NoHo Thai quandry: Bua Siam, Sri Siam or Swan

[Famous Blue Raincoat]

Taking my friend out for her birthday tonight and have narrowed it down to these three. Never been to any of them. We like really authentic spicy Thai, like Jitlada and Renu Nekron. Thank you very much!!!

[haveforkwilltravel]

Ditto on Jitlada- amazing Southern Thai and so many choices.... great atmosphere and cold mugs of beer.... . Krua - hmm not that good despite raves.... Thanks for the suggestions but what dishes do you recommend for each? In the spirit of ipsedixit
Sri Siam
favorite dishes:?
Bua Siam
favorite dishes:?
Swan
favorite dishes:?
Thanks.

[bodie]

Sri SIam's best dishes are:

O Lou - an eggy, shrimp pancake with sprouts that is simply sublime.

Trout and apple salad - a fried trout over a spicy green apple salad.

Papaya salad - they make it hot!

Crispy catfish salad, Boat noodles , Mango sticky rice and probably more dishes that I have yet to taste (they have a thai menu but I can't read it so I am out of luck).

[sel]

Ask for help with the Thai menu!

[bodie]

Sri Siam is the best all 'round - though I think Krua makes a better noodle dish.

In fact, I find it surprising how infrequently Sri Siam is discussed on this board given its price to quality ratio.

That said, Sri is not comparable to Jitlada primarily because it cooks Northern-style Thai (crispy rice salad with sausage) whereas Jitlada cooks Southern Thai food.

Along with the crispy rice salad, I think the trout and apple salad, the o-lou (NeNe Pie's aforementioned egg pancake stuffed with shrimp and topped with sprouts) and other items are just remarkably good.

To my tastebuds, it's the best Thai outside of Lotus of Siam in Vegas - which also happens to specialize in Issan (northeastern) Thai cuisine.

[sel]

I've been to all three and while I like all of them, Sri Siam is by far my favorite. I hit Sri Siam at least every week or two. The other Thai restaurants in the area once every few months. Sri Siam has some of the usual mildly spiced dishes that keep my girlfriend happy and they have several full flavored very hot and scorching dishes that are properly balanced with sour, sweet, salty and hot. There are good choices on the regular menu and some extra ordinary choices on the Thai menu on the wall to the right as you walk in the front door. Their sweets are good too, well I did have a hard time getting down the Fresh Durian (in a warm mucilaginous custard) but all the others have been excellent!
Bua Siam is a smaller and more intimate setting and I should return more often and continue to explore the menu further. I did have a dish there that was listed as 'Country Curry' and it was notrd as HOT. Two waiters tried to dissuade me from ordering it and when it was served they watched me from a far giggling as I dug into the hottest curry that I have ever had - anywhere!!! It was damn good though.
Swan Thai was suggested by a friend that owns a Thai restaurant in a different area and while it was pretty good and I like the 'small plates' idea it just doesn't blow me away.
My recs for this board are Jitlada, Sri Siam, Lum Ka Naad and Krua Thai which I used to love but I have trouble getting them to kick up the heat/spice level, and I've tried asking in Thai. Lately I just go in and get a Coconut Smoothy (fresh coconut!) to go.

[ipsedixit]

In order of preference:

Sri Siam
Bua Siam
Swan

[sel]

Thanks for summarizing my long winded (at least for me) post!

[ipsedixit]

Always happy to help. :-)

[carter]

Since only sel mentioned Krua in this post, does it not stack up as well as the other 3, or was it just basically overlooked, due to the headline on the post?
Only ones I have hit in this area are Sunshine(now Rainbow) which was not good, and sanamluang, which was good enough.

[ipsedixit]

Some people swear by Krua, but for some reason it's never struck the right note for me.

I know that the Pad Thai (the Krua house special version) is reputed to be one of the best in town, but barely registers for me.

Just my 0.02.

[sel]

I think if a person is ok with more mild (read less Thai bird chilis) and more subtle flavors Krua Thai can be good. Their 'Pad Thai Krua Thai' is an excellent version of this dish, a dish that I rarely, very rarely, ever order any where else. But once again I can't get them to make this 'spicy' version spicy. Same thing regarding their '4-Flavors Fish' which is excellent but all 4-flavors are not intense enough. Same goes for their 'Som Tum w/Salted Blue Crab' which approaches greatness but needs.......you guessed it, Thai Bird Chilis!

[markn]

Never been to Sri Siam, but I love Krua and the dishes you mentioned are some of my favorites.....Pad thai Krua Thai, papaya salad w blue crab, 4 flavor fish, along with the shrimp cakes. Everything I've tried there has been great. But then again I'm not a fan of super spicy food, I find the medium spicy at Krua is the perfect heat for me.

Locally I prefer Top Thai over Lum Ka Naad, but only been to LKN once.

[NeNePie]

We ate dinner at Sri Siam last night. The service was friendly and efficient as usual. And the meal, the meal was spectacular! We had crispy rice salad with sour sausage -we always get that- and it was outstanding as usual but particularly fresh and flavorful this night. We gobbled it down. The fried tiny ribs with cabbage, ginger, lime, cashews, cilantro and onions on the side were earthy and fun to eat. Again, especially fresh and tasty. We also tried for the first time the shrimp pancakes served on a bed of sauteed bean sprouts. Not spicy in particular unless you add the accompanying sauces, but whew, really delicious. Like a loose pancake omelette with succulent whole shrimp and onions. Just divine.

I've never eaten at Bua. Swan I like. But Sri Siam is special if you ask me.

[Famous Blue Raincoat]

thanks, pat. i read your post about sri from 2 years ago. how does it stack up with jitlada? small plates sound kind of cool for thai. food. hole in the wall is cool.

[Chowpatty]

That's a hard question because nowhere else has Southern Thai like Jitlada. And Jitlada has beer, tablecloths, that sort of thing. But both Sri and Swan are really bursting with flavor, I can remember the Crying Tiger beef at Swan was really good. You can't go wrong at any of them.
I'll have to check out Bua next time.

[Chowpatty]

I'm not familiar with Bua, but if it makes any difference both Swan and Sri are real hole in the wall type places, very informal. Both are excellent though -- Swan has the special menu of "small plates" -- you have to ask for it.