Professor Basil's search for delicious Thai food has taken him to many restaurants in many locales. Today, it took him and his hungry buddies to
Pad Thai, a new addition to Charlottesville's already saturated lineup of Asian restaurants. 5 o'clock PM,
Professor Basil initiated a series of short text messages, and the group departed two hours later.
Despite parking being a MAJOR issue (on a Friday night, 7:30 PM ET), "Pad Thai" is conveniently located less than a mile outside of downtown Charlottesville. After spending 10 minutes to park,
Slingshot was able to find a spot 50 yards from the restaurant. A delightful fall evening, all patrons were naturally sitting outside on their patio. We followed suit, the only difference being that we were seated at a crude folding table (the server could have easily pushed two of the elegant metal tables together)!
After a rather me
diocre introduction to the establishment, all negativity was lost upon first glance at the menu. The menu boasted typical Thai favorites, elaborate fried rice dishes, meat platters, and several specials. We began with an order of fried calamari and chicken satay, which
Shredder complemented with a Thai iced tea. The Thai iced tea took as long as the appetizers to arrive, but this was offset but its creamy, delightful taste (one of the best
Shredder claims to have had). However, the chicken satay looked more like strips of bacon, painted yellow, and impaled by a wooden stick. The chicken was dry and flavorless, and
Basil felt that the peanut sauce was soupier than it should have been. Worst of all, we were not provided any sweet cucumber sauce, which should come with any good Thai satay.
The calamari dish was great -- big chunks of calamari garnished with tempura fried asparagus, broccoli, and carrots.
Professor Basil added, "The dipping sauce could have been a bit more flavorful, but most of it was consumed by my gluttonous companions before I could get a good sample, anyway." Despite
Basil's circumstance, the calamari was perhaps the highlight of everyone's meal.
Moving on, Shredder received his spicy seafood fried rice, which looked delicious;
Slingshot his Shrimp Pad See-Ew,
El Burro his Seafood Pad See-Ew, and
Professor Basil his ultra spicy Meat -Combo Pad Thai. All dishes looked delightful.
However, just as we've learned from ex-girlfriends, looks can be deceiving (see blonde in Figure 1A). The “spicy fried rice” boasted a chili flavor with peppers and onions, which was essentially fried chili paste with some rice, peppers, onions, and seafood mixed in, along with a mysterious mild semen-y taste. The problem was not that it was too spicy (see
Prof. Basil's account of Pad Thai's lack of spice-rack access), but that they mixed in far too much chili seasoning.
Professor Basil's Pad Thai was the namesake of the restaurant, and is a requisite order at any Thai restaurant. His account, "[The beef] had that fishy taste [it] sometimes gets in Chinese food when it is undercooked or prepared a day or two past its expiration date. The meat combination did not include shrimp for some reason, which I feel that every order of Pad Thai should. The big screw up, though, was that my dish was not spicy. Not at all. When I order "extra spicy" (which is every time that I go to a Thai restaurant), I expect to be sweating, sniffling, and consuming vast quantities of water. There was no heat in my dish: I could've eaten this entire meal without a drink. Everything else was more or less spot on. The noodles were excellent, the flavor was great, and I wasn't overwhelmed with too many bean sprouts or too much crumbled peanut. I'd say that Pad Thai's Pad Thai was pretty good. Despite the extreme lack of heat, I was pleased." Being not as thirsty as he hoped,
Basil washed down his spice-less meal with a Guinness Draught at Beer Run.
El Burro and
Slingshot were served their
See-Ew's.
Slingshot was very pleased right off the bat-- the thicker egg noodles (more appropriate for the dish than the thinner Linguine-type noodle, served in
Lemongrass' Pad See-Ew) were brimming with flavor, which was displayed by their dark, rich color.
Slingshot's thoughts:
"The
See-Ew was certainly a polarizing dish; the enormous flavor the extreme positive, and the severe lack of shrimp the extreme negative. There were four (4) shrimp in the dish. And they weren't even the big, fat, juicy ones, but were instead the small, impotent, malnourished shrimp that probably swam in the special-ed class within the oceans's 'school' of shrimp. But the dish was up there in terms of taste, perhaps at the top of the Big Five Thai places in C-Ville". He's, of course, referring to Lemongrass, Downtown Thai, Thai 99, and Tara Thai as the others.
Slingshot's beer of choice: Allagash White, Belgian wheat beer - "light and delicious")
Shredder thought that the best part of his main course was the closer he was to going next door to Beer Run and and being able wash the chili paste taste out of his mouth with a delicious golden wheat beer (
Shredder's Beer Run beer- Starr Hill 'The Love' - "excellent").
Figure 1A:
Shredder:"Looking back, I had a bad first experience, but that is not to say that I would be opposed to returning. The single bite of
El Burro’s Pad See-Ew was utterly scrumptious. However, I have permanently lost all faith in their fried rice and their satay appetizer. They had a duck special that sounded tasty so if
El Burro and
Slingshot were to drag me back again, I would try that route. If we do go back, hopefully they have more than one person waiting on 8 tables."
Shredder's Ratings:
Fried Rice: 3/10
Service: 5/10
Potential to be great: 8/10
Professor Basil:
"The Professor would be lying to you if he said that he wasn't a bit disappointed with Pad Thai restaurant. The truth is, Charlottesville generally has disappointing Asian food offerings. With few exceptions (Red Lantern, Thai 99), Charlottesville and central Virginia are probably a better bet for barbecue or burgers than for Asian cuisine. Though sitting outside enjoying the fall air with friends was great, I think that we were all happy to walk over to Beer Run for some after dinner brew-daddies."
Professor Basil's Ratings:
Overall: 6.5/10
Spiciness: 2/10
Restaurant name creativity: 1/10
Music playing at restaurant: 8.5/10
El Burro:
"I don't know about that blonde girl, to me she looks cute regardless of deception. I can not say the same about my Pad See "Ewwww". The noodles were good, but I am a pretty big noodle apologist. The brown sauce was good, but so are most brown sauces.
However, like most of our dishes, mine lacked a certain depth of flavor that I expect in foreign cuisine. Also, out of the 23 pieces of seafood in my seafood combination dish, 17 were rubbery pieces of squid. My meal looked like Japanese Tentacle porn. Also, I disagree with there needing to be "spicy cucumber" sauce with satay, though it doesn't take away from the satay being horrible. Not even the anemic triangles of toast served with it could save it.
All in all, if you want Thai food in Charlottesville, stick with Thai 99 (filling delicious portions) or Downtown Thai (smaller portions, great flavor)." El Burro's post food beer: Jefferson Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout.
El Burro's quote of the day:
"Produce great pumpkins, the pies will follow later." - Unknown
El Burro's Ratings:
Explosiveness of flavor: 6/10
Relatedness to Hentai: 9/10
Appetizers: 5/10
Slingshot's Ratings:
Explosiveness of flavor: 7.5/10
Pertinence of restaurant's name: 9/10
Proximity to delicious beer: 10/10
On the brink of an eventful Saturday night, and amidst a tiring, eventful, and Aristocrat+RedBull filled weekend, El Burro and Slingshot made their way to "The Box". On 12th Street perpendicular to the Downtown Mall, the small Asian-fusion noodle house is known primarily for its live music, and the bar used while listening to said music. However, the interesting ambiance, savory noodles, and one zesty appetizer left the Burro and Slingshot pleased and excited to return (except next time without house-cocktails). Here's what we thought:
