In reviewing our recent meal at Grand Szechuan a couple of weeks ago I noted that we hadn’t eaten much Chinese food during our three months away in Bombay and Seoul. Well, we didn’t eat any Thai food at all. As such, going out for a good Thai meal was high on our list of priorities when we got back. We got around to scratching that itch last weekend. Against all odds, we didn’t go to any of our usual top three: Krungthep Thai, On’s Kitchen or Bangkok Thai Deli. Instead we went back to the small restaurant that I once put almost on the same level as its bigger University Avenue (where else?) peers: Thai Cafe. Here’s how it went.

If you’ve been, you know that Thai Cafe is quite small. A party of six, we were the second group to be seated and between us and the first group (also about six people), the restaurant was almost full. There was only another two-top and another four-top available. Both tables were eventually taken as well, and there seemed to be a steady stream of takeout orders being picked up as well. Well, I guess it’s a good thing they can’t seat more people as the small kitchen was seemingly already pushed to the limit. It took quite a while for our food to start coming out. But the important thing is that when it did it was quite good.

What did we eat? Thai Cafe’s menu is now larger than it was on our first visit in 2016—of course, the ownership has changed as well. The current owners have kept the most famous of the original restaurant’s dishes: the Sour Pork Ribs. Naturally, we got an order of those. From the appetizer section we also got the Chicken Satay (for the boys), the Fish Cakes and the Beef Larb. The beef larb was my pick of the four. The pork ribs were tasty enough but crispier and drier than I remembered them being when we last ate in at the restaurant in 2018 (since then we’ve only done two pandemic takeout pickups). The fish cakes were fine but the boys were not terribly enthused by their satays.

The four adults in the group also split an order of the Boat Noodles (quite good) before going on to a couple of larger dishes: Pad Ka Pao (excellent) and the Curry Fried Fish (quite good). We got the pad ka pao at the hottest setting and it was quite the workout; not that the larb, one level below that, was what anyone would describe as mild. To soothe our palates we ended by splitting an order of the Mango Sticky Rice (very nice).

For a look at the restaurant, the menu and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.

I’ve noted that the food took a while. Service was as friendly as always, however. It really is a pleasant place to eat. Cost? $165 with tax and tip. Enough food for 8 people, probably, so an effective per head price of $20 or so per head. Not bad at all for what was a pretty good meal. On the strength of this outing I wouldn’t put Thai Cafe at the level of the three places I named above—and sour pork ribs, notwithstanding, I’m not sure I’d even put it above Basil Cafe; but it’s certainly in the top five for Thai in the Twin Cities.

Okay, my next Twin Cities report will take us into the realm of fine dining: we are due to eat at Alma this weekend. Before that report, however, I’ll have at least one more report from Seoul and another from Delhi. The Seoul report will likely be another fine dining report as well. That’ll go up on either Thursday or Sunday.