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Thai Cafe, Springfield


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Hi everyone,

This is my first posting about a restaurant and I hope I am doing this correctly, but I wanted to tell you about a really good thai restaurant right next to springfield mall. It is called Thai Cafe and my husband and I eat there a lot. I really love thai food so when we found this place I was very happy. It is right near springfield mall (a small shopping center right next to the mall/on the mall property)

The gai rama used to be my favorite but I am obsessed with the tom yum noodle soup. Honestly everything is good here. We've brought friends who have been very impressed. Its a nice staff and a friendly atmosphere and pretty inexpensive.

I highly recommend it. And, here is a link to some reviews that may help.

http://local.yahoo.com/info-12694076-thai-cafe-springfield

Enjoy!

Una

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Hi everyone,

This is my first posting about a restaurant and I hope I am doing this correctly, but I wanted to tell you about a really good thai restaurant right next to springfield mall. It is called Thai Cafe and my husband and I eat there a lot. I really love thai food so when we found this place I was very happy. It is right near springfield mall (a small shopping center right next to the mall/on the mall property)

The gai rama used to be my favorite but I am obsessed with the tom yum noodle soup. Honestly everything is good here. We've brought friends who have been very impressed. Its a nice staff and a friendly atmosphere and pretty inexpensive.

I highly recommend it. And, here is a link to some reviews that may help.

http://local.yahoo.com/info-12694076-thai-cafe-springfield

Enjoy!

Una

Welcome to the board and some of us love to "eat up" Springfield reviews. I have not tried this place yet, but it would be helpful if you were to contrast your experience here with Tommy Thai (take Loisdale next to the Mall over Franconia and 395 until it becomes Commerce, then turn into the K-Mart plaza) or Pasara Thai in Kingstowne or Panisa Thai in Burke. All are close by, all are very good and all should provide adequate context for Thai Cafe. Panisa even merited a Washington Post review.

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I've eaten here twice recently-yesterday, I took my kids (& one of their friends) there to celebrate the last day of school. So, 2 10 yr. olds & a teenager, & my daughter is not fun to go out with (very picky eater)-lunch was a success! The younger kids both got gai pad pak (chicken w/ veg) & I asked if it could be mostly broccoli -served w/ big bowls of rice & they scarfed it down. My son got the pad see ew w/ chicken & also cleaned his plate. We split an order of chicken gyoza w/ dipping sauce, kind of bland but hot & not greasy, perfect for the kids.

Now, I like things with a bit more spice, both times I've eaten here, I've ordered gai kapow-nice kick to it (I'm eating the few leftover bites now), & I love that they put eggplant in it. Last time, I also got the yum woon sen (spicy, chicken/bean thread noodle salad) & it was delicious. If I can ever bring myself to break away from my favorite dish, I'd like to try some of the other seafood dishes or the larb. I have to give this place an edge to my 2 (closer) Thai restaurants-Thai Herbs & Thai Na-Korn (which are both good, in different ways).

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Thai Cafe

6701 Loisdale Rd

Springfield, VA 22150

I just had an excellent and inexpensive dinner at Thai Cafe. This is a great find in an unassuming strip mall. The interior was simply decorated and very clean. You enter through the back, pass the kitchen area where the delicious smell of stir fried garlic and basil fill your nostrils. Two huge glasses of Thai ice tea, spring rolls, bean thread salad, beef panang, and a bowl of tom yum gai came out to be a little short of $32 before tip. With the exception of the terrible spring rolls that had too much cabbage and reminded me of Americanized egg roll, everything else was delicious and worthy of ordering again. The bean thread salad and tom yum gai were rated 1 pepper while the beef panang was rated 2 peppers on the menu. One pepper was enough spice for me and the two peppers compelled me to take swigs of ice water in between bites. That's saying something since I am the one who thought the hotpot at Uncle Liu's wasn't really that spicy. I am happy to report that they didn't make any of the dish overly sweet and dumb down on the spice level to suit American taste. For those who are truly brave, there is one item on the menu that's rated 3 peppers. They also brought out 3 spice jars filled with dried chili flakes, pickled jalapeno, and spicy fish sauce (very salty and not sweet like nuoc mam). The portion size was also generous and we took about half of the food home.

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Lady Kibbee and I dined at Thai Cafe this evening. If you enter from the Springfield Mall side, the spare but nicely appointed dining room is in the back. There was not too large of a crowd for a Sunday night -- no more than about 10 diners when we were there -- and I'm not sure what to make of the cocktail lounge music in the background. I don't think I've ever enjoyed Thai to the muffled sax of a few muzak tunes or the tinkle of the piano keys reminiscent of the stereotypically bad cocktail lounge. Not sure what atmosphere was being manufactured here. Service was on the slow side, and considering the sparse crowd, that's not a good thing.

I was tempted to try Thai Cafe because of the promise of some real spiciness. Sadly, it never arrived.

Lady Kibbee and I shared three appetizers -- the special of Angel stuffed wings, the gyoza and the chicken larb. The hit was the chicken larb, bringing the only real spice of the evening. Nicely full of flavor with lime and onions, and a nice portion size, it had some nice lingering spice to it. The 10-piece gyoza appeared to be baked (not fried or steamed) so the crust was a little on the dry side. The chicken stuffing was nice enough, but it took the dipping sauce and some additional condiments to give it any kick. I had high expectations for the Angel stuffed wings -- three wings with the drummettes deboned, and then stuffed with chopped chicken and shrimp and noodles, then shaped like drumsticks, breaded and fried. Although nicely crunchy, they brought no heat. The dipping sauce was a bit too sweet.

On to the main courses. Lady Kibbee had the seafood potpouri, which arrived as a small covered steel pot with shrimp, calamari and cellophane noodles. If there was more seafood intnded in the "potpouri" it was missing in action. As was, unfortunately, any real spiciness. I enjoyed the Cafe Thai Noodles, sort of a special version of Drunken Noodles (which is also on the menu but for $4 less). It contained beef, chicken and shrimp, but mostly it contained gloppy wide noodles and very little spice. Neither of the entrees were bad, but nor were they worth returning for.

Overall, not bad, and not good. If I had to eat in this little strip plaza again it would be at Osaka for sushi.

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