"I have been really conflicted on how to approach this review. It has been 3 weeks since I ate here and took detailed contemporaneous notes. I do have to say I was quite disappointed, but that is because I expected authentic or nearly authentic Thai Food. This is where I was conflicted, because it 's more like the typical Chinese restaurant in America: catered toward Americans, rather than authentic food. I do not want to present myself as an expert, but I was very well schooled in several Asian cuisines for a few decades in Silicon Valley, Southeast and Easter Asia, Pacific Islands and in my own in law family, always ensuring to be schooled by native nationals of the country in question. So, there is a lot I don 't know, but I am well schooled in the fundamentals, both in eating and in preparing. I am so wordy and trying to qualify/semi quantify myself because of my confliction. Firstly, I think the typical American customer would be delighted here and have a wonderful experience, and enjoy the food. The service was very very nice....High American quality (often a sign the restaurant is not strictly authentic . The atmosphere was lovely, the owner attentive, and the waitstaff professional, accommodating and quite pleasant. A 4 4.5 Star atmosphere I would say, which is very high in my rating system. The food, however, left me quite disappointed, as I wanted Authentic, and so here we go with my notes: Bad Sign: General Tso 's chicken was on the menu. So, obviously trying to be Americanized Chinese food right off the bat. My co diner ordered that. It was some moist, most tough and had more air than chicken inside the breading. The mouth feel was an elastic breading with so much air in it, it made me think of eating a sponge...until my teach hit the chicken, which was quite tough and stringy and required a lot of chewing....as if it was cooked and re heated a number of times. you 'd be much better off at a Panda Express for this type of food. Terrible Sign: the Tea was lipton (or was it Bigalow? Horrible and ruined the experience, really. No Spice: I ordered Thai Basil Calamari, being told it was identical to there Thai Basil Chicken, which is one of my favorite dishes. I ordered a 7 heat. This should be quite hot in a Thai place and leave my mouth burning pleasantly. it was mild even by 1950 's American standards. It is more like a 0 on the typical Thai Restaurant scale. I could not tell at all it had any spice, and there was not a single Thai chili pepper....horrible culinary experience for me. The bowl of rice was extremely tiny....about 1/3 the amount I would expect. Certainly not enough to enjoy even a small Asian meal. If you are interested, read my review on a different Thai restaurant nearby, a couple months ago. It was pleasantly nearly authentic, and relative to this food....very, very, very good So, there it is. Nice atmosphere, nice people, terrible food. Since it is a restaurant and has Thai in its name, I must give it at MOST 2 stars."
Pho Noodle Soup
