Today I find myself at 11th Tiger, right on the outskirts of the Danville downtown area, in a much quieter part of the area but still nestled in a shopping mall front that's busy with plenty of other eateries (with another Thai place literally just down the street from this spot). The good news about this spot though is that since it is a bit further away from the main area, parking is somewhat easier to find right on the street.
11th Tiger is a quaint little spot, and the restaurant is not huge, but certainly can seat a good number of people inside and outside combined. The outside patio on the side of the building too is pretty fun as it's designed as a outside brunch garden aesthetic, so certainly a good spot to chill if you want to dine outdoors. The inside is also decorated nicely, and has an overall homey feel to it.
The service here was great. No complaints at all as the servers were very friendly and approachable even though they were busy in the midst of doing to-go orders and other things.
The menu here is a decent size, with various options for lunch specials, and plenty of regular entrees as well for dinner time. There is a good range of all of your typical Thai food options here, so even though it may feel like a trendier spot, you will still be able to get all of your favorites here for the experienced cravings. One thing that does stand out here too is the price of everything on the menu. While the lunch options are very affordable, their regular menu items are just the same too. So pricing wise, especially when you're in this area of Danville, it's certainly a great find for your wallet, and the amount of food you get for each order is just as comparable. Good bang for your buck.
Let's get down to the fooding.
We ordered a few dishes today. The meal started off with a beverage with a Thai Iced Tea, which was good.
The appetizer we got today was the fried calamari which comes with a creamy sauce. This was actually one of my favorite dishes today, as the calamari was fried perfectly, and the kind of calamari they used was tender and tasty. Even the Jalapenos in there were so delicious especially when dipped in that sauce. And for the price, really can't be beat.
The pineapple fried rice we got was also delicious. It had all the basics of what you would find in a typical pineapple fried rice, and it was cooked well as it had that aroma coming off the rice, and mixed well with all of the ingredients and flavors. My only gripe with this though was that it comes with shrimp and chicken. While there was plenty of chicken, there was literally 1 shrimp, and I mean literally. I thought perhaps they were hiding at the bottom or something, and went treasure hunting but came back with still just that 1 shrimp on top. It was delicious, but come on...
Next is where things start to go downhill a bit, and that was with the "crispy" chicken and basil. With the quotations, I'm sure everybody can easily figure out that the dish was probably not even close to being marked as crispy. The only part of this dish that was remotely crispy was just the basil. I feel maybe they used way too little breading so when they tried to crisp it up, it just didn't go. However, the worse part of this dish was the chicken, as it was tough, and haven't had chicken that was this chewy before. And when I say chewy, it actually had elasticity (not in a good way) in it too. The sauces and flavors of the dish itself was actually good, but when the main star of the dish was like this, there was just no chance to savor it properly in the end. I did ask the server if we can maybe switch protein next time, and she said should be able to so perhaps try again next time.
Final verdict? I'm a fan, though still cautious about certain aspects of the place. The calamari app was the best thing today, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing to be hanging your hat on when the rest of the meal wasn't quite as expected. Place is very clean, and has a good local vibe to it. Service was good. Food portions was decent. Prices were affordable. But the food control and quality for some of those other dishes really could use a bit more focus. Again, first time here, but will be back again to try them out with some other dishes. read more