Cheap Eats - Knotted Thai
My Thai’s spicy fare lacks sizzle
It’s like Toad in the Hole, mate, my friend Nick once said about the place of curry in the English diet. His words resonate with me still. At the time, I found it strange that a culture whose cuisine is renowned for its blandness would embrace Indian curries as enthusiastically as Bubble and Squeak. It’s considerably less odd that Thai food has become a favorite in the American culinary melting pot.
All Thai’d up: You can find two Thai restaurants in as many blocks on Clairmont Road in Decatur. The smaller and less expensive of the two, My Thai, does a steady takeout business. Despite My Thai’s run-of-the-mill strip mall location, its interior is calm and relaxed with bright yet soothing red and yellow walls and comfortable banquette seating. The lighting is just right — flattering if you’re on a date, but bright enough to see your food. Service was smoothly graceful both visits.
Singha song: Unfortunately, where everything else pleases, the food falters. Appetizers are geared toward less adventurous palates, with most options fried and seemingly cribbed from a cheap Chinese restaurant menu. Tempura-like veggie delight ($5.25) isn’t a bad opener when accompanied by a sweet, mellow Singha beer to wash down the fried broccoli, carrots and onions. Shrimp and cheese rolls ($5.75) are like crab Rangoon in spring roll form. Like fried cheese at an inexpensive Italian-American restaurant, there’s little to dislike about fluffy cream cheese, green onions and bits of shrimp in a crispy shell, however unexciting it may be.
Oral calisthenics: Like burgers at a bar, grilled beef salad is every Thai restaurant’s menu anchor. I’m sad to report that My Thai’s version ($5.75) is thoroughly disappointing. The salad greens are the sort you’d get as a side in a cheap pizzeria. Two bites of the beef are enough. Smoky and nicely charred, the slices are also tough as jerky, dry and devoid of the ethereal lemongrass kiss I’d hoped for.
Slow burn: Green curry with chicken ($6.75) is another Thai restaurant staple, and we order it with high hopes. My Thai’s rendition packs a spicy punch, but beyond a chili burn and an overpowering wallop of basil, the dish is one-dimensional. Coconut milk in the curry lacks its usual fragrant nature and simply feels fatty in the mouth. Chicken pieces are tender but lackluster. Spooned up with rice, the curry makes for a filling yet ultimately unsatisfying meal. My Thai’s certainly situated to capture an attentive audience from surrounding areas. But more attention is needed in the kitchen for it to reach its potential as a neighborhood standby.