Thai Noy - Reliable, Neighborhood Thai in Westover Shopping Center on Washington Boulevard in North Arlington

[DonRocks]

In 2006, Rebecca Roberts hosted an hour-long radio show at WETA in Shirlington called "The Intersection." On one of the episodes, she interviewed Tony Bourdain for the first half, and me for the second half - I was discussing "neighborhood restaurants." (I have the hour-long program saved on a CD somewhere, and will be happy to upload it in case anyone wants to listen - WETA has since switched to an all-classical format (plus, I was their restaurant blogger, earning all of $40 a week for my time), so I can't imagine they'd care). I remember one question I stumbled on was when Rebecca asked me to name one restaurant that I thought typified what a neighborhood restaurant is - one really good example. My mind raced like a slot machine, thinking about all the neighborhoods around DC, before finally settling down and coming back to my own. When that happened, I thought of it in about two seconds: "Thai Noy," I said.

For all the times I've lauded Thai Noy over the years, it is *amazing* that it doesn't have its own thread on donrockwell.com. I remember the summer of 2011, when I drove four teenage kids 600 miles back from Indianapolis, only to get tantalizingly close to home on I-70, and to find out that my main artery back to Arlington, I-270, had been *shut down* north of Germantown. I cut down U.S. Route 15 through Point of Rocks, only to run into a particularly nasty thunderstorm, struggling to even see, then eventually dropping off the four kids (which itself took an extra hour), limping into my house, pouring myself a gin and tonic, and collapsing onto the couch after about the 12th hour. When I laid there, unperturbed, for about 30 minutes, and began gaining my strength back, I knew I was too tired to go out anywhere, and it was pushing 9 PM. I wanted comfort food, and so I called Thai Noy for carryout.

For two different reasons, I didn't want to go out on Tuesday and Wednesday nights of this week, and was also craving comfort food both evenings. On Tuesday I was exceedingly sleep-deprived, and on Wednesday, I was upset over losing one of our members. And so I had back-to-back carryout dinners at Thai Noy.

Tuesday evening, I ordered two of my stalwarts:

Emerald Curry with Chicken ($14.00) - Sauteed, sliced chicken in spicy [not that spicy] green curry sauce with green veggies, purple Thai eggplant, and fresh basil.

Keng Ped Yang, ($18.95) - Boneless, roasted duck cooked in red curry and coconut milk, pineapple, tomatoes, basil, and green and red peppers.

Both dishes were just as they are at least 80% of the times I'm here: very good to excellent. Thai Noy will rarely leaving you shaking your head in awe, but it will come through as "very good to excellent" nearly every time. The prices are high, but the portions are quite large, and they don't skimp on proteins. No MSG is added to any of the dishes because they don't need it.

A couple other dishes I regularly get here are Eggplant Basil or Tofu Basil (both vegan, and both satisfying), and Beef Penang. I've also been known to get Tom Yum Gai, an order of steamed rice, and when I get home, I dump the rice into a bowl, and pour the Tom Yum Gai on top of it. The starch in the rice thickens the broth and makes for a very satisfying, hearty bowl of soup. The papaya salad here is spicier than the norm, and is very good with the Keng Ped Yang.

I walked in to pick up my order on Tuesday night, and the gentleman (the owner?) working the register recognized me, saying, "You come in here regularly, don't you." I replied, "Yes, I've been here about 30 times before." He then added, "Yeah, I recognize you because you get a lot of the same dishes." Well, I guess that's the comfort food aspect, but it got me thinking, why not expand my horizons the next time I order? So the next night, I did it again, and got two dishes I've never gotten before:

Shrimp Chu Chee, ($16.95) - Sauteed shrimp in chu chee curry paste, coconut milk, served on steamed vegetables.

Wild Boar Basil ($14.95) - Pork loin stir-fried with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, eggplant, green peppercorns, in a Thai spicy sauce.

And both dishes were as good as my usual go-tos, the shrimp in particular having an extremely generous amount of shrimp in the dish.

Sandwiched between Lost Dog Cafe and Lebanese Taverna, it's easy to see why Thai Noy gets forgotten, but it shouldn't. It's a lovely, reliable neighborhood Thai restaurant, and may just be the single restaurant where I've eaten the most of number times during the past year or so. Always good, sometimes excellent, almost never anything more than that. It defines what a "neighborhood restaurant" is and should be. Try it sometime - you'll thank me!

I should add that I'm initializing Thai Noy in Italic, and ranking it #2 in the North Arlington section of the Dining Guide (which doesn't include neighborhoods such as Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse, or Rosslyn), right behind Layalina, and I could just as easily flip these two around and have Thai Noy ranked #1.

[goodeats]

I think this place a great fallback type of place to go to compared to other Thai places in the near vicinity: Bangkok Garden, Bangkok 54, Thai Square. But the major design fail in that area is that if you want to dine in at Thai Noy is there is no place to park. Between the demand on Stray Cat, Lost Dog, and Lebanese Taverna, it is super hard to find parking and really discourages me to go there. The other issue I had the two times that I ordered there is that the food is much sweeter than other places, so it discourages me to continue going, as I don't really think authentic Thai food should be really sweet (though, please, someone correct me if I'm wrong).

But I think I will give their carry out a try soon too, as it's closer to my place than the others mentioned...

