Phonatic in Providence: report: good!
Between the punny name and the Thayer/Angell location, I thought Phonatic would be full of hungover college students and greasy fake-pan-Asian food on a Saturday afternoon, but I was wrong! It was good! Yippee!
The menu lists enough weird-sounding things that I got pretty excited even before the food came. I really want to go back and try the Pork Skin Rolls, Steamed Rice Cupcakes, Vinegar Beef Fondue, Pickled Limeade, and Egg Yolk Soda (can you tell I brought home a takeout menu?). Although, they have enough things on the menu like crab rangoon, fried rice, and beef with broccoli to give them a shot at staying in business.
We got Rice Ravioli (Banh Cuon) and Shrimp Pad Thai. The pad thai was good, not a knockout, but tasty, spicy, and with an impressive amount of nice vegetables (not just carrots and celery). The "ravioli" were pretty odd—it seemed like they made one long tube of rice wrapper filled with stuff and then chopped it into bite-sized hunks. My plate of them must have sat out for a bit, waiting for the pad thai to be ready, because they were fairly gluey by the time they got to the table. Sound good, don't they? Actually, they were pretty tasty. The filling was little flecks of chewy, savory meat, mushrooms, and green onions. They were sprinkled with a crunchy mixture of fried onions and tiny dried shrimp, and served with bean sprouts, cucumber, pickled carrots, basil, mint, fish-saucy dipping sauce, and a few slices of Scary Vietnamese Lunchmeat (the stuff you often find in Banh Mi, which is much better to eat than to look at). It was listed on the menu as an appetizer, but it was the size of a generous entree. I couldn't finish it (until just now, at my desk. Mmmm).
We asked for hot tea to drink, and they brought a pot of freshly made, delicious jasmine tea. Service was friendly, but a bit slow. Bathroom was clean and serviceable. We noticed that it's BYOB, and I predict we'll be back for dinner carrying a couple beers fairly soon.
Tartinet
Feb 17, 2007 02:53PM
Hey, thanks for that----I just walked by that place this afternoon (w/husband and children, on the way from the car to the Dreaded Cold Stone Creamery, which I want to hate, but really. really. liked). I wondered how it was and made a Mental Note---now I definitely want to try it.
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This is really good to read. I'd only heard two people's opinion, neither of which was encouraging. I'll give it a shot now...
- Garris
Providence, RI
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Phonatic is fantastic! I went there with some friends last weekend and we had a wonderful time. I tried one SIZZLING CREPE, and shared the VINEGAR BEEF FONDUE with the group and they were both delicious. Following the nudging of a friend, I ordered a cup (a glass, to be precise) of CAFE SUA DA (Vietnamese-style coffee with condensed milk on rocks) and it was the best coffee I'd had in days.
The pricing is reasonable. The ambience is quite good. The service is excellent. Too bad we couldn't drink. But well, you can't ask for perfection in life, can you?
*Eat-out-(until married and I or wife can cook) guy.
Providence, RI
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