The hot new Thai place
Forget any preconceived notions you might have about strip-mall take-out joints. You’ll walk out of Thai Satay feeling downright pampered.
Sure, the phone rings and customers wait, but excellent service and fresh, vibrant food make Thai Satay more than a quick, easy fix for evenings when you don’t want to cook. Instead, this small, passionately run Thai restaurant is a neighborhood favorite, and when word gets out, will soon attract diners from all over the city to its humble corner of its grocery-store parking lot.
Highlights
Going straight to the classics is a great idea. The Pad Thai ($6.95 lunch/$7.95 dinner) is a symphony of textures, with toothsome noodles, crunchy bean sprouts, bursts of green onion, ribbons of chicken and plump, delicious shrimp that make you forget you’re in a landlocked state. The sweet peanut crumbles bounce off the rich, slightly bitter fish sauce.
Among the flat noodles, egg, sprouts and onions of the Drunken Noodles ($6.95/$7.95), the vibrant, fresh basil again drew my attention to the incredible freshness of all the assembled ingredients.
The chef’s culinary flair also was obvious in the homemade Thai Hot and Sour Soup ($2.25), which was thick and chunky, swirling with egg and populated with thin strips of mushroom, matchstick carrots and a lovely burn on the tip of the tongue.
The soup arrives pre-spiced, but diners can choose the heat level of entrees on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being “Thai hot” and meaning “for experts only.” Level 3 was deliciously searing in the Pineapple Curry ($6.75/$8.50, $1 extra for shrimp), which is described as “enchanted by pineapple.” I found it magically addictive, the pineapple juice a great light note to enhance the rich curry and the shrimp, again, perfectly cooked. It was a meal that made me yearn for the beach, and my manners only just restrained me from lifting the bowl to drink the broth straight. The red Panang Curry ($6.75/$8.50), with seared triangles of tofu was equally tasty.
One house specialty is the Thai Basil, offered with tofu, shrimp, beef and chicken. The latter ($6.95/$8.95) was drenched in heady fish sauce with a nice crunch of water chestnuts, though it was, perhaps, heavy on the bok choy.
Drawbacks
The restaurant’s titular dish, satay, is a good bet from the appetizer menu, and the peanut-based sauce is smooth, thin and savory with a nice hit of acid. The rest of the Appetizer Sampler ($8.95 per person) — egg rolls, coconut shrimp, curry puffs and cheese wontons — was solidly mediocre. Another peanut dish, the Thai Peanut Beef ($6.95-$9.25), was fine but was also more like average take-out food, with a glistening, thick sauce that was cloying and a bit too sweet.
If Thai Satay needs to work on any one thing, however, it’s consistency in spicing. Entrees ordered at a heat level 1 were almost as spicy as a dish ordered as a 3. A middle-of-the-road 2, on the other hand, could have been a 0. Mistakes like that can alienate customers before they truly get down to the business of tasting.
Ambience
Right off the bat, I could hear and was excited by the noises wafting from behind the curtain leading to the kitchen: the rhythmic chopping of expertly wielded knives and the crackling sear of ingredients hitting a hot pan. Besides the curtain, the décor is perhaps sparse, but stylish and clean, and comfy red booths line one wall.
It’s certainly more cush than many similar establishments. For instance, the tablecloths are starched and white, and the tableware — oval boat-like bowls of curry and cute, small plates wreathed in dragons — is elegant.
Service
Crisply professional and friendly, my server was on point. When she approached the table with my Pineapple Curry, she immediately spotted that chicken had been used instead of shrimp and whisked it away to be quickly re-prepared. She answered every question about ingredients and preparation from memory, and I was impressed by her attention to detail. My teacup was always full. The courses were perfectly timed. Then at the end of the meal, she presented leak-proof containers for the thinner sauces, extra servings of rice and a plastic bag to take home the tasty leftovers.
Rather than a quick-fix meal, a too-lazy-to-cook-at-home-tonight meal, Thai Satay gave me a high-quality experience for which I would and will drive all the way across town. And if you happen to live in their delivery area? I’m green with envy.
Thai Peanut Beef Photo by Kate Jonuska
Fried banana Photo by
Pad Thai Photo by