Northern Thai - East Bay?
I had the pleasure of eating at Suriya Thai last night on Valencia and was incredibly pleased. The variety and creativity of the dishes was like nothing I have seen in a Thai resturant before. Since I live in Oakland I would like to find something close to home. I think that Suriya focuses on Northern Thai dishes, and that is where the uniqueness comes from? So what are you favorite Thai places in the East Bay, looking for all good Thai, but Nothern particularly.
Thanks!
By oaklandfoodie
on Jan 27, 2005 11:39 AM
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Berkeley has at least two great Thai places - though i'm not sure in which regional foods they specialize. The first is Plearn on University between Shattuck and Sacramento. The second is Cha-am on Shattuck near Cedar.
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Ruen Pair offers a wonderful, simple, scrumptious whole steamed fish, in a lemongrass/kaffir lime broth. I wish more places offered something like this!
Cha Am is a bit hit or miss, to me. But I think I've discovered the 'secret' - order the seafood specials. Every time I've done so, I've been pleased.
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Ruen Pair on San Pablo Ave in Berkeley/Albany has some northern dishes on the menu.
But I haven't been there in a long time and my only point of comparison is Renu Nakorn in Norwalk (SoCal).
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I like Ruen Pair quite a bit. I recently tried one of their Northern dishes, the Sa Dat pork, grilled slices of marinated pork with fresh garlic and chili. I loved it with sticky rice as an accompaniment.
Link: http://www.ruenpair.com/index.html
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The "stuffed seafood muffins" (่อหมกทะเล) are a northern dish, no?
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I was walking by Take It Easy the other day and noticed a sign that said "northern style Thai BBQ chicken."
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Northern thai -
I spent a week knocking around northern thailand, and I can't tell you exactly what northern thai is. There's a somewhat common dish called Jungle Curry that I think is northern. There was more noodle influence - I remember fondly the streetside noodle shops. I think of the rampant use of pumpkin as a more northern thing, but I don't really know.
Here's my round up of greater berkely thai:
1) ruen pair - 3 tries, three strikes, not going back. Food was often not hot and kind of gloppy. I don't know what the deal is - others seem to like it. One of my best personal east bay reports also thinks it's meh, so maybe I'm right. Everyone says the food is hot - why wasn't it for me?
2) Sweet basil, solano - not bad, not great. Better than ruen pair. Only tried it once so far.
3) Cha'am. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Used to be the best best best. Now, I agree, you can get a good meal with the seafood specials, otherwise, you're in a serious roll of the dice.
4) Plearn - also was-great, now disappointing. I'd eat there, but I won't go out of my way to go there.
5) Tuk-tuk on shattuck - I have a fondness for this place because its not pretentious and it's pretty tasty. Tastes are strong, food isn't oily. It's not great, but it doesn't try to be great.
6) I think it was called elephant - bancroft one block from shattuck - very serviceable, nothing huge.
7) soi 4, college - very interesting place. cool modern vibe, interesting dishes, not just your green curry and out. Upscale, so you have to be in the mood for that.
8) Boran, top of solano - Never again. Bleh.
9) mid solano near the Himalayan place - decent lunches. Nothing special.
10) Thai House (?) just off telegraph. Mediocre, and (as usual) beloved of yelpers.
11) there's one one shattuck across from TukTuk that I haven't tried.
12) there's one near Ruen Pair called something like niam that I haven't tried.
In short - berkeley's thai restaurants have not aged well. There are still some serviceable options, but in my opinion Berkeley's conservatism has caught up with itself - people go to the same restaurants over and over, and there's very little fresh blood. Thus my inclusion of Oakland's Soi 4, which is a pleasure.
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Have you tried Your Place on University at Acton or Siam Cuisine right above San Pablo Avenue?
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Have you been to Siam Cuisine recently? It changed hands a few years ago (the owners retired, after having been there for almost 25 years). It used to be the best Thai restaurant in Berkeley (much better than greasy-gloppy Plearn or yuppie-central Cha-Am), but I haven't had the heart to try it under the new ownership.
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Haven't been to Your Place in a while, but it used to have some very good dishes.
