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Back to L’Thai sans Scoutmob

P’s cousin is visiting us from London, and she was in the mood for Thai food. Despite the not-so-great dining experience at L’Thai Organic Cuisine and Wine Bar (I think it detracted from the food; as I read the last post, I see that I have written very little about the actual food – Sorry.), we decided to go again.

It was a Saturday evening and the crowd was sparse. There was no keyboard player this time but a guitarist graced the same chair. I suppose he needed frequent cues through the evening, at least when it came to playing ‘Happy Birthday’ for the various diners that evening who were celebrating their birthdays with friends. I noticed the servers gesturing to him (in an almost-frantic manner!) to play along as various tables started singing the birthday song.

To start off with, we ordered a plate of Por-Pia-Tod or L’Thai Spring Rolls. They come, three in a plate, each roll resting in a cute shot glass filled with the sweet-spicy dipping sauce. Smart presentation, I thought. The rolls were nicely done too, with no additional grease dripping, and a good crunch to them. The filling is made of finely shredded vegetables and bean threads, all organic. S ordered a plate of Pak Tod (Vegetable Tempura) that came with its own sweet citrus dipping sauce. I picked a mushroom from that plate that released a LOT of water. Thank goodness that it wasn’t oil! As good a plate of Vegetable Tempura as any, I would think.

We got two orders of Tom-Kha (Galangal Coconut Soup) with tofu. Delicious! I love the texture of this soup preparation, light yet creamy. Coconut and lemon grass is a great combination that results in a refreshing play of flavors, one rich and another tangy. The downside of the wide bowls was that the soup ran cold pretty soon. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that we lavished much time and attention on the pretty appetizers and dipping sauces!

P ordered a plate of Pad-Kee Mow (Drunken Noodles) and Jungle Curry (cannot locate the actual dish on the menu) for the two of us. S ordered a curry with shrimp in it. I am guessing it was Priaw-Wharn Goong (Sweet and Sour Shrimp). She said that it was nice but fairly spicy. I think she asked for a spicy preparation but didn’t think that it would be this hot! The Jungle Curry was spectacularly spicy. Make that spicy and spectacular. The dish featured green peppercorns that added a special degree of heat to the dish. I found myself entranced by them, and served myself a generous portion of the curry. Yum, as spicy as it was, it was delicious. The Drunken Noodles were good too. Juicy and crisp, sweet and sour, a great one-pot dish of noodles is this one. I wish the portion size was larger, though. An old complaint, right? But come on, guys… this is dinner when the prices are higher and the portions tend to be larger – no?

Dessert was a plate of fried bananas with three scoops of ice cream – Mango, Coconut, Strawberry. The ice cream was great, the bananas not at all. Unripe bananas that lacked sweetness of any kind could not be salvaged by the ice cream, as tasty as the flavors were. A dish to be avoided, for sure. But at least, I gave it a shot!

L’Thai Organic Cuisine and Wine Bar

One of the Scoutmob coupons that came this week offered a 50% discount at L’Thai Organic Cuisine and Wine Bar in Smyrna. The last time I visited L’Thai was in 2009 when Mom and Dad were visiting us. I have faint memories of the place but I remembered that the food was excellent and well-presented, and they had lots of options for vegetarians. So off we went, P and S and P and I.

Unfortunately, many others had the same idea, and so when we got to L’Thai around 8:50 pm on a dull Friday evening, there was a wait time of at least 40 minutes, as the hostess told us. As per S, she might as well have said, “You guys better find some other place tonight!” We debated on it and decided to wait.

A little later, the hostess called to us, “10 minutes more!” before whizzing away. I loved what she was wearing (red sarong, flowered top, sandals) but she looked oh-so harried. Soon after, we were shown to our table. A keyboard player played his solitary melody, as the water fountain gurgled on behind his seat, illuminated by a giant red disco-globe.

So much for describing the space! The menu at L’Thai is long and elaborate with a separate section for vegetarians. Proudly inscribed at the top of every page is ‘Our ingredients are 95% organic,” or something along those lines. S wondered if we should order a plate of Por-Pia-Pak-Sod or Fresh Organic Basil Rolls. But it was past 9 pm already (way past anyone’s dinner time, really!) and so we decided to give the appetizers a skip. We ordered a plate of Basil Fried Rice (minus egg) and Mat-Sa-Man Curry (also known as ‘yellow curry?’). We also ordered another dish whose name I cannot recall (or find in the online menu) but it mentioned ‘Thai Chilli’ in the description. Then we waited.

We waited.

It seemed like ages before the food began to arrive. It was a busy night, and our server told us that he wasn’t even supposed to be working that evening. The food was fairly tasty. I have a grouse with most (if not, all) Thai restaurants about the lack of vegetables in their dishes. Sure you’ll have carrots, daikon radish, cashews, potatoes, snow peas, broccoli, peppers, some baby corn (maybe), mushrooms… spread across all dishes. So if you order 3-4 vegetarian dishes, you would have probably sampled every vegetable from the pantry.

I remember a trip we made to Washington DC a couple of years back. For dinner, a few of us stopped by at a small Thai restaurant. There were very few customers that night and only a couple of servers. But the food was absolutely fabulous. What I remember the most is the abundance of vegetables in the curries. Not your usual carrot-snow peas-daikon-tofu combination but so many other vegetables too! I wish I could remember the name of this place… 🙁

Back to L’Thai… the flavors were great even if they seemed to repeat from one dish to another. But the portions were too small. For dinner, the serving size was meager! We realized that we would need to order another dish. We asked for a plate of Pad-See-Ew (flat noodles, carrots and broccoli in a soy sauce) but I think what we got was a plate of Drunken Noodles. It contained basil, peppers and mushrooms (not part of the original dish). When we asked our server about the tiny portions, he remarked that we should have ordered two plates each!

