New Thai On Chestnut
Posted by Foobooz on November 14th, 2008
Things we hate: people who say they had such-and-such great cuisine in X city and you can’t get that in Philadelphia.
Things we love: Thai food.
Things we hate: sounding like those people we hate when we talk about Thai food in Philadelphia.
Well maybe the freshly opened Thai Chef & Noodle at 2028 Chestnut Street will lessen our self-loathing. Victor Fiorillo of Philly Mag was recently there and has plenty of good things to say.
Where We’re Eating: Thai Chef & Noodle [Philadelphia Magazine]
2028 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA
Related Tags: Center-City-West, Thai, Thai Chef & Noodle
November 20th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
BYOB. Lunch & dinnner; eat in or take out. Delivery, with a $15 minimum.
Awesome. Not the typical “Thai restaurant” decor: very bright and airy, with underwater scenes painted on all the walls. I wasn’t sure of the decor’s connection with the restaurant until I noticed that the menu says “Please visit our Under Sea Dining”. I didn’t notice any elephants.
The service was excellent — very attentive. My lunch partner had been there earlier in the week, and the waitress greeted her by name! The food was satisfying as well, with a very nice selection. Probably the most encouraging sign was that the place was full.
The lunch deal is the best. $7.95/$8.95 for 3 courses (eat in only). A soup, an app and a main course. Can’t beat it. A la carte prices look very reasonable, both at lunch and at dinner. I had Tom Yum Soup, two Shrimp & Corn Cakes, and Pad Se Ew, accompanied by green tea. My lunch partner had something called Ravioli Soup (”Home made shrimp & chicken dumpling”), a Spring Roll and Masaman [sic] Curry. No dessert on this visit, but the selections look intriguing; I’ll try one another time. The bill, including tax, was $20 for the two of us.
For dinner, they have an option similar to that offered by a number of other Thai restaurants: they offer a list of 12 or so various sauces/preparations, then you pick the protein (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, calamari, mixed seafood, or tofu w/ vegetables) that you want prepared with it. The various protein options are priced accordingly. You can work your way through the menu, for instance, with tofu done a different way for 12 meals, then move on to chicken. That’s 84 different combinations before you even touch the rest of the menu!
The rest of the dinner menu is extensive. Going with the Under Sea Dining theme, the seafood selections include soft shell crab, tuna, salmon, seabass, red snapper, catfish, and the usual shrimp, scallops, mussels & etc. You can even snap up something called “Winning Alligator” (”sauteed slice alligator, eggplant, onion, bell pepper, with julienne ginger, soy bean, green peppercorn Thai aromatic herb sauce”). There is an especially wide selection of vegetarian dishes, including soups, apps and entrees. It looks as though you can ask them to adjust the spice level to your taste: “Little spicy, extra spicy, very spicy (hot)”.
Oh, and for those Phans of Pho — they’ve got it.
If you are walking by, you can pick up a menu from the menu-holder near the door, take it back home or to the office, and drool.
I will be going back — soon.