I had high hopes for Thai Deelish reading the positive reviews. Having traveled throughout Thailand and over many years, I am a devotee of good Thai cooking. Since we relocated to the Ashburn area 1.5 years ago we have been searching for a Thai restaurant that reflects the flavors, cooking nuances and quality ingredients that I learned to appreciate.
Thai Deelish is another in the list of Ashburn restaurants that, in our opinion, did not capture the freshness of vegetables, the subtleties of marinated meat and a reasonable cost-quantity relationship.
We ordered from an on-line menu that is seriously out of date, as the first three entree items we ordered were no longer carried by Thai Deelish. We ordered the 6 Fresh Spring Roll which turned out to be one spring roll, sliced into 6 pieces, not what was expected...I even inquired on the phone if this was an order for 6 Rolls and received an affirmative answer. Despite this, the Spring Roll was the best item ordered. It reflected the mixed flavors and textures one would encounter in country....we regretted only two slices per person!
We ordered 3 different soups, the broth of which was sublime! However we requested 1 Tum Yum (sp?) with Shrimp and 1 with Chicken. Both came with dry, chewy chicken....but as stated the broths were terrific. Each soup container filled less than 1/2 of a standard soup bowl....disappointing!
We ordered a special Crispy shrimp and vegetable dish. The vegetable component contained 1 strip of red pepper (1" long, 1/8" wide) and 1 strip of green pepper (similar dimension), and fairly raw and flavorless broccoli. However, the shrimp were not crispy (the breading was wet and flavorless), but to the restaurants credit, fresh and abundant.
The Pad Tai had to have been made at lunch and left under a heat lamp. The chicken (very little of it in the dish) was dry and chewy. The rice noodles were clumped together and just OK. My wife who rarely complains about meals noted how dry the dish was.
The real shocker was the Masaman Curry (Tofu), which was supposed to contain onions, potatoes and sauce. Well, the container was about 1/2 full (less than 1/3 of a standard soup bowl), I counted six pieces of potatoes that when I assembled them accounted for 1/2 of a medium potato, there were 3 strips of onion (measured each 1.5"L by 1/8" wide), and an insufficient amount of sauce. There were 6 cubes of Tofu (1"L by 1"W). The menu states that this curry was medium heat. I inquired 3 times to make sure it was medium. It was bland and had no flavor.
Perhaps we hit the take out at a bad time. Thai Deelite is right in line with the many other restaurants advertising authentic Thai cooking; but in this case the cost-quantity equation was way out of balance.
Our search continues. read more