Thai House Express Review

Six of us went to Thai House Express in the `loin for dinner after the Chinese New Year Scavenger Hunt.

We ordered six dishes plus dessert:

• Pad Kee Mao with beef
• Pad Se-ew with chicken
• Peanut sauce tofu (param)
• Papaya salad (som tum thai)
• Garlic Salmon (don't recall real name)
• Five spices duck soup with thin noodles
• Mango sticky riceThe total, including two Thai beers, two Thai iced teas, tax, and tip, was $15/person.

Mark's Remarks

I certainly like this place. This is my second visit. Definitely high quality Thai food.

1. Pad Se Ew - good rendition of a classic.
2. Pad Ke Mao - ditto, nicely spicy. Vegetables were still crispy.
3. Papaya salad - perfect. Exactly as it should be when served to people with Western palates, with a solid but not painful spiciness kick. Complete with dried shrimp and a few scattered peanuts. I enjoyed the sauce over rice.
4. Duck soup - decent/good. Long thin noodles are hard to serve! Duck was tender and flavorful. Despite having a thick visible layer of fat and skin, the texture or ickiness didn't come across in the mouth feel or taste.
5. Peanut sauce tofu - decent. Fairly average peanut sauce dish.
6. Salmon - fairly good. very garlicky. the green sauce didn't add much flavor. Ranked near the bottom of the list not because it wasn't good but because it's fairly unremarkable. Might have been overcooked?I didn't try the mango sticky rice.

I really love how they kept my water glass full. This isn't an easy feat; most restaurants fail at it.

Jo's Opinion

N's Thoughts

S's Judgement

The Pad Se Ew was the clear winner. I found the Pad Ke Mao and Papaya salad a little on the hot side (although the salad is supposed to be that hot). The salmon was rather overcooked, and the peanut sauce tofu was a touch too pasty for me. I really enjoyed the mango stick rice though. The mango was just ripe and the rice was nicely warm.

Ranking the dishes:

1. Pad Se Ew

2. Mango Sticky Rice

3. Duck Soup

4. Plain White Rice

5. Salmon

6. Papay Salad

7. Pad Ke Mao

8. Peanut Sauce Tofu

The dished arrived remarkably fast, but still appeared freshly made.

Mark adds: Actually, if you go to a Thai temple and ask for a papaya salad the way they make it for Thai people, you'd get something quite a bit hotter!

O's Observations

Ju's Comments

Like everyone else, the Pad Se Ew was my fav, although the mango sticky rice was a close second (this could be becuase I've been craving it for the past two months). I normally dislike salmon due to its "fishy"-ness, but I actually enjoyed this salmon because the fishy taste was totally overwhelmed by the very intense garlic!

My Ranking:

1. Pad Kee Mao with beef

2. Mango sticky rice

3. Pad Se-ew with chicken

4. Peanut sauce tofu

5. Garlic Salmon

6. Papaya salad

7. Five spices duck soup with thin noodles

notes on what to try

Many people on the web like this restaurant and most non-curry dishes get a number of endorsements. Topping these lists seems to be the gui chai (chive cakes), larb, uncured pork sausage salad, nuer kam (Thai beef jerky), and most pork leg dishes, like kao ka moo.