Thai Tom - Review

Intro
Thai Tom - Highly Recommended
4543 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105-4510
Phone: (206) 548-9548

I stopped by Seattle for Xmas with the future in-laws and we had this grandiose idea of seeing what Seattle food is all about - you know, wild salmon and the like. Unfortunately, things always change and EVA airline had to bump up our trip to Taipei way earlier. So, there's only one place I want to go when I'm out in Seattle and that's Thai Tom. Definitely way better than any Thai food we have in Manhattan (not including the mecca in Queens - Sripraphai). Overall, I give the restaurant an 86/100.

My Menu
1) Fried Tofu – Recommended
2) Tom Kah Soup – Highly Recommended (must have)
3) Pad Thai - Recommended
4) Red Curry Chicken - Highly Recommended

Dish Comments
1) Nicely crisped tofu, pickled cabbage, and a good peanut dipping sauce. The sauce was slightly sweet for my taste, but man it was hella good with the tofu.
2) This soup is why I love Thai food. Slightly sweet, nicely sour, and relatively spicy. Bamboo shoots, chicken, and mushroom fill this hearty soup. There are options of spiciness 1-5 and I rocked the 4. I have a very high spice tolerance, so 4 really was mild for me. Great soup though.
3) A pretty good Pad Thai. Nice crispy edges to the noodles and slightly sweet. This was better in the past and our friends told us it was way better when Tom was actually cooking.
4) This dish was amazing. The same qualities of the soup - sweet, sour, and spicy. Goes great with rice. Sweet/crunchy onions and the fresh basil are great additions to the curry - I know, I know...all Thai curries have this stuff, but I still love it. I don't know the exact name of this dish and I couldn't find it online.

Overall Restaurant Experience (86/100)

• Food 8.6/10 – Very good Thai food, I'm assuming sweetened for the American palate. Not as good as I remembered, but still hella tasty.
  
• Service 8.0/10 – Food came out very quickly and the waiters/waitresses were nice.
• Atmosphere 8.5/10 – Super tiny hole in the wall - maybe like 25 seats only - but I like that atomsphere. We sat at the counter where you can see the chef rockin' the wok. Got there at 7pm on Saturday and it took 15 minutes to get seated. The place was hella packed though and the line was uber long when we got seated - we just beat the rush. The restaurant is in heart of University of Washington (or U Dub), so it was filled with what I assume were students.
• Price 9.0/10 – The quality was great for the price - Seattlers may disagree (some reviews were bitching about the price), but my reference point is NYC. Soups were $6, entrees were $10-12.

Closing Comments
Great Thai place that is a must visit in Seattle. I need to check out Seattle more for this Southeast Asian cuisine. In Renton (burb outside of Seattle), every single restaurant looked like it was Thai, Vietnamese, or Mexican. Seems like a big immigrant population there, which usually means good food.