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By far the best Thai place I've found in the East Bay is Chai Thai Noodles (which is basically a clone of the Larkin branch of Thai House Express in SF). Soi 4 is good, pricier but nicer atmosphere than most Thai places. Those other places you mention are all Americanized and lame.
Plearn closed. Little Plearn is still in business.
Except for Ruen Pair (where I think you can eat decently or badly depending on what you order), I'm not sure any of the places you mention serve any northern-style Thai dishes. Here's some general information on that cuisine:
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifest...
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FWIW, Plearn re-opened down the road at 1923 University. Haven't tried the new location, but those nostalgic for the old Plearn would surely do better here than at Little Plearn.
Having consumed fine northern (non-Issan) dishes in Vegas and Portland, and knowing little about the cuisine otherwise, I'm also interested in what I can get around here. I've had khao soi at Thai Noodle and that's about it. Any further tips on northern dishes at Ruen Pair? Anyone know where the Suriya team went after they were evicted?
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don't know much about Northern Thai but am a huge fan of Naem which is a "pickled" or sour sausage that comes from the North. The only restaurant I've had it was at Thai House Express in the TL. .it's in a fried rice dish that is one of my favorites. . when I commented on how much I liked the sausage in the rice, I was gifted with a small plate of just the sliced sausage, chili paste and sticky rice which is apparently how it is traditionally eaten - this was a long while ago but I am pretty sure they still have the fried rice on the menu. . ..I ran to Chai Thai Noodles to have that dish but alas, they do not serve it.
Ruen Pair - is expensive for a place that can be so hit or miss. . .I've left there very displeased with the food.
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a lot of people in northern thailand are actually laotian. checking out laotian places is definitely an alternative.
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Vientian Cafe
3801 Allendale Ave, Oakland, CA 94619
Green Papaya Deli
207 International Blvd (at 2nd ave, Oakland, CA
That Luang Kitchen Lao Cuisine
1614 23rd St, San Pablo, CA
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And Champa Garden, which it Thai/Lao.
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Champa Garden
2102 8th Ave, Oakland, CA 94606
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Those newer Thai restaurants may seem like they're serving new dishes but they're actually serving you a different cuisine altogether.
Just look for a Lao restaurant if you want traditional Lao dishes like Naem Khao (Lao crispy rice salad with fermented sausages), sticky rice with spicy chili sauce (Jaew Bong or similar sauces), Lao sausages (lemongrass pork sausages), Larb, etc...
A popular Burmese-influenced noodle dish called "Khao Soi" is a traditional dish in northern Laos and northern Thailand. The Lao version is an actual noodle soup with chunks of minced pork and fermented soy beans, whereas the Thai version is a creamy "soup-like" noodle dish. Khao Soi is available at most Lao restaurants as it is a traditional northern Lao dish. But for the northern Thai version of Khao Soi, you'd have to look for a Thai restaurant run by people from northern Thailand...unfortunately, most Thai restaurants specialize in central Thai cuisine (with a couple of dishes from Laos and possibly Lanna - Northern Thai)
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Having finally tried the wonderful Lers Ros in SF, I might give up on Thai food in the East Bay for a while. Otherwise, I hope my Golden Triangle cravings can be satisfied by Burma Superstar and the Lao places.
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I just returned from a business trip to Thailand (somebody has to do it!). My client is located about 100 km east of Pattaya, so I stayed at the Pattaya Marriott.
I must say, the overall quality of Thai food over there exceeds anything I've had in the Bay Area, including THE...or anywhere else stateside for that matter. I can't quite put my finger on it precisely, but the flavors are just that much more clear and bright. It must be due to the freshness of ingredients and spices. I ate at fairly average restaurants and at the client's cafeteria....everywhere the food was simply prepared and very fresh tasting.
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I have a friend who lives in Thailand half the year. He doesn't touch Thai food over here.
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I agree. It's fair to say that Thai food in the Bay Area bears little resemblance to the "real deal". That said, I had an amazing dinner Sat. nite with some friends in Alameda at "King of Thai Noodle". Nothing fancy, but flavoring of the basics was complex and nuanced. We enjoyed eggplant with chicken, and shrimp with green beans. Simple stuff. Really good. Plus they had red rice.
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