[DannyNoonan]

I ordered carryout from Thai Noy last night and, as I type, am enjoying leftovers for lunch today. I concur with Don's assessment of the Tofu Basil - it is my go-to order and I love it. Portions are at least generous as well. I tried, for the first time last night, the papaya salad as well and found it much spicier than I expected, but in a good way. It too was a very large portion for a salad and I enjoyed it very much.

Also, regarding parking, I agree that is challenging to find parking in the small lots nearby. So much of a challenge that I rarely even attempt it. Instead, I park across the street near the school/library and bank or further up the hill on Washington Blvd and walk down.

I really like Thai Noy and am glad that word has gotten around about how good it is. Seeing the crowds in Lost Dog dwarf those in Thai Noy time and time again is disturbing and says alot about how indiscriminate alot of folks are about where and what they eat.

-Sean

[SeanMike]

The Wild Boar Basil was my go-to when I lived in that neck of the woods.

My brother and sister-in-law used to get carry-out from there all the time, but they've felt it's gone down in quality and quantity (and up in price) from what they've always ordered. They've started ordering from elsewhere. They also felt the service had gone down at the counter when they went in for carryout.

(They always order the exact same thing and I have no idea what it is. It's probably pad see ew for the sister-in-law.)

[genericeric]

Good Karma Comes Back To Bite Lost Dog

Last night, I ordered some carryout at Thai Noy which is right next door to Lost Dog Cafe in Westover. I went into Lost Dog Cafe, picked up a four-pack of German beer I hadn't seen before (Lammsbraí¼ Organic Pilsner, $11.49), then walked over and got my food at Thai Noy. As I was heading out, I put both bags in my right hand so I could grab the door handle. Unfortunately, the top portion of the four-pack was moist from humidity, and ripped during the maneuver, thus hurtling to the concrete floor. Three of the four bottles had broken, and there was a mini-flood. I was the last customer at Thai Noy, and the owner and another gentleman came over with a mop, reassuring me that it was not a big deal at all. I offered to help mop, but they wouldn't hear of it. (They are really very nice there.)

Well, one beer didn't seem like it would cut it, so I walked back over to Lost Dog Cafe, grabbed another four-pack (this time holding it from underneath), and went back up to the counter to see another cashier (there were several). "Those five?" she said. "Well," I explained, "I had just bought a four-back from the man down there," pointing to the previous cashier," and it ripped, so three out of the four bottles broke." "Oh!" she said, then removed one beer from the four-pack, put my unbroken bottle in, and handed it to me.

"Well, I'm going to pay for this," I said. She replied, "It's okay, we pay for our own broken beers." "Yes, but I was already out the door." "It's okay, it happens." Well, I was flabbergasted that they would do this - I took all the money I had - a five-dollar bill - and left it on the counter for the cashiers, thanking them profusely for their act of kindness. On the way out, I wished I'd had some more cash for the gentlemen at Thai Noy as well.

So thank you to both Lost Dog Cafe and Thai Noy for your actions last night! I hope both of you get business ten times over from the amount this cost you. Thank you very much, both of you!

After seeing this post I gave Thai Noy a try for the first time recently (so your post had at least some of its desired impact) and have ordered a few times since.  The Pork Basil was ok, but didn't have the heat level I was looking for (1 hot pepper on the menu).  On a subsequent visit I had the Wild Boar Basil which was flavorful, a little more unique, and nicely spicy (3 hot peppers on the menu).  The WBB, being their hottest dish as listed on the menu, still wasn't what I would consider Thai hot, I may have to ask to amp it up next time I order.  Also have tried chicken fried rice for my +1, which was average but hey, there's only so much you can do with fried rice.  The fresh spring rolls were really very good, while the crispy rolls are average (But again, there's only so much you can do with a fried roll).

Service has always been very pleasant when I've been there, though keep in mind on a Saturday night for takeout the wait was 45 minutes, which gave me an excellent opportunity to visit with the very friendly bartender at Lost Dog next door this past Saturday - really great service, wish I could remember his name...

I'm eager to try the tofu basil in the future and see what they can do in terms of spice...

[DonRocks]

After seeing this post I gave Thai Noy a try for the first time recently (so your post had at least some of its desired impact) and have ordered a few times since.  The Pork Basil was ok, but didn't have the heat level I was looking for (1 hot pepper on the menu).  On a subsequent visit I had the Wild Boar Basil which was flavorful, a little more unique, and nicely spicy (3 hot peppers on the menu).  The WBB, being their hottest dish as listed on the menu, still wasn't what I would consider Thai hot, I may have to ask to amp it up next time I order.  Also have tried chicken fried rice for my +1, which was average but hey, there's only so much you can do with fried rice.  The fresh spring rolls were really very good, while the crispy rolls are average (But again, there's only so much you can do with a fried roll).

Service has always been very pleasant when I've been there, though keep in mind on a Saturday night for takeout the wait was 45 minutes, which gave me an excellent opportunity to visit with the very friendly bartender at Lost Dog next door this past Saturday - really great service, wish I could remember his name...

I'm eager to try the tofu basil in the future and see what they can do in terms of spice...

I've never had anything from Thai Noy that I would call "hot." The Tofu Basil is a beautiful dish, color-wise, but I'm pretty sure after reading your post that anything you order from here, you're going to need to ask for it amped up a bit.