The Coconut on T (Midtown Sacramento)

food: 5/5
experience: 3.5/5
overall: 4.5/5

Came here for the first time on Second Saturday at 8. Didn't eat until 9. Lesson learned don't come on Second Saturday. In fact just avoid midtown in general on that day.

Their menu is not so big which can actually be a good thing as they can master their few dishes. The chef was too busy for special orders so I couldn't get a steamed stir-fry dish instead. Went with the red curry with tilapia. Also comes with pumpkin instead. I do love pumpkin curry. Curry is always good anyway. Right, so the red curry.

Their red curry is fairly sweet but also spicy. Sweet and spicy in equal proportions, a nice combo. I mean curry's basically the best Thai dish ever so it's hard to do it wrong.

We also got chicken satay and potstickers.

Not much you can do with these, they taste perpetually the same no matter where you go. Not bad but not exactly mind blowing. I like that they steam the pot stickers.

I've also tried their basil tofu and that was, just, uh, not very good. Their garlic chili sauce (also on the eggplant and BBQ chicken dishes) is just plain sweet. No spice.

I tried their panang curry after their red curry and I wasn't impressed.

I know it's just a basic coconut milk curry so I guess I should've seen it coming but usually panang has a peanut flavor to it. If it did it was very mild. I had to substitute all the vegetables which cost three bucks extra, and the tilapia ended up being fried much to my chagrin. At least they gave me a lot. But still. I threw the "skin" away which didn't leave me with much fish. I think I'm done with the curry portion of their menu.

Unfortunately since pad Thai and fried rice are made with soy sauce I couldn't try them. Damn you soy allergies! (shakes fist)

Look how good this shit looks. Sigh.

On a happier note, The Coconut has happy hour every day! It's only from 4:30-6pm though so get there on time. We started off with some calamari and cheese wontons.

Their calamari is thick-cut and fried in tempura so that's good. But these wontons are something else. The cream cheese is like the sweet cream cheese filling you get in pastries and I think there's some minced carrots or something in there. I don't know. I tasted carrots. These are some of the most intriguing cheese wontons I've ever had.

They also have sweet potato fries and garlic fries! Noice. Noice.

Fries of the sweet potato and garlic variety are both already good, but the sweet potatoes are thick-cut and the garlic fries are crinkle cut (cries with joy) so they're even better.

The classic dessert, mango with sweet sticky rice is served here. As a bonus though, it comes with namesake coconut ice cream!

If you have never had mango as a dessert at a Thai restaurant you need to get on it. It's good shit and it's healthy (ice cream notwithstanding). They also have fried bananas which personally I've never tried (because a certain someone I dine with never wants dessert) but I have only ever heard good things.

So, even though I say Thai food is Thai food, I can't deny that the Coconut takes it a step up with their ingredients as well as their menu selection. There's a reason this place got so popular so quick. It's good shit.