http://www.bhanthairestaurant.com
For quite some time now, I have been hearing of this place in Midtown that has great Thai food. On the evening of the largest full moon in 18 years, I finally got to enjoy their Thai cuisine. Bhan Thai is located on Peabody Avenue in a large, old house that, if it weren't for the lights out front, I probably would have driven past. The neighborhood that it's in still has several residents, mostly residential but some businesses have set up shop in the old homes. As I escorted my date inside, we walked into a packed house, happy that we called in reservations for the patio. They do not waste a single inch in this place, filling it with as many tables and chairs as possible. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their dinners as we made our way to the back patio. Once out there, we waited for our table while having a drink at the bar. I was taken back by the size and creativity of the patio. It is their hidden secret and turned out to be the best part of the experience. A musician was playing acoustic in the back corner while several people at the bar were going nuts over a huge March Madness upset. Our table was available quickly and we reviewed the menu. My eyes scanned for the hot stuff while my date was interested in a good seafood dish. She got the Thai red snapper while I ended up ordering the spicy garlic chicken stir fry, telling the waiter to make it extra hot.
As we enjoyed our beverages on a gorgeous spring evening, listening to some good tunes on an amazing patio, the dishes were served in a short amount of time, despite how busy they were. The first thing I noticed, once it hit my nose, was the amount of spices on the top of my stir fry. I knew it would be good right off the bat. The red snapper looked even more delicious, with whole garlic cloves and fresh peppers topping the slab of fish. We didn’t waste any time and got busy. I added a bunch of white rice to my stir fry which soaked up some of the sauce that was saturated on the bottom of the plate. The spices were excellent on the chicken and veggies but it wasn’t very powerful. I don’t believe they used any of it to actually cook with the stir fry, it was just added before serving. Nonetheless, it was an excellent flavor that didn’t last very long and had my nose running madly at the end. Throughout the meal, I helped my date with her snapper which was absolutely incredible. I cannot remember ever eating anything that contained whole garlic cloves for spices like this. I am a big fan of garlic so this was excellent to me. I have read a few bad reviews for their fish here but none of them would have been accurate this particular night. It was good stuff!
Like I have said in previous reviews on this blog, I have been to Thailand before and know what true authentic Thai food is all about. The meals we got this evening were not close to this, which in many ways is a good thing. I consider it more of an Americanized Thai restaurant that doesn’t pack a lot of heat but serves large dishes of incredible food. They also have Singha which is a beer that brings back lots of memories. Although we didn’t leave with our mouths burned, we sure did leave as full as the moon that night!
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