Sunday, June 12, 2005
May Thai [Seattle WA]
I recently gave this place a try based on another review, which hit a nerve - God knows that Seattle needs is a new Thai restaurant like it needs a new Starbucks next to the SBC across from the other Starbucks. The restaurant itself has interesting architecture - you can't miss the piece of Thai-neuveau-L.A.-lounge-kitch plopped right down on 45th street like it fell from the sky – I almost expected the legs of the wicked witch of the East’s Thai second-cousin, Ting to be protruding from under foundation. The décor is also nice, even if a bit dark in the booths toward the back – the waitress was nice enough to give us a flashlight to read the menu by. OTOH, if you’re there just sipping drinks with friends or you’re wearing sandals with different-colored socks, the dim lighting may be to your advantage. The bar looked fun and well-stocked, with the usual selection of froo-froo specialty martini drinks. Our lime Cosmo was a finger shy of being a cocktail and didn’t have anything else going for it, other than it tasted like a damn good lime-aid. (Keep in mind we showed up on a Sunday evening, and just as happy-hour was ending – the drink and the appetizer were at happy prices.)
I tried the following dishes: Grilled calamari appetizer, the duck curry, and Phad Prik Khing with tofu. (The first two recommended in the review, and the second a stand-by we thought we’d try.) The grilled calamari was disappointing, as the fish (okay, not really fish) itself was the typical small cut fryer-rings, and although it had that new-grill smell, it didn’t seem so much grilled as “grilly”, as it had a somewhat slimy sauce added – it wasn’t so bad, but I would rather have seen either large tubes or those small or medium-size whole squidlettes, trolled in a Thaiesque dry-rub, served just-off-the-grill with a char mark here and there, with a sweet-hot sauce for your dipping pleasure. The Phad Prik was really disappointing, being overly salty from what seemed like an OD of soy sauce, which would be more forgivable but for the utter lack of any other typically-Prik flavors. The saving grace was the duck curry with grapes – this was some of the best duck breast I’ve had in a while – super tender and cooked just right. (It still has that duck-fat-on-top thing going – but it’s easily cut off and ignored if you’re not into that sort of thing.)
I think I’ll go back again when it’s hopping, and try a few new things – or maybe the duck and one new thing…
