Found a cute Thai place for tonight--and no, the name of the place had absolutely nothing to do with my decision. Obviously. Lol.
We were seated at an awesome table upstairs so that you had a nice view if you got up to look over the banister while waiting to see the open kitchen and chefs at work. Moment I heard Poolside by Harvest Moon I knew music selection is awesome.
We started with the gyoza and crab rangoon. I've eaten many a gyoza in my day, and based on both experience and the evidence before me, I'd skip these. The filling was just meat: no vegetables, no seasoning and the accompanying sauce was oddly pale, bland, and somehow not soy-adjacent. A mystery, really.
The crab rangoon, however, was quite good: generously filled with crab and paired with a solid sweet tangy sauce that typically goes with it. No notes there.
Our friends ordered a duck curry and a lobster curry of some sort, both of which looked good as curries go. The duck itself was crisp, moist, and delicious. I'll give it that but I'm just not much of a curry person, so I pivoted to sushi with my man. He shared three rolls with me: the Black Pearl, Godzilla Roll, and Smokie Roll.
I asked for no sriracha (hard no), love unagi, and generally avoid cream cheese in sushi, but achieving all 3 here appear to be impossible. Compromises were made. I was concerned about spiciness and our server reassured me spicy mayo isn't actually spicy (it's not). I told him I hate sriracha but remembered I like spicy mayo before he reminded me it consists of mayo and sriracha. Oh yeah, I said. If sriracha's gotta be in a lot of these rolls because this is after all sushi/thai/asian food and what I am asking seems outlandish, why is it we have forks instead of chopsticks? He laughed and handed us all chopsticks for my snarky observation.
The Black Pearl satisfied my unagi craving, and the Smokie Roll was flavorful and enjoyable because, frankly, it's hard to go wrong when tobiko is involved. Our server was cool, but the overzealous bus boy who was quick to grab dishes before we even actually finished (had to stop him from grabbing my plate with roll still on it) needs to slow his roll. Pun intended, lol
Ordered chicken pad see ew for my son to go. What I saw didnt seem anything exceptional from all the pad see ew I've seen in past, though I have seen better.
Not sure why other Yelpers chastised this place on their sushi. I can vouch it was quite good and well presented.
Had we not all been completely stuffed, we would've ordered dessert aptly named MisoHappy Endings, which is exactly what I would've called it, too. Missed opportunity, but full stomachs win.