Thai Triumph

Historical May 1992 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

The arrival of the Thai Cafe at 6170 Delmar in the fall of 1991 marked an important new beginning for a long dormant stretch of Delmar east of Skinker.

After a few visits to the restaurant, including one quick lunch and one large fixed-menu group dinner, we returned this month for a fourth visit. Here’s what we found: consistency, fresh ingredients, an abundance of authentic and tasty, freshly prepared dishes, good service by friendly waitresses, great decor, unique atmosphere.

In short, a successful restaurant. Owner Pat Prapaisilapa is a gracious and careful host, who seats everyone and who clearly knows how to make sure his guests are well tended.

He personally designed the restaurant’s beautiful interior with fine wood strip paneling and shadow boxes built into the walls to show off pieces of Thai art graceful statues, miniature houses, musical instruments, heavily jeweled fabric panels. Pat and his family and crew have really managed to take a relatively small commercial space and create a stylish, special world. Open for lunch on weekdays from 11-3 and for dinner Monday through Saturday from 5-10:30, the Thai Cafe has an extensive menu. Exotic dishes as well as familiar Chinese and Japanese dishes are available. At lunch, for a reasonable $ 3.90, you may select two entrees from a list of 10 which changes monthly. You’ll find such favorites as sweet and sour pork, stir fried beef and broccoli, and spring rolls, along with other less recognizable choices.

If you wish, authentic seating is available in the “Thai Room,” with tables featuring deeply-set space for legs and feet.

For a group, it’s an atmospheric space, with lovely artifacts to appreciate along with the great meal to come. Dinner is a busy time, and I suggest reservations on weekends.

There is a small waiting area and no bar.

However, it’s almost a pleasure to wait— considering that it means that lots of people are visiting the neighborhood to have dinner on Delmar. Your dinner can be accompanied by a choice of beers, including a Thai beer, wine, soda, or tea. Or just ice water, served in frosty stainless steel glasses for a nifty touch. Soups and salads are available, including several exotic selections like fresh squid salad “Yum Pla Muk”(untried). Soups range from $1.95 • $2.95; salads at $2.95 and $3.95. Appetizers (ranging from $1.95 to $5.95) are excellent.

On past visits, we tasted tempura, vegetables and shrimp, spring rolls, and “Thai Satay,” which is well-marinated beef, chicken or pork, shish-style.

All were very good.

On our recent trip, two of us shared a large platter of “Mee Kroh,” made of crispy rice noodles, fried with shrimp and chicken with fresh bean sprouts and green onion, and a faint peanut taste.

It was huge and it was outstanding. Entrees come in several categories: noodles, fried rice, curry, stir-fried, steamed, and BBQ.

With such a large assortment and most entrees in the $5.95 – $6.95 range, we’ll need many more visits to try every category.

On this visit, here’s what we found: Fried rice—we had #33, with chicken.

It was very attractive, with sliced carrots and peas symmetrically distributed somehow.

The Thai fried rice is somewhat milder than Chinese and does not have a soy sauce taste.

It was a nice accompaniment to Shrimp Curry. Curry (from $5.95 to $7.95) is an unexpected treat.

We tried “Panang”, with shrimp, coconut milk, hot pepper and “kafeir” leaves.

This is apparently an herb, somewhat reminiscent of basil.

The shrimp was cooked just right, not tough. Lots of white rice on the side helped temper the curry taste.

A cool dish of peanut sauce, remembered from a previous visit, was requested and brought immediately: My companion asked for “hot sauce” and got a bowl of partially liquified red pepper which he loved and I wouldn’t touch.

However, I foolishly ate a pretty red strip of pepper decorating the curry—which I thought was a bell pepper piece. Was I ever wrong! Did I ever suffer.

The curry itself has an extremely fine taste.

For anyone who has ever had an amateur’s curry made with uncooked curry powder, this will be an entirely new and tasty experience.

We recommend the curry highly.

We plan another visit to try the stirfried and the steamed fish dishes and the BBQ. At $6.95 for half a chicken, I have to try that someday.

For now, suffice it to say the Thai Cafe is a terrific place for lunch or dinner.

We thank Pat for bringing it to Delmar, and for setting such a high standard of quality decor and dining for other new businesses to follow. And we look forward to many more years of fine dining at the Thai Cafe. NEXT MONTH WE CROSS TO THE NORTH SIDE AND VISIT THE WABASH TRIANGLE CAFE.

Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, May 1992.

Read this article in the original newspaper issue.

Original source: SD_Times1992_05.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.