Following my mega Grand Szechuan round-up from last week, here is a report on a collection of meals eaten at Bangkok Thai Deli at various points in 2015 as well. In the past I’ve described Bangkok Thai Deli as being alongside On’s Kitchen at the top of the Twin Cities’ somewhat meager Thai scene. Based on our meals this year, I am sorry to say that I think it has dropped quite clearly to the second position. While we’ve eaten some very tasty things there, there’s been a lot of inconsistency and even some meals that were somewhat blah on the whole. We’ve still eaten there more than at On’s because we only get up to the Cities on the weekends and On’s is closed on Sundays, which puts it at a bit of a disadvantage vis a vis our wallets. As with my last Grand Szechuan post, what follows is a slideshow, with descriptions, of dishes that were (mostly) not reported on in my previous reviews (here and here).
Please click on an image to launch the slideshow (with detailed captions/descriptions).
Appetizers/Snacky Things first: These shrimp patties are very nice.
As are these crab and pork dumplings/wontons.
More pork than crab inside though, not surprisingly.
Much better than both are the two deep-fried pork offerings. First up, pork ribs.
Next, pork belly. This is very nice but you’re not always going to find very much obvious evidence of it being belly. The dipping sauce for both pork apps is excellent and we usually dip the shrimp patties/hoi jor in it too.
This basil fried rice is quite nice,
As is the papaya salad with salted crab (far less fish-saucy than the Lao version).
The grilled pork salad varies from very good to blah.
As does the larb. On our most recent visit the rice powder that is sprinkled on top was obviously scorched and it threw the whole thing off. They didn’t make any fuss when we complained though and made us a fresh batch sans rice powder to go as a replacement.
The tom yum has likewise been variable: as expected on one occasion, too sweet on the other that we got it.
The milder duck noodle soup, however, has been reliable (and has reliably pleased our boys).
We only got this for the first time recently. It is somewhat cloying with heavy use of five spice and divided us (the missus thought it was okay, I liked it more). It involved rolled rice noodles and an array of fried porky bits plus crispy tofu.
Close-up of the rolled noodles.
Their masaman curry is just okay; tastes somewhat generic, frankly.
But the thick red curry with pork is better than okay.
Their pad sator is also good, though I far prefer the last iteration we ate at On’s. A word of warning to those who’ve not eaten sator beans before: they’re callled stink beans for a reason.
This crispy spicy catfish may be the best thing we’ve eaten there of late, and was all but lethal when asked for Thai hot at our last outing.
Everything else about Bangkok Thai Deli remains the same. That is to say, indifferent but friendly service, food that really comes out properly hot if you ask for it so, and a cultural mix among the patrons that you won’t see at most other Thai places, including On’s. And inconsistencies and the occasional off dish aside, they’re still head and shoulders above all the places in the next tier and I can’t see us eating there very much less (unless On opens up on Sundays). But I think we might be done exploring the menu—though there are still a few Lao-style dishes I want to try.
A question for the Twin Cities mavens who may be reading along: have any of you been to the very shiny (at least from the outside) King Thai on University and Marion?
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Never having tried BTD, and based on your review, I suppose we will return to On’s soon – it’s been a couple years now. Both places seem to have a broad selection of dishes. But your pics of the apps (and the rest) at BTD had my mouth watering.
Also, On’s offers beer and wine, although I’ve found a few of St. Paul’s ethnic places allow BYOB. (Unlike Chicago, where it’s ubiquitous)
I’ve found there are Thai dishes that are fairly easy to make at home. The other night we made a Thai spicy beef salad, which turned out delicious. And we didn’t scorch the broken rice! It’s addition really makes the dish, and it’s so easy to prep.
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Apart from the being open on Sunday thing the two reasons to choose Bangkok Thai Deli over On’s are their khao soy and their boat noodles. On’s doesn’t do either and the versions of the two we’ve had at Bangkok Thai Deli have been quite good (especially the boat noodles). Other than those two dishes, everything that we like at BTD is also available at On’s and is as good or better there.
And to be fair, I suppose it should be noted that On’s can be variable too—there was one occasion when she was not in the kitchen and some things were not very good. By the way, On’s was closed for vacation last month. They were supposed to be back early November. Does anyone know if they in fact are?
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it has re-opened.
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I haven’t been to King Thai but a friend said it was just OK. I’m not sure I’ll get there soon considering the other options nearby.
This summer two of our meals at On’s were cloyingly sweet and heavy. For instance the 3 Flavors Fish tasted like it was covered in McDonalds Sweet n’ Sour sauce. It’s possible we ordered poorly (too many similar items, perhaps) or they saw my Howdy-Doody face and turned down the hot and sour leaving just the sweet. I’ve heard of no one else having this problem, though!
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For what it’s worth, that whole fish prep is our least favourite there (we’ve had versions that were heavy on the sweet n’ sour too; and had the same problem with the same dish at BTD); if you haven’t had the versions with lime/chilli and thick curry sauce, I highly recommend those.
The heat issue is I suppose another reason to recommend BTD. I think because their clientele skews far more Asian than On’s does they’re more likely to give you stuff hot if you ask for it that way. At On’s, over the years, we’ve sat next to so many tables that have gone down the menu asking the servers if every single thing is too spicy etc. that it’s sort of understandable that their default seems to have become to give white customers dialed-down food (though also annoying for customers who don’t want it that way).
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How about Roat Osha on Hennepin Ave near uptown? Pretty tasty IMO.
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Never been. Where would you put them on the On’s/Bangkok Thai Deli continuum?
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