Thai Time wasn't bad. I got salmon curry delivered and while it wasn't hot it was solid. The curry had a nice sweetness to it. My friend got the Pad Thai and he had no complaints. I have no complaints but I probably wouldn't eat there again.
The menu says "creative Japanese and Thai cuisine." That is the harbinger of bad things to come. One simply does not serve Thai and Japanese food. Perhaps not as onerous as the alarmingly more common "Mexican and Chinese cuisine" but still not an indicator of good things to come.
And it's sad. Thai is one of my favorite cuisines, so with a heavy heart, I must give this restaurant two thumbs down. In fact, it was so bad, I don't want to ever order here again.
The chef has completely missed the whole point of Thai cuisine. It's in interplay of salt and sour — usually accomplished with fish and vegetable. On the salt side, fish sauce (nam pla) or fish paste. On the sour side, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal. That was completely missing from this food. I couldn't detect that interplay of fish-salt and lemon-lime. To the chef: *IF* you are using these ingredients, you need to use more. You also need to leave them in the food. While you might think that taking out stalks of lemongrass (for example) from your food is a service to your diners, it is actually a disservice. First, it helps add flavor. Second, it's aesthetically pleasing to see. Third, it's proof that you know what you're doing and aren't simply a Chinese food chef who happens to be following a Thai recipe.
Soup ==== Classic Tom Yum: C+ Coconut Milk Tom Kar: C+ Both soups had decent flavor, so I'm giving them B- instead of the C+ they deserve. No galangal. No lemongrass stalks. No kaffir lime leaves. I detected no lime. No cilantro. The chef put in *button mushrooms*. Dude! You're supposed to use straw mushrooms! In a pinch, I suppose you can give us shitake, but for crying out loud, don't use button mushrooms! That's for, like … you know. Greek salads and stuff. And was that bok choy in the soup? Holy smokes! Where did you get this recipe from? Neither soup tasted of fish, and neither soup tasted of lemon/lime. Please don't put bell pepper in this soup. And no tomatoes. Screw it. I'm giving these soups a C+.
Thai Appetizers ============ Thai Wings: B Decent enough, but these are *not* thai wings. Again, no lemon or lime flavor. No salty fish flavor. They were battered and fried. Sweet taste. They were good, but not Thai wings.
Noodles ====== Pad Thai: C I make a PHENOMENAL Pad Thai. It's one of my specialty dishes, so I'm a hard customer to please, but even so, this was dreadful. It had none of the flavors that authentic Pad Thai should have. It was completely dry and tasteless. It was just a bunch of semi-sweet noodles. Yuck.
Thai Curries ========= Red Panang Curry: C OK, forget the obvious misspelling. Dreadful. Awful. When I order a red curry, I want to taste the spice. I want to see the spice. I want about an inch of curry on the bottom of the dish so I can scoop up with rice. I want my mouth on fire. I want to taste curry. This was none of that. Not enough curry. The curry didn't taste like red curry. Way too many vegetables. Same comment about the soups apply here. I don't want to see button mushrooms in my Thai curry. Where's the galangal? Where was the lemon grass? Where was the nam pla? Did you even use curry paste? Or did you just dump a little "red curry powder seasoning" and corn starch into some hot water? Please, this wasn't red curry. This was a travesty. I'm getting angrier even just writing this review.
Sauteed Main Entree ================ Basil Beef: C You know what? I'm not going to waste my time writing about this. If you've read down to here, you already know what I'm going to say. This dish belongs in a Chinese restaurant, not a Thai restaurant. Thai Time, you are dead to me.
Thai Time wasn't bad. I got salmon curry delivered and while it wasn't hot it was solid. The curry had a nice sweetness to it. My friend got the Pad Thai and he had no complaints. I have no complaints but I probably wouldn't eat there again.
The menu says "creative Japanese and Thai cuisine." That is the harbinger of bad things to come. One simply does not serve Thai and Japanese food. Perhaps not as onerous as the alarmingly more common "Mexican and Chinese cuisine" but still not an indicator of good things to come.
And it's sad. Thai is one of my favorite cuisines, so with a heavy heart, I must give this restaurant two thumbs down. In fact, it was so bad, I don't want to ever order here again.
The chef has completely missed the whole point of Thai cuisine. It's in interplay of salt and sour — usually accomplished with fish and vegetable. On the salt side, fish sauce (nam pla) or fish paste. On the sour side, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal. That was completely missing from this food. I couldn't detect that interplay of fish-salt and lemon-lime. To the chef: *IF* you are using these ingredients, you need to use more. You also need to leave them in the food. While you might think that taking out stalks of lemongrass (for example) from your food is a service to your diners, it is actually a disservice. First, it helps add flavor. Second, it's aesthetically pleasing to see. Third, it's proof that you know what you're doing and aren't simply a Chinese food chef who happens to be following a Thai recipe.
Soup
====
Classic Tom Yum: C+
Coconut Milk Tom Kar: C+
Both soups had decent flavor, so I'm giving them B- instead of the C+ they deserve. No galangal. No lemongrass stalks. No kaffir lime leaves. I detected no lime. No cilantro. The chef put in *button mushrooms*. Dude! You're supposed to use straw mushrooms! In a pinch, I suppose you can give us shitake, but for crying out loud, don't use button mushrooms! That's for, like … you know. Greek salads and stuff. And was that bok choy in the soup? Holy smokes! Where did you get this recipe from? Neither soup tasted of fish, and neither soup tasted of lemon/lime. Please don't put bell pepper in this soup. And no tomatoes. Screw it. I'm giving these soups a C+.
Thai Appetizers
============
Thai Wings: B
Decent enough, but these are *not* thai wings. Again, no lemon or lime flavor. No salty fish flavor. They were battered and fried. Sweet taste. They were good, but not Thai wings.
Noodles
======
Pad Thai: C
I make a PHENOMENAL Pad Thai. It's one of my specialty dishes, so I'm a hard customer to please, but even so, this was dreadful. It had none of the flavors that authentic Pad Thai should have. It was completely dry and tasteless. It was just a bunch of semi-sweet noodles. Yuck.
Thai Curries
=========
Red Panang Curry: C
OK, forget the obvious misspelling. Dreadful. Awful. When I order a red curry, I want to taste the spice. I want to see the spice. I want about an inch of curry on the bottom of the dish so I can scoop up with rice. I want my mouth on fire. I want to taste curry. This was none of that. Not enough curry. The curry didn't taste like red curry. Way too many vegetables. Same comment about the soups apply here. I don't want to see button mushrooms in my Thai curry. Where's the galangal? Where was the lemon grass? Where was the nam pla? Did you even use curry paste? Or did you just dump a little "red curry powder seasoning" and corn starch into some hot water? Please, this wasn't red curry. This was a travesty. I'm getting angrier even just writing this review.
Sauteed Main Entree
================
Basil Beef: C
You know what? I'm not going to waste my time writing about this. If you've read down to here, you already know what I'm going to say. This dish belongs in a Chinese restaurant, not a Thai restaurant. Thai Time, you are dead to me.