Thai Thani

Critic's Review

A new Thai restaurant in place of Jade Palace; given the external decor only an Asian restaurant could have replaced them. They finally put up a lunch menu, so I thought I'd try it out. I'm not a huge fan of Thai food, but there's not much going on.

I'd only been inside here to pick up many years ago, and it doesn't appear they changed much. There's a bar in front that I can't imaging myself sitting at to eat or drink. An old Asian dude seated me in a booth; there were 3 other people in the restaurant at 2pm.

The decor is early 1st century Zhou; this place fits the creepy Asian restaurant genre where you're not quite sure that anyone understands you when you ask for something. I just ordered an iced tea with lemon and pad thai; for some reason they spell it PHAD THAI although I can't find anyone else who does.

Music is absurdly inappropriate, with the Chainsmokers, "Boys" and Pink playing. The tea arrived with the tiniest possible sliver of lemon. This place will fit right in with all of the other clueless restaurants on Fort Lauderdale.

Lemon is NOT A GARNISH in iced tea, you bumbling boobs. Good grief.

The Pad Thai came out, literally, in 2 minutes. So much for made to order food.

The deconstructed dish didn't work for me; the noodles were in a sauce that tasted more like a hoisin or satay sauce than pad thai; pad thai has peanuts but the sauce isn't a peanut sauce. Too sweet, no spice; lousy is the word I'd use. The chicken was dry and flavorless and clearly made separately. The menu claims egg but I didn't find any; the tiny wedge of lime provided only a couple of drips of liquid. Not enough scallion. Too sweet ruins the dish, and when you don't cook the ingredients together it's just a bowl of stuff anyway.

I ate 2/3s of it and asked for my check; no refill was offered on my tea.

Conclusion

I find it difficult to believe that they can fill a restaurant this size serving Thai food, even if it was really good Thai food. What I got was something I'd expect to get at Big City Tavern; the tagline of "authentic" Thai seems dubious at best. If you read this site you know I'm not a big fan of getting $1 worth of food for $10 (with a $3 glass of colored water), but that's what we have here. 3oz of chicken, noodles, a couple of crushed peanuts and some bean sprouts.

Their lunch "special" is just a couple dollars less than the regular price; No soup or spring roll. Not a very good deal at all. I suspect for the full price they give you more protein.

I promise this is the last time I'll be here.