai Basil with beef
1 order of Asparagus with shrimp
and to top it off just in case, a tub of steam rice.

yes, you read that correctly, that's a lot of food!

So lets analyze each dish

Pad See Ew with chicken, slightly sweet and not oily at all. Excellent aroma, well done.

Spicy spaghetti was decent in spicy, but slightly too oily. A little less oil would make this an A dish.

Chicken fried rice, unlike Chinese style fried rice, which the rice tends to be hard, or Japanese fried rice where the rice tends to be too soft(the difference being long grain vs Cal rose rice), their fried rice were...for lack of a better word, fluffy. It was really good, and not oily.

Spicy Chicken fried rice, same as above, though it wasn't only moderately spicy.

Orange Chicken I am never a fan off, somehow battered fried chicken coated with tangerine sauce never appealed to me, but everyone else liked it and the presentation was well done.

Thai Basil with Beef, very nice dish, very spicy but not quite fire breathing level. For those who like spicy food, garlic, or mint, or all of the above, this dish is a must.

Asparagus with shrimp, usually with asparagus, each spear would make 3 parts, tip, stem, stem, well we had 3 tips, and about 18 stems... the tasty was decent, however with so many flavorful dishes to numb our taste buds, this dish became lost to us, as any subtle flavors went undetected. It was good, but it failed to "mariage" with the other dishes. Definitely not the restaurant's fault, we did order it after all.

Overall

Location/Parking ****************************A-

Environment/atmosphere*********************A

Drinks**************************************B+, sorry whichever deity is in charge, I've been worshiping Bacchus lately, so I must have alcohol.... though grudgingly, I have to admit, that Thai coffee was really good.

Food****************************************A-

Price****************************************A+. 7 people, 9 dishes, 3 appetizers, plus drinks... $101 dollars...need I say more?

Overall *************************************This restaurant gets an A