We were here in town for a music rehearsal and I was jonesing for Thai or some type of Asian food that wasn't storefront Chinese. I didn't have very high hopes of finding anything, given the abysmal restaurant selection in this part of the state. I googled up Thai and there was Divine Thai a few miles away in Whitinsville, with many rave reviews. It was Sunday and they are only open until 8:00, but they serve until 8:00, so we were good. The first thing I noticed is that our server, named "Aw" who I think is the owner, seemed very knowledgeable about wine. After chatting about a few of the wines on the list, I ordered a Pacific Rim riesling out of curiosity, took a sip and was like "wow, that's sweet." Too sweet really, but I had ordered it and figured it would be okay with the spicy food I would be ordering. She came back fairly quickly to take our order and said "how is that wine?", looked at my face and said "too sweet?" and I said "yeah, but that's okay." She offered to exchange and I said no, it's okay, hate to waste it. She actually came over with a Chardonnay and added it to my glass, and believe it or not, it cut the sweet and was actually pretty good!--so good that I ordered a second glass of the same mix later on in the meal just to keep consistent.
Now on to the food--wow! Really fresh, and like many of the reviews said, some dishes take a little more time but it appears they are kind of making everything from scratch. We opted for the "deep fried" pork dumplings, which sound heavy but they are really only lightly, perfectly fried. And the sauce!! From heaven! Just novel and different than the usual super-salty heavy-on-the-soy-and-vinegar taste of many restaurant dumpling sauces. She said I was right in that the mystery ingredient in it was mirin (sweet rice wine, kind of like the Asian equivalent of sherry), but one that you don't commonly find in dipping sauces. Oh, and of course the little pieces of fried garlic in it, mmmm. These dumplings were so good that we horked them all down, and almost immediately ordered another batch before our entrees even came! I don't think I've ever done that before, with an ap. We also tried the Winter Shrimp--prawns stuffed with a little bit of ground chicken and wrapped in a delicate and again perfectly-fried wrapper, very good. They also had an unusual special, Kimchi soup, infused with sesame oil to cut the sour tang a little bit, very yummy and a welcome blast of spice on a cold November night.
Then, the entrees. I had the crazy noodles with chicken and my husband had his standard order of fried rice. This rice was so light and flavorful (secret ingredient white pepper), and just packed with chicken and broccoli and other veggies, no skimping on those. We were full about halfway thru the entrees what with the double order of dumplings, the soup, and the shrimp...but this food was so good we literally could not stop eating. We would quit and put our forks down and then go back in, until we finally signaled the server over to save our leftovers from ourselves. The husband rarely raves about food, particularly Asian food, but he was swooning over the rice; said it's probably the best he's ever had. I tend to get emotional and rhapsodic about food I like, but he rarely does; it takes a lot to impress him.
Too bad we don't live in the area, but we are through here every year for rehearsals for our Christmas shows, and we'll definitely be planning a stop at this place again. I'd like to try some of their cocktails, like their mango mojito or maybe their Sangria.
One final note: there is a very friendly vibe about this place; I peeked into the open kitchen from our table and got a big smile from one of the cooks; then later a gentleman came in to pick up a takeout order and greeted us--perfect strangers--on the way out. Aw said this was not unusual; something about the clientele, I guess. read more