A Taste of Thai

Sits in front of the Crestwood Market /Walgreens in the heart of Crestwood. (Where 22 crosses 146 near the train tracks) Independent owners, chef is Thai. They locally source some of their ingredients, their Thai peppers are grown right in Crestwwood. Interior is tasteful, minimilist ( I hate a lot of kitschy googahs that just get dusty over time.) restaurant seats about 50. No liqueur lic. Only open for lunch at this time until he can hire more help to expand to evenings.

I started with 2, medium sized, vegetarian spring rolls . Excellent! Hand rolled and packed tight with lovely stuff.
Next came a salad of the usual greens with tiny sweet red peppers and sliced cucumber added. House dressing was yummy with a hint of the heat that was to come. My entree was tilapia in red curry sauce. It knocked my socks off. The fish was lightly floured/fried and smothered in a delicious red curry that wasn't thick or goopy. It encluded red, yellow, green peppers, bamboo shoots and I seem to remember some tomato . It was actually a bit too hot for me ( I was later told it was a level 2 heat wise) but I muscled my way through it because it was so flavorful. The fish itself was great. I usually don't like tilapia because it often tastes like mud or dirt but not this time. I would happily order this dish again.
My lunch ( which I came no where near finishing because of the quantity) came to $17. Maybe pricy for lunch but I happily paid it feeling that between the quantity and the quality it was totally worth it.
Lunch value items for $8.95. Offering 4 soups, 2 salads, 4 noodles or rice dishes , 2curries. Appetizers of either spring rolls or Thai toast are $4 each.
I will return. Often.

[Robin Garr]

Whoa! Gotta get out to Crestwood!

I was wondering when they were going to open...the "now hiring" sign has been on the building for weeks. Hopefully he doesn't have to resort to "importing help".

thanks for the review. Always looking to find tasty thai.

Revisited yesterday.
He is now opened evenings on Thurs, Friday, Saturday. This past Friday was his first evening opened. They packed out to the point of closing early because they ran out of food. Yesterday I visited at around 1 PM and again they were packed and running a short wait and stayed that way until well past 2 PM. Service was spotty but only because of the very big rush being serviced by a small staff. Everyone was all smiles and every table echoed "Hey that's ok. The food is wonderful." My Vegetarian Pad Tai was fantastic. Also had the Thai version of shrimp toast. It was obviously made on plain sandwich bread but the filling was anything but ordinary. Excellent! I wouldn't know authentic Thai from any other eastern food variety (having never been to Thailand) but others there deemed it authentic. (As well as very hot..)

He is still in dire need of additional help. I know he's looking for wait staff and I would think he needs additional BOH as well given the number of meals they served. It would be a nice opportunity for someone .

Lunch today at Taste of Thai! Yes, they are still having staffing issues and yes, you’ll wait a bit for your food, but I think it’s well worth the wait. Chicken Satay was great, yummy peanut sauce accompanied the three sticks of grilled chicken. Pork spring rolls were equally good, fresh and well made. I ordered Gaeng Massaman Gai, yellow curry with potatoes and chicken. So good. A word about spice levels, I got a 2 out of 4 and next time I’ll order a 1…I like spicy but this was serious spice. The chef isn’t playing with the heat levels, hot means HOT. I took an inordinate amount of pleasure watching a young man at the next table order and attempt to consume his Pad Thai at level 4. For some reason he didn’t want a to go box. My lunch mates ordered the Kao Pad, Thai fried rice, which was declared delicious and the Som Tam, a papaya salad with chicken, which also got two thumbs up. I don’t think this restaurant is handicap accessible. Two steps required to enter and no hand railing, so beware if you are wheelchair bound or unsteady on your feet. They are open from 3pm on as takeout only until they can hire some wait staff. Definitely worth a trip to the wilds of Crestwood. Beware if you Google Map the directions, it is not where Google tells you...it's next to the Walgreens at the big junction of 146 and 22. They have a Facebook page with their menu posted. https://www.facebook.com/atastethai/

I believe the handicap ramp is outhe side but it is a rather steep one.