Revisits to Places I've Never Done Posts On - Thai House

**** Thai House has closed

Here's another in the series of revisits to places I've never done posts on. There was life "BB" (Before Blogging) and there were places that were perhaps on our rotation during those days, but were removed from the list before we started things back in May of 2005. Thai House was one of these. Back when I was doing consulting work here in San Diego in the late 90's, I'd drop by Thai House every so often. Yes, the food was "Ameri-Thai", but it was prepared decently, and the flavors were ok. But somewhere around 2002-2003 we had a string of really terrible meals here and just never looked back. And yet, as I was walking to my car after having lunch at Szechuan Chef a few weeks ago. I saw Thai House; perhaps looking a bit worse for wear and thought that perhaps it was time for a meal there.

Man, it's been around fifteen years since I last set foot in this place. And from the Pepto-Bismol pink, to the outdated banquet chairs......Thai House is kind of showing its age.

Still, the Servers here are very friendly, and they seemed to know most of the customers coming in to eat...regulars I guess.....and not a single Asian among them. I felt kind of out of place.

Still, I went forward, full speed ahead. I recalled that Thai House used to prepare their own duck, so I went with the (not so) "Crazy Duck", basically a duck larb (heat level 8) and the dish that will often give me a clue as to the stir-frying skills of the cook, Pad See Ew.

The Duck Larb was barely ok; too much lime, not enough spice (more like a 3-4), and the flavor of the duck was quite mild and the texture pretty hard, not chewy, hard.

The Pad See Ew was not cooked well.

As you can tell; no "wok hay", the noodles were mushy, telling me that it was cooked at too low a temperature for too long a time. It was too salty, with not enough sweetness to balance things out. The chicken was dry and all of this together made the dish seem greasy, when it really wasn't.

So, the photos just kinda sat for a while....I was on the fence about doing this post. So I decided to give Thai House another try....something simple from the typical "pick the protein, pick the prep" items on the menu. I was leery about ordering chicken here again and really didn't want to try my luck at having something with beef. Again, knowing they roasted the duck inhouse made me go ahead with the Duck with Hot Basil.

This was also pretty mediocre; though not as bad as what I last had at AppeThai.

Again, this was more like a saute than a stir-fry; so I guess that's the M.O. here. I appreciated the asparagus, but the sauce was again very salty, and it was super watery....the ingredients should be glazed; not overly sauced. The duck was fairly decent; though on the chewy side. Not enough basil and definitely not an "8" on the heat scale.

I guess in the end; this "style" of Thai food is not my thing. At least for me; Thai House hasn't aged well. Though perhaps for some, at least the "regulars" who seem to come here all the time (the Servers know what folks are going to order), there is comfort in what Thai House serves. And the Servers have a nice rapport with these folks.

But heck; like Karihan and the Godfather it was interesting to revisit after all these years. Though I think it'll be quite a while before I'm back here.

Thai House
4225 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Comments

[kat]

:( at least you went back to see how they fared

[Kirk]

At least Kat.....

[Junichi]

Pad See eeew.

[Kirk]

Lol Junichi! Pad See Eew is a deceptively difficult dish to master.

[Sandy]

I think my last visit to Thai House was just as long ago. It was never a favorite, and now there's more options for Thai.

[Kirk]

So true Sandy!