Cheeky waiters and flavorful food aside, this experience has put me off the Scoutmob coupon frenzy.

Terrible service and measly portions for overpriced dishes – Why would I want this experience again? Besides, all the Scoutmob coupons cleverly disguise the fact that there is a cap of $15 on the discount amount. Rather, you need to read closely to know that there is a cap of $15 on the discount amount. At most of these places, it is infinitely simple to get a bill topping $40. You do the math.

L’Thai Organic Cuisine and Wine Bar
4500 West Village Place, Suite 1017
Smyrna, GA 30080
770-434-4344
www.lethai.org

Back to Udipi!

There was a week when we visited Udipi Cafe twice. Let me recall. Yes, we were planning to go to this nice-sounding Italian place but P had had such a bad case of sniffles and sneezes that he really wanted to slurp up some spicy tomato rasam. That is one delicious way to open up your sinuses, for sure! Now I have been battling a bad case of Pitta aggravation since some days now. I am no expert on Ayurveda but this is a familiar situation for me as it isn’t the first time. Long story short, tomatoes are a major cause of Pitta aggravation. So also is tamarind. Suffices to say that I wasn’t sure what I would find to eat at an obviously South Indian food place. But I agreed to go along (also I hardly ever say ‘No’ to anything P asks for – my weakness, obviously.)

So we landed up at Udipi Cafe, Smyrna. I don’t know what it is about many Indian restaurants and service. As the server ushers you in, how difficult can it be for him to have a smile on his face? Seriously, the guy who showed us to our seats was glowering. I have had the same experience at Udipi Cafe, Decatur as well. It’s truly odd. Let me not get started about how they always have the cleaning supplies in full display of the restaurant. Who wants to see spray bottles and dish cloths while eating delicious food? Not me.

Ok, let me get on to the food. P ordered the Pongal-Vada combination and I ordered a plate of Pesarattu-Upma. Pretty soon, we switched.

Pongal is a traditional South Indian preparation of rice, dal, whole black peppers, cashews, lots of heavenly ghee. It is comfort food at its finest and healthiest. And it is panacea for my Pitta-aggravated soul and body. P offered me a taste and then the entire plate itself. The sides were sambar and coconut chutney. I pretty much cleaned up the coconut chutney but the sambar, as delicious as it looked, I had to avoid. Tomatoes + red chillies + tamarind is a lethal combination for me, at the moment. The Vada was delicious too! Not greasy at all, it was very nicely spiced and had the perfect “crunch” in your mouth.

The Pesarattu-Upma was a good combination too. Now I have been making a lot of Pesarattu in the last few weeks. It is basically a batter of soaked whole moong dal, spiced with cumin, ginger and green chillies, that you make dosas out of. Very delicious and healthy, indeed. These dosas were fairly decent although they lacked that freshness which I have come to associate with this preparation.

I like the food served at this place. The service is decent too. I wish they’d move the cart of cleaning supplies someplace out of sight. Maybe ask the servers to smile a little? Is that asking for a lot?

Udipi Cafe in Smyrna!

If I have my facts right, Udipi Cafe had its first branch in Decatur, then another on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, and now there’s one in Smyrna. I haven’t visited the one in Decatur much but the one on Peachtree, I have. I really like the decor (dark orange-saffron walls, wooden chairs, quietly festive, if I can call it that). The food is really nice; none of those scary-looking red gravies or overly spiced/greasy vegetable dishes. The food has an almost homely quality to it. In fact, I am guessing that the owner hails from Udupi, a region in Karnataka, India. A fact that registers rather well in the cooking although experts may disagree. 

Anyway, we visited the Smyrna location for lunch yesterday.

It’s open from 11am to 3pm for lunch. We reached about 2:15pm. There were a few diners, and we had the place almost to ourselves. I had heard from friends that the place had been open two days only, and that people have been thronging… makes me happy.

We made a beeline for the buffet which looked real good. I made a meal of all the South Indian items — idlis, masala dosa, onion pakodas (a tad tough, unfortunately), alu tikkis (wonderfully moist and crisp at the same time), and an amazing array of chutneys and sambar.

P helped himself to some of the other buffet items — sauteed cauliflower and beans, zucchini and carrots in a tomato-based gravy, a mint-flavored vegetable dish with green peas. I was too busy slurping up the South Indian snacks on my plate to even taste anything from his plate.

What I really like about Udupi Cafe is that the food tastes authentic. You know all those Indian restaurants (put together an algorithm to create names, throw in ‘India’, ‘Bombay’, ‘Delhi’, ‘Madras’, ‘Palace’, ‘Garden’, ‘Taj’… and you get the name you want) that serve the same red slop with the one flavor of onion-garlic-red chillies. That isn’t Indian cuisine at all.

Let me rephrase, that is the ‘Indian restaurant in the USA’ cuisine. Not authentic by any stretch of the imagination.

Thankfully, Udupi Cafe beats the trend. Btw, the location on Peachtree has this wonderful dish on the menu called Set Dosa with Kurma. A set of six (?) mini dosas arrive with the ubiquitous chutneys and sambhar in cute steel bowls and the piece de resistance, the kurma. Think vegetables (carrots, peas, beans) in a coconut-based gravy, intensely flavored with pepper, coriander, cardamom (and probably some other spices that my taste buds couldn’t register), the Kurma is a perfect foil to the oh-so-soft dosas. I should also mention the sambhar at Udupi is perfectly spiced, every time.

Since the restaurant was near closing time yesterday, the server got me a bowl of sweet and cool rasmalai. I would also recommend the South Indian filter coffee, a most excellent ending to a wonderful meal.