Down near the end of Palm Avenue in IB, where you will see variously shaped red metal sculptures along the sidewalk. This, I just found out, was part of the Imperial Beach Outdoor Surfboard Museum. Every board has a plaque with the year, the shape and size style, plus the shaper.
The newest Thai restaurant in IB opened three months ago...
which replaced a former bike shop...
The space is open and airy. I liked the industrial look mixed in with Thai decor...
As you walk in, there is a seating area in the front plus a window into the open kitchen...
Loved these lovely lotus wall hangings.
We were greeted warmly and seated in the larger dining space. Our servers were so very nice. Bert's caffeine for the night, Thai iced coffee which he enjoyed. You can see their menu online here
Our dinner. Can you guess which one was TC's?
Time's up...it was obviously this, the pad thai. She's on a non-red meat eating kick again, so tofu was the protein of choice tonight. The dish tasted balanced. The sauce was not overly sweet and not overly drowning the noodles like at some places. "It wasn't too dry" she said.
Bert ordered the spicy noodles with beef with spice level medium. He thinks they toned it down, which was fine. At least he didn't suffer the next day, ha ha. He thought the beef was just okay; there were a few overly tough pieces. The dish was not outstanding but it was pretty good. I noticed on our way out that they had a mini server with table spices but we were not offered any. We'll have to ask next time.
As for me, I ordered two appetizers (which was shared; TC liked the avocado). The asparagus avocado salad with shrimp was something that caught my eye. After I read the article (linked at the end), I was glad I ordered it. The owners wanted something unique and Californian. The sauce was a light vinaigrette which went well with the fresh ingredients. The asparagus spears still had that snap and had a nice grilled flavor. They were generous with the avocado and shrimp pieces as well. Winner!
The other menu item was a bit like a three for one - the Imperial Trio which had papaya salad (served in a lettuce cup), pork larb (in meatball form, which was a pleasant surprise) and sticky rice. I didn't expect the the rice to be preformed into small balls but that actually made it convenient. This would be perfect by itself for a light meal. The pork larb meatball was dense and I could taste the lemongrass and spices in there. Loved this dish.
Clientele was diverse which I liked. Prices were a little on the higher side but not terribly overpriced (the ingredients were really fresh here).
On a whim, afterward, we reparked near "The Spirit of Imperial Beach" statue (installed in 2008) at the end of Ocean Lane so we could enjoy the Golden Hour views of the beach plus the IB pier...
That's us...
Dessert would be a few minutes away at our favorite spot, Oasis over on the eastern end of Coronado Ave. We took the longer way to get there so we could pass by the Surfhenge sculpture near the pier. The IB Farmer's Market was winding down as dusk approached...
Oasis is now on IG!
I always like checking for the new flavors and lo and behold, jamaica and rompope were on the board. Even though I'm not a fan of jamaica, which is hibiscus flower (and usually featured as a flavor for agua fresca) I had to get it. For the blog you know. For official research purposes. Plus, I would rather eat a jamaica flavored paleta than rompope (it's like a rum eggnog).
TC was going to get birthday cake ice cream but chose her other favorite flavor, the vanilla cream with strawberry sorbet. She likes the combination of creamy with icy.
Bert got two scoops - on top was double chocolate chip and hiding at the bottom was peanut butter, which is one of his favorite combinations.
Plus my jamaica paleta which was super super red. It tasted just like a frozen version of the drink. Not too bad!
Refreshing!
Article:
"Siam Imperial Thai Kitchen opens in Imperial Beach" Eagle Times, May 12, 2017 (I noticed that the article erroneously states that the appetizer I had, the Siam Imperial Trio had "lamb"; it was actually 'larb'.)
**One cool thing I learned from this article is that one of the three owners also owns Siam Elephant,
the ONLY Thai restaurant in Carpinteria. In fact, during our recent mini vacation to Carp, Bert and I walked by it several times and even debated eating there (but we didn't since we wanted to try other places). Turns out that most of the IB menu come from the Carp menu except for a few unique dishes.
Previous visit to Oasis:
"Oasis + new floor!" April 2017
Siam Imperial
226 Palm Ave
Imperial Beach, CA 91932
(619) 6721-6650
www.siamimperial.com + reviews from you know where (27 at this time of writing) + tripadvisor
I"m glad that we tried Siam Imperial. We need to go back again to try the shrimp parcel appetizer mentioned in the article and maybe a few other menu items like their chicken larb.
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