Star Anise Thai Cuisine

One of the first places I checked out in the Renaissance Towne Center; other than Chicago Fire Grill (not counting Pho UTC several years back) was Star Anise Thai.

Tucked in the corner of the strip mall, the interior of the place is much larger than it looks from the outside. There's even an outdoor eating area; though I've never seen anyone dining out there....in fact, during my lunch visits, I'd never seen more than two tables of customers.

Service on all my visits was quite nice; not overly friendly, but gracious and somewhat efficient.

Now, if you've been reading for a while....you'd know I got quite excited upon seeing one of my favorite dishes on the lunch menu.

The Khao Kha Moo! Unfortunately, I was told they were out of that dish on this day....so I had to come up with something to eat. I thought the Spicy Pad Kee Mao (Drunken noodles) looked interesting; so I ordered that.

It was recommended that I get the dish with beef; which was on the chewy side, but not bad. I liked that this was indeed spicy, which I enjoyed. I'd have appreciated more Thai Basil and a bit more sweetness as this was more salty than anything else. The noodles were unevenly coated and were also a bit on the mushy/over cooked side. Still, this wasn't too bad.

I decided to return a couple of weeks later to finally get that Khao Kha Moo, which I as again told they were out off. I then tried to order the Khao Moo Dang....the young man then told me in a frustrated tone, "sorry, we don't serve those dishes anymore"! Geez, why didn't they just tell me in the first place? He did tell me that they have everything else on the lunch menu.....

So, again I had to quckly order something off the menu....I really wasn't feeling like the typical pick your prep; pick your protein stir fry kinda thing. So, I ordered the Nam Tok, which is something I enjoy so much, I make a version at home.

I had also ordered a side of sticky rice, which was very good. Nutty, sticky, perhaps a bit too hot to be eaten by hand, but not bad at all. The meat, while being a bit over-cooked, was adequately tender, especially for Nam Tok. There was a good amount of rice powder which added a nice roasted nuttiness to the dish. The folks in the kitchen went real heavy with the lime juice and shorted me in terms of savory-saltiness and sweetness. Also missing was spice as it wasn't spicy at all. It was also very "watery".

Like the previous lunch; this wasn't bad, just kinda mediocre. I'd had enough for a while and gave the place a rest....which ended up being months.

But, during this past hot October I returned...and since they had all the other dishes on the lunch special menu, decided on he Khao Man Gai. Which, unfortunately, they were out of; sigh......

Again, needing to order something off the menu; I just went ahead and picked the Duck Salad; which I was told was "spicy", it wasn't.

There was a decent amount of nicely done, if a bit bland duck breast in the salad. There was a ton of greens; I did enjoy the mint, but the vinaigrette was also really bland and not quite up to the task. The tomatoes were under-ripe and I think some cucumber might have been a nice addition to the salad. In addition, some of spring mix at the bottom of the plate was starting to brown. Still, this was a fairly substantial salad and temps were hitting the 90's outside, so a salad was the perfect thing.

Of course, trying to get something from that lunch special menu was now attaining comedic heights.

A few weeks later, I decided to give Star Anise another try; this time, I had back-up dishes (the Spicy Fried Rice had looked pretty good), just in case. But of course, this time they did have the Khao Man Gai.

The typical lunch salad and curry potato won tons were run of the mill. The broth provided was super salty and I basically just had one spoonful.

The chicken was cut very thinly, was moist and tender, but very mild in flavor. This is where the sauce comes in. I'm used to a ginger forward sauce. This one hardly had any ginger flavor and tasted mostly like soy sauce; it was too salty and over-powered the chicken. The fish sauce was also way too much for the chicken as well. To me; the sauce provided should have a good amount of ginger, for that nice cleansing zip; with a bit of acidity-sourness, and some garlicky-saltiness.

So, while Star Anise wasn't as bad as say; Di Chan or my last visit to Siam Nara, I still put it in the Ameri-Thai category.

So, perhaps folks out there can make some recommendations, now that I've given up on ordering from that lunch specials menu!

Star Anise Thai Cuisine
8935 Towne Centre Drive
San Diego, CA 92122
Hours
Mon - Thurs 11am - 3pm, 5pm - 930pm
Friday      11am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm
Saturday    1130 am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm
Sunday      1130am - 3pm, 5pm - 930pm

Comments

[kat]

guess you should call before going

[caninecologne]

:( gringofied Thai?

[Derek R]

Meh...

[Kirk]

Hi Kat - Not sure if that would even work.....

Yes, what I call "Ameri-Thai" CC.

Totally Derek....not terrible, but still haven't found anything I enjoy.

[Loren]

This place is pretty close to my parents' home and, given it has more variety than your standard Ameri-Thai place (I'm stealing that), we've always liked it. Top two dishes I always get are the Duck Curry and the Papaya Salad - have no idea if they're at all authentic but they're pretty tasty to me.

Are there any legitimately authentic thai places?

[Junichi]

Just came back from Portland. Tried Nong's for the first time. Their broth and ginger dipping sauces were so good!

[Kirk]

Hi Loren - The food isn't bad....it's just not my style. Though I enjoyed trying stuff out. You can try the som tom at Thai Papaya, which is closest to what we had in Thailand. Or try out some Lao style papaya salad which is really more funky. I'll return to Star Anise to try the papaya salad and pad see ew one of these days.

Yes, both are key to good Khao Man Gai Junichi. Along with the rice; which is often overlooked.