Critic's Review
This place was getting way too many rosy reviews to ignore, so they made it onto my list. It seemed awfully expensive for Thai food; Thai food is never worth the price because the ingredients are cheap, but this place didn't even have a lunch menu posted and they charge fancy restaurant prices for sushi.
This is one of these stupid strip centers where they have free parking on the south side and meters on the north; no meters around the band and there was a spot there. Upon entry the cheapness of the decor jumps out at you. the bare wood back was is reminiscent of Chipotle.
They have some booths along one set of windows; the place is a corner storefront and is fully windowed all round.
I'd hate to be stuck at one of these tables for 2 in the middle of the room at dinner time. They don't look big enough to handle 2 full sized meals. The booths are ok, but the chairs are obviously cheap aluminum and they look incredibly uncomfortable.
The tables fit the wood theme; there's a creepy flower on the table that I thought was tissue paper until I saw it was in water.
They get $3 for iced tea, which is about what the restaurants on Las Olas charge. They do have a lunch menu which you can't see in advance; they don't have a website; just a link to grub hub which is a sign of cluelessness. Your website projects your image; if you want your image to be a Buy Now button then go for the take out menu theme. It's worse because you can't get the lunch specials via grub hub, so it makes the restaurant look unreasonably expensive. If they didn't have a lunch menu I was just going to have soup.
I ordered a iced tea and pondered their lunch menu; tea is server with a dried out mini-orange wedge.
There's a Japanese and Thai lunch menu; Japanese is pick two items for $12, and Thai is pick 2 for $9. I ordered chicken red curry and a steamed dumpling; the dumpling was singular but I was hoping to get more than 1.
Soccer was on the TV, that you can't see from most of the restaurant; strange music played while I waited.
The food came out together. It was very hard for me to hold back my laughter when he put down the dumpling.
Are you JOKING with me, or what? The camera actually makes it look bigger; those are scallions so you know how small those are. This is the smallest dumpling I've ever seen; not even an Hors d'oeuvre for a jockey. I took small bites and got 2 bites out of it. Hard to taste something so small. Frankly it's insulting to have a "Pick 2" menu when one of the items is a token. Add another Bad Restaurant Trick to the list.
The curry was a bit more substantial.
The rice was a sticky ball of starch; exactly the opposite of how Thai rice should be. There was not out of the ordinary with the dish; the peppers weren't cooked long enough and the curry wasn't spicy. It was a pleasant, mild tasting dish.
The bill was $12 and change with tax.
Conclusion
Despite the rave from Kiddies on the Y site, this place is no different than any other Thai take out place in town. It's not a nice restaurant like Coco Asian Bistro. The lunch prices aren't terrible, but the dumpling shows that they don't get it. They're just going to tick people off that that thing. With say 2 normal sized dumplings and some competently prepared rice this could easily be much, much more appealing.
