4006 chestnut street
philadelphia, pa
(215) 387 8533
www.pattayarestaurant.com
type of cuisine: thai
culinary excellence: 7
vegan friendliness: 5
after checking out lauren b.'s hybernation exhibit at the "homeskooled gallery" (aka her home) in west philly last evening, luca and i drove over to pattaya, a very reasonable thai restaurant next door to new delhi. the interior is nice, if a bit non-descript. they don't have a whole lot in the way of vegan options, but the options they do have are quite good. i started with vegetable coconut soup, a sweet and savory coconut based broth full of broccoli, pea pods, cabbage and some other pleasant veggies. if you've had this kind of soup before, you'll know exactly what to expect. luca got an order of excellent vegetable spring rolls, with crispy thin wrappers and a delicious sweet and sour chili sauce. i picked the tofu garlic entree from the two vegetarian dishes that do not contain fish sauce. this was really good. immensely flavorful bite-sized chunks of slightly sweet tofu with lots of fresh vegetables in a relaxed soy-based sauce. i love when they serve the scoop of sticky rice right by the stir-fry so it soaks up some of the juices. i was sad that luca's drunken noodles weren't vegan, because they looked pretty damn good too. overall, a consistently good meal and they have cocktails too! (are mai tai's supposed to taste like alcoholic hawaiian punch?) i don't think i will be frequenting pattaya too often, though, due to the insane range of meats they offer - alligator? seriously? but for mixed crowds, it's a fine bet.
bonus picture of one of lauren b.'s sculptures:
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