We had seen some excellent reviews and were excited to check out the restaurant.
We arrived to a very crowded parking lot only to find two tables of two and three guys at the Sushi Bar. I know they do a brisk business with takeout,...but there was no one picking up when we arrived.
We were seated immediately and were approached by a server who brought us water and menus. I ordered an Unsweetened Iced Tea ($4.95) – now I realize St Pete Beach is a tourist town, but $4.95 for Iced Tea or a can of coke is REALLY steep!
When our server arrived with drinks, we placed and ordered appetizers while we sorted through the huge menu of Thai and Japanese food options.
I ordered the Tom Yum Kung ($6.45); the soup was a nice-sized bowl with a flavorful Broth about four big Shrimp, Straw Mushroom, and huge chunks of Tomato. The soup was delicious!
My husband ordered a California Roll ($8.00) off of their Sushi menu. My soup arrived first, and we placed our entrée orders, mine for Red Curry with Chicken ($13.95) and my husband’s for Panang Curry with Chicken ($13.95).
Before I was halfway through my soup, both of our entrees arrived – the California Roll had not even made it to the table! The California Roll still took another eight minutes or so to come to the table. We thought about canceling it but couldn’t find our server. It was okay as far as California Rolls go. Nothing remarkable but not pretty good.
The Panang Curry was ordered Medium spicy, and you could taste the Peanut flavor with a bit of heat.
I ordered my Red Curry ‘Thai Spicy” and had a length discussion with my server about whether or not I was sure I really wanted it that hot. My curry was plenty spicy, thank you, but was flat. We both felt like the chicken had been poached in water and added to the curry. The curry lacked that salty, sweet, acid balance of traditional Thai curry.
I asked the server for some Fish Sauce and was told that they don’t cook with Fish Sauce and don’t have any there. (????) Later on, she explained that they serve many vegetarian meals, so they don’t use it.
Positives to the experience – all of the staff are wearing masks, and they appear to be limited seating. The curry portions were pretty big, and the servers were polite and friendly.
I just feel like living in St Pete and not tied to the beach on vacation; we have much better options.More