Thai Chili (Elk Grove)
food: 5/5
experience: 3.5/5
overall: 4.5/5
Yessss, my favorite cuisine, Thai. We meet again. Or shall I say, eat... yes, aren't I so funny.
Expectations were kept considerably low for this place, it being in Elk Grove and all. The strip mall restaurant is always excitingly unpredictable (yeap, I'm at a point in my life where I get excited about strip malls). Some say it's a sure indicator of an excellent hidden gem; others say quite the opposite. Still being relatively new to the foodie scene at the time, I couldn't honestly say one way or the other. If this place is representative though, I see a lot more Elk Grove dining options in my future.
Ordered to-go, so we picked up the takeout menu. They had a menu with a good two pages of vegetarian options (this was when I was vegan). And what an amazing selection! I finally settled on sweet basil tofu.
Minor mishap: I asked for steamed tofu, not fried, but it came out fried, dangit. Barring that, this is some gewd Thai deliciousness right heah. And the portions are perfect. Ample, yet not entering fatass territory.
Our second time we ate in and eh not too hot. Mother's Day dinner. Apparently a lot of moms like Thai food.
We ordered some appetizers and soup. Steamed chicken dumplings and curried puffs. Those came out fast enough.
The dumplings taste typical, pretty good and the sauce is nice and sweet. They look like shumai. Those all got eaten.
The curried puffs did not. The puff shell just tastes bitter. The flavor is hard to describe. It's not a phyllo pastry, spring roll or egg roll shell but it tastes familiar. The filling is a sweet curry potato which is good, and with the sweet n sour sauce it tasted alright. I definitely wouldn't recommend them in general.
Next up we got the soup. Tom Kha, or coconut soup. It tastes the same as their Tom Yum and Po-Take soup (which I tried at later dates) just sans basil and with coconut milk. This took you guys over twenty minutes to prepare though? Why?
It's really good, barely spicy but nice and creamy. We got mixed seafood which comes with calamari strips.
Finally, the lettuce wraps. We had to get these to go. They took over a half hour! After which we were already done. Really? We even finished paying and still not here. It's cus they make all the take-out orders before they do the people inside. It's a pretty established rule restaurants aren't supposed to do that, dummies. The people populating your restaurant are making it look busy and we're the ones tipping you for fuck's sake.
Came back again and had an experience directly opposite. Goes to show second chances should be given. I bow down, Thai Chili, you won me over. I am henceforth your loyal customer.
Since trying their curries I am a huge fan. Specifically the red curry.
Just the right amount of spiciness, and a huge helping that's definitely worth the thirteen-dollar price tag unlike Sawasdee in midtown blech. I also tried duck for my first time here. How do I describe it... What chicken should taste like. Yeah.
Note when ordering the yellow curry chicken with flatbread... you have to say with flatbread. "Yellow curry" is another menu item. The curry is good but not as good as its brother, red. Green is just bleh.
And the roti flatbread is fried to within an inch of its life. I would skip out on this but some people like fried flaky bread so there's that.
Their noodles are great. Specifically, the pad thai.
So sweet and the portion is huge. Which is a bad thing cus the more you eat the hungrier you are later.
Another stir-fry dish I've tried is the mango delight with shrimp.
It has pineapple and and other vegetables as well, plus a sweet sauce on top. It's alright but not as good as the curries. Nothing beats curry.
Their wonton soup is good.
No real comment here, it tastes as it should, and wonton soup is good, so it tastes good. Comes with chicken and shrimp too.
As far as their fried food go, yup, you guessed it, those are good too. Crispy and delicious with hefty portions. Here's the crispy calamari salad.
You can also get the calamari by itself as an app but you'll be missing out on that delicious sweet-yet-spicy lime dressing. Their batter is fresh and crispy, and decidedly not gluten-free. And on the topic of fried fish, the tamarind shrimp are equally tasty.
The shrimps are cooked super tender. They come with a yummy sweet tamarind sauce that tastes, well, like tamarind. You have to try tamarind though. It's good stuff. It's tangy is all I can say.
A lot of dishes feature bananas which is awesome. The fried rice, the stir-fry, and the curry, as well as fried banana for dessert. Here's the lemongrass shrimp and chicken dish featuring bananas.
Looks delish but I'm allergic to the sauce. Still. First place I've seen make such good use of bananas. They also have several mango stir-fries that look equally delish, like the aforementioned mango delight with shrimp.
The place is a bit sparsely decorated. Efficient wait staff. Preetty good English. Reasonable prices especially given their large portion sizes. Just don't be too particular about your order and you'll be good. Unfortunately for me I rarely come here anymore because they put soy sauce in just about every damn thing on the menu especially the stir fries, and they can't tell me if it's in the curry either, so I am S.O.L. Good food otherwise though. Recommend.
experience: 3.5/5
overall: 4.5/5
Yessss, my favorite cuisine, Thai. We meet again. Or shall I say, eat... yes, aren't I so funny.
