An experience in yummy luxury and a welcome respite
Cousins in San Francisco, California know we like Thai food, so invited us to help them pick out and explain the food in exchange for them buying. An offer we couldn't refuse. After leaving here we all agreed here was no pretension just good flavor, Happiness Food, nice décor, and the staff was friendly and attentive. It's a very small place. No matter how busy, and they got busy, here never let a customer see their service people rush or sweat, and never allowed their service people to rush the customer out-the-door. The Thonglor minute-by-minute mitigated operational issues with smooth and suave planning, training and corrections. It delivered well intricacy; attention to food detail; texture; color; taste; and the use of ingredients with medicinal benefits, as well as good flavor and care being given to the food's appearance, smell and context.
Although Thai cuisine is well known for its yummy spiciness, it's the careful balance and blend of five flavors: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy that results in all these complex tantalizing tastes we so love about Thai food. The Thonglor was adequate at that. Which is saying a lot as that isn't easy. When it comes to cooking, amateurs practice until they get it right while professionals, like here, practice until they can't get it wrong.
Dog and disabled-friendly
Their menu was nicely varied and not overwhelming in size
We had family-Style:
Appetizer Combo Sampler plate of Vegetarian Rolls, Fish cakes, Moo Ping, Shrimp Tempura, Fried tofu. Served with house made sauce and sweet and sour sauce. Luxurious food that enriches life and an oasis of pleasure.
Larb Choice of ground chicken, pork or beef, cooked and seasoned with onions, mint leaves, roasted rice powder, and Thai chili with spicy lime dressing. Served on a bed of lettuce. A happy marriage of spices and oh wow, that's tasty. A Thai salad is often one of the spiciest Thai dishes, and is generally made with with chili, lime, and fish sauce. My favorite is Yam Neua (Thai beef salad).
Tom Sapp Nuer Pey Spicy and sour soup with tamarind sauce, stewed beef, roasted rice, fresh herb, spices, onions, mushroom, basil and chili. Aromatic foreplay for the taste buds for the greatest soups are simultaneously very simple and very complex.
Lychee Curry with Roast Duck Boneless, Lychee fruit, tomatoes, bell peppers and Thai basil leaves in a red curry served with rice. Another jewel of Thai tastes with fresh ingredients, cooked to perfection. It's more than food, it's a cool experience.
Thai fruits are heavenly and they include the familiar: banana, pineapple, watermelon, and papaya, as well as the exotic: dragon fruit, chompu, durian, and jackfruit.
Steamed Vegetables -Happiness is homemade
Truth is the highest virtue, but higher still is truthful living. --Sikh Guru Nanak
Charged us menu prices
Did within the time they said they would
Delivered what they advertise
No automatic gratuity was added
No one here offered to commit fraud to reward us, pay us or compensate us for posting 5 star reviews of this business
Clean could be tad better
The combination of the savory food and good customer service meant we we left happier than we arrived
I'll be back because I support a business who supports me as a Veteran. The owners of this business like their Freedom so they have a Military and Veterans Discount as a thank you to Veterans with a publicly disclosed daily Veteran Discount as it provides resource to ensure Veterans (rare 7% of the population) opportunity to participate in American Dream Veterans' sacrifices have made possible for 100% of the population.
I was first introduced to Thai cuisine in early 1970s when Uncle Sam sent me to Thailand's Royal Thai Air Force Bases on several but each brief round-trips. Some trips were so brief, that when we landed I'd rush to a Thai food vendor, often accompanied by several of my fellow travelers, get Thai food take-out, and rush back to the C-130A Hercules transport, where after we'd completed the off-loading then on-loading of personnel, we'd savor our Thai treats on the trip back while strapped to the side of a bulkhead or the hull. Thai food worked well at dealing with the smell of aviation exhaust that permeates our craft's cargo hold, which is already stuffy. We'd tried several other foods but only Thai food was able to put up a fight for flavor against a C-130's engines. I learned each of Thailand's different regions has developed its own style of cuisine and has dishes that are quite different from those of other regions. Thai food from Issarn, in the northeast of Thailand, shares many similarities with cuisine from neighboring Laos, though Thai versions of the dishes, such as Som Tam, are a lot heavier on the chili. Southern curries on the other hand, are less spicy, with a greater Malaysian influence, and feature more coconut and turmeric. I prefer Northern Thai food. read more