Lanna Thai is on Mission Bay Blvd in Pacific Beach, right next to Sushi Ota. Well, not exactly, next door to it, but a mere few steps away in a separate building. We got there at 12 noon and were the first customers. Our waitress was had a rad spiked pixie hair cut with tapered sideburns as well as these brilliant swallowtail butterfly tats on both of her shoulders. She said we could choose any booth we wanted, so I chose a corner, window booth. I liked the decor, very hip and minimalist...
Bert and I had Thai iced coffees:
Our trio of sauces: peanut, sweet chili sauce and a fish sauce with cucumber (at least that's what I thought it was).
We ordered the appetizer platter. It normally comes with two of everything ($11), but there was an extra charge for three of each ($16.50). The items were (starting from the triangular pieces) the Golden Triangles, Thai Spring Roll, Fresh Salad Roll, Chicken Satay and Chicken Curry Cups. The triangles were nice and crunchy, however I couldn't tell what the filling was (I didn't pay attention when I read the menu). It was supposed to be seasoned ground chicken with potato. The chicken really didn't have a flavor, so that was a bit of a disappointment. TC really enjoyed the fresh salad rolls, so I gave her mine. She liked the fact that it wasn't fried (and therefore burning hot to the touch) and it had fresh shrimp in it. She was curious about the alfalfa sprouts they put in there and ate it anyways!The curry cups looked cute, but the curried ground chicken filling with potatoes was not so great. The piece I had was dry and pebbly. I ended up spitting the top part out but ate the rest. The chicken satay was quite good - very soft and flavorful, especially with the peanut sauce. I ended up saving the spring rolls for lunch the next day. They weren't spectacular. Just your regular fried spring roll.
I ordered the papaya salad ($7) which was pretty good, but not very spicy at all. I figured since this was PB, city of bro-hams and babettes, that perhaps they toned it down for the American crowd. It would have been better if this had a bit of a kick to it. In any case, I still liked the crunchiness of the green papaya, the sourness of the limejuice and the pleasant crunch of the chopped peanuts...I'm big into texture. I hate mushy soft food.
We ordered just one entree to share for the three of us since we had a lot to eat from the appetizer platter earlier. This was the Thai BBQ chicken ($11) which was marinated in cumin, coconut milk and served with a sweet chili dipping sauce. You could taste the spice paste on the chicken skin! Mmmmm! I gave my favorite piece, the wing, to TC. Bert had the drumstick and I ended up having most of the back and part of the thigh.
Although our order came with a bowl of steamed rice, we asked for two side orders of sticky rice($2 each) which came in small cylindrical baskets that were lined with plastic wrap. It was initially going to be one order, but the waitress said that it probably wouldn't be enough and said she herself could eat 1 order on her own, so...two orders of rice it was!
It was worth a try and for the most part, I liked it. We would go again, just to try a few other items on their menu like Bangkok Steak and Lemongrass Companion (nice name for a dish!). The prices seem all right, not too outrageous. It was way better than this shitty Thai restaurant we went to a few months ago. It sucked so bad, I didn't even want to post it. The place? Bai-Yook in Hillcrest. It's on University Avenue in the same shopping center as Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. There is another Thai place that we like but haven't been to in awhile. It's a hole in the wall place on Hillhurst Avenue in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. I wish I could remember the name! Anyways, I had a wonderful Mother's Day lunch with my two favorite people in the world.
I ordered the papaya salad ($7) which was pretty good, but not very spicy at all. I figured since this was PB, city of bro-hams and babettes, that perhaps they toned it down for the American crowd. It would have been better if this had a bit of a kick to it. In any case, I still liked the crunchiness of the green papaya, the sourness of the limejuice and the pleasant crunch of the chopped peanuts...I'm big into texture. I hate mushy soft food.
We ordered just one entree to share for the three of us since we had a lot to eat from the appetizer platter earlier. This was the Thai BBQ chicken ($11) which was marinated in cumin, coconut milk and served with a sweet chili dipping sauce. You could taste the spice paste on the chicken skin! Mmmmm! I gave my favorite piece, the wing, to TC. Bert had the drumstick and I ended up having most of the back and part of the thigh.
Although our order came with a bowl of steamed rice, we asked for two side orders of sticky rice($2 each) which came in small cylindrical baskets that were lined with plastic wrap. It was initially going to be one order, but the waitress said that it probably wouldn't be enough and said she herself could eat 1 order on her own, so...two orders of rice it was!
It was worth a try and for the most part, I liked it. We would go again, just to try a few other items on their menu like Bangkok Steak and Lemongrass Companion (nice name for a dish!). The prices seem all right, not too outrageous. It was way better than this shitty Thai restaurant we went to a few months ago. It sucked so bad, I didn't even want to post it. The place? Bai-Yook in Hillcrest. It's on University Avenue in the same shopping center as Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. There is another Thai place that we like but haven't been to in awhile. It's a hole in the wall place on Hillhurst Avenue in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. I wish I could remember the name! Anyways, I had a wonderful Mother's Day lunch with my two favorite people in the world.
