Ok, first off, WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THE CRISPY GARLIC CHICKEN WINGS APPETIZER??? Dear lord, I'm in love. I'm in a happy food coma now thanks to that dish alone. I think it must be a new menu item? No way would people not mention it otherwise. (Actually I think it's called the garlic sauce lemongrass wing, but it didn't have a strong lemongrass flavor, fwiw.) It is probably similar to the entrée of crispy garlic chicken (which I haven't had yet). Regardless, I am grateful for the app version because I love getting a sampling of items and was able to get the crying tiger/steak salad lunch combo with pad thai side (and white or brown rice) as well as the garlic chicken wing app for a relatively reasonable price. (I mean, it ended up being too expensive because of Grubhub fees - and I don't live particularly close, about 15 minutes away - but that's not the restaurant's fault.) I received it still warm and crispy, amazingly (even the fried basil was still crispy). So, the wings: the chicken itself must be marinated first or something because it was flavorful all the way through. The crispness was delightful, and the sauce didn't keep it from being just crispy enough. But the sauce. Oh, the SAUCE. *swoon* It is very savory (but not too salty) and just slightly sweet - an umami punch in the face. I am not a fan of super sweet stuff, and this was perfect and not too sweet in my mind. I seriously want to know what they put in the sauce because it's way better than any garlic chicken I've had at other restaurants - EVER. The sauce that the wings were tossed in ended up being a bit caramelized. So. Good.
Just one note - it was not all actual wings but about half wings, half drummetes (mini drumsticks). I did not mind. And it had zero spice; I would not have minded at least a little spice kick (no more than medium so as to not overpower the flavor). But really, it doesn't need to be changed.
Ok, now that I've written a lengthy love story about a single appetizer, lol, you might ask - why only 4 stars?? Probably more like 4.3 stars in my mind...only because I wasn't exactly blown away by the entrée. The beef in the crying tiger lunch was tasty but in pieces, so although it sounds like it'd be an actual steak, it's more like stir-fried beef pieces. HOWEVER, it's definitely a better cut of beef than you'd typically get from an Asian restaurant and was tender. Not a big deal. My complaint is more that the sauce/dressing that came with it had almost no spiciness to it (and needed to come with more sauce/dressing since the special came with plain salad and plain rice but only 1 small dressing cup.) And I was kind of disappointed in the Phad Thai as well; it just wasn't as flavorful as some I've had in Seattle and had zero spice, no detectable peanut pieces, and no lime. I asked for medium spice or 3/5 stars in the comments (although I wasn't sure if this would apply to the pad thai or the crying tiger portion or both), and it seemed I ended up with 0 stars instead. (And I did ask if I could get extra sauce or dressing for the crying tiger as well in the comments and didn't get that, either.)
BUT I will be back for the garlic chicken wings for SURE and am interested in trying a curry and the pad kee mao (drunken noodles). I wish the Tom Yum and Tom Kha weren't so expensive, sigh. I would order Thai food way more often if more places offered smaller (and cheaper) portions of items, or more elaborate combos, so that I can enjoy the variety of things I love from Thai places every time I visit (ie, a stir fry rice noodle dish, a curry dish, a soup, a spring roll...and apparently now wings, lol! Screw the rice.) Is that too much to ask?? In Los Angeles/Pasadena, there were Thai places with lunch specials that offered a curry + protein entree, plus side salad, plus soup (tom yum or kha), plus a spring roll, plus pad thai or pad khee mao side...and often even a small dessert! But I've yet to find anything like that in Seattle, sigh. C'est la vie. Until next time, you sexy chicken wings! read more