Expectations were kept considerably low for this place, it being in Elk Grove and all. The strip mall restaurant is always excitingly unpredictable (yeap, I'm at a point in my life where I get excited about strip malls). Some say it's a sure indicator of an excellent hidden gem; others say quite the opposite. Still being relatively new to the foodie scene at the time, I couldn't honestly say one way or the other. If this place is representative though, I see a lot more Elk Grove dining options in my future.
Ordered to-go, so we picked up the takeout menu. They had a menu with a good two pages of vegetarian options (this was when I was vegan). And what an amazing selection! I finally settled on sweet basil tofu.
Minor mishap: I asked for steamed tofu, not fried, but it came out fried, dangit. Barring that, this is some gewd Thai deliciousness right heah. And the portions are perfect. Ample, yet not entering fatass territory.
Our second time we ate in and eh not too hot. Mother's Day dinner. Apparently a lot of moms like Thai food.
We ordered some appetizers and soup. Steamed chicken dumplings and curried puffs. Those came out fast enough.
The dumplings taste typical, pretty good and the sauce is nice and sweet. They look like shumai. Those all got eaten.
The curried puffs did not. The puff shell just tastes bitter. The flavor is hard to describe. It's not a phyllo pastry, spring roll or egg roll shell but it tastes familiar. The filling is a sweet curry potato which is good, and with the sweet n sour sauce it tasted alright. I definitely wouldn't recommend them in general.
Next up we got the soup. Tom Kha, or coconut soup. It tastes the same as their Tom Yum and Po-Take soup (which I tried at later dates) just sans basil and with coconut milk. This took you guys over twenty minutes to prepare though? Why?
It's really good, barely spicy but nice and creamy. We got mixed seafood which comes with calamari strips.
Finally, the lettuce wraps. We had to get these to go. They took over a half hour! After which we were already done. Really? We even finished paying and still not here. It's cus they make all the take-out orders before they do the people inside. It's a pretty established rule restaurants aren't supposed to do that, dummies. The people populating your restaurant are making it look busy and we're the ones tipping you for fuck's sake.
Came back again and had an experience directly opposite. Goes to show second chances should be given. I bow down, Thai Chili, you won me over. I am henceforth your loyal customer.
Since trying their curries I am a huge fan. Specifically the red curry.
Just the right amount of spiciness, and a huge helping that's definitely worth the thirteen-dollar price tag unlike Sawasdee in midtown blech. I also tried duck for my first time here. How do I describe it... What chicken should taste like. Yeah.
Note when ordering the yellow curry chicken with flatbread... you have to say with flatbread. "Yellow curry" is another menu item. The curry is good but not as good as its brother, red. Green is just bleh.
And the roti flatbread is fried to within an inch of its life. I would skip out on this but some people like fried flaky bread so there's that.
Their noodles are great. Specifically, the pad thai.
So sweet and the portion is huge. Which is a bad thing cus the more you eat the hungrier you are later.
Another stir-fry dish I've tried is the mango delight with shrimp.
It has pineapple and and other vegetables as well, plus a sweet sauce on top. It's alright but not as good as the curries. Nothing beats curry.
Their wonton soup is good.
No real comment here, it tastes as it should, and wonton soup is good, so it tastes good. Comes with chicken and shrimp too.
As far as their fried food go, yup, you guessed it, those are good too. Crispy and delicious with hefty portions. Here's the crispy calamari salad.
You can also get the calamari by itself as an app but you'll be missing out on that delicious sweet-yet-spicy lime dressing. Their batter is fresh and crispy, and decidedly not gluten-free. And on the topic of fried fish, the tamarind shrimp are equally tasty.
The shrimps are cooked super tender. They come with a yummy sweet tamarind sauce that tastes, well, like tamarind. You have to try tamarind though. It's good stuff. It's tangy is all I can say.
A lot of dishes feature bananas which is awesome. The fried rice, the stir-fry, and the curry, as well as fried banana for dessert. Here's the lemongrass shrimp and chicken dish featuring bananas.
Looks delish but I'm allergic to the sauce. Still. First place I've seen make such good use of bananas. They also have several mango stir-fries that look equally delish, like the aforementioned mango delight with shrimp.
The place is a bit sparsely decorated. Efficient wait staff. Preetty good English. Reasonable prices especially given their large portion sizes. Just don't be too particular about your order and you'll be good. Unfortunately for me I rarely come here anymore because they put soy sauce in just about every damn thing on the menu especially the stir fries, and they can't tell me if it's in the curry either, so I am S.O.L. Good food otherwise though. Recommend.
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