Sukhothai review

      It was with great sadness that we learned our beloved Tiny Thai had sold their Essex location. As you know, (see previous review), that was probably our favorite restaurant in all of Vermont. So it was with dread and anticipation, we made our way to the new Sukhothai on Friday night. As it turns out, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

      The first thing we noticed is the popularity had not change one tiny bit. A large line snaked to the door, which was always typical of Tiny Thai on a weekend night. The next thing we noticed, is both servers were part of the original Tiny Thai family. The third thing we noticed, is the menu really has not changed much, a couple of new appetizers and some new stir fries and curries but all in all we are looking at all our old favorites, YEA.

      We gave our name to the server and were told 15-20 minutes wait. This is pretty much normal for a weekend night, but be aware if you have a party greater than four, you are going to WAIT. This is a small place and not alot of large tables open up. As we sat waiting, I observed the first flaw, many, many tables had some food, while others in the party were waiting. I noticed one couple, (I say I am being observant, my wife says nosy), who the husband had food for a good 20 minutes before his wife. Several other times during the evening we heard the servers offering discounts or free food for prolonged waits. Obviously, this is a situation they will need to get under control.

      One of the things I always loved about Tiny Thai, was every night you could be assured of some specials and I loved ordering them because it gave me a chance to try new preparations but for now Sukhothai sticks strictly to the menu. We started with one of our favorite appetizers, dim sum and decided to try a new one, Goong Hom Pa, shrimp wrapped in a wheat dough and fried, Unfortunately, what came out was dim sum and fish cakes? I was going to return it but this was one of the other appetizers we wanted to try. Big mistake, should of sent them back ,as they were very rubbery and not much flavor.

      For our entrees wife went with her go to meal, massaman with chicken and I tried a new stir fry, Pan Nam Prik, roasted chili jam, cashews, basil with chicken and shrimp . The menu assured me it was one star the same as the massamn which I always thought of as mild. WRONG. I won't say it was blistering hot but it was MUCH hotter than expected and as such I didn't enjoy the sauce as much as I would of. The new owners need to make sure the heat scale on the menu is accurate as many of us base our meals on this index.

      Both entrees were very good and it appears the serving size is equivalent to what Tiny Thai offered and again the price for both of us together was under $40, which is a bargain anywhere.

On a scale of 1 to 5;

Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     3.75  Good as always though one appetizers fell way short and my entree was hotter than expected. Wife was relieved to see her favorite hadn't changed.
Beer and Wine,    No  Still BYOB so no rating.
Service,                 3.0  I knocked it down by .5 for the poor service by the kitchen and for getting our order mixed up.

Ambiance,             3.5  Same as Tiny Thai, like visiting a favorite Thai aunts house.
Price,                     4.0  Prices have gone up a bit but still an incredible bargain for this area.

Overall                  3.56  Still a great place but needs a little work with the kitchen to come up to the high standards of Tiny Thai. We will be back to give them another chance.

Douzo Japanese Steakhouse Review

      After our first choice fell through, (who knew Bobcat Cafe was so popular), we decided to have a meal at this new Japanese/Thai/Steakhouse restaurant. Located near Tafts corner, where the old Orchid restaurant used to be. The first thing you notice when walking in is how big the place is. Then you notice there is nobody around, that's because instead of stopping at the bar or what should be the hostess station, you need to walk all the way into the first dining room. Cavernous doesn't even begin to describe the place and this is a problem as I will point out later.

      Once you walk in, someone will guide you to a table. We were taken into yet another room, and this one was very nice, great decor, sushi bar, giant live tree, bubbling fountains and deep purple walls, This is a really nice spot and feels good too, as there are more people in here, so it feels like the restaurant isn't empty. We were handed two menus, one for drinks and one for supper. Beer and wine choices are limited, as is normal for most Asian restaurants, though I did see some unusual wine choices, must be for the steakhouse offerings. One of the specialties here is martinis, lots and lots of martinis. We ordered drinks, beers for the guys, one Thai and one Chinese and martinis for the ladies, (HA, if you read this blog you saw that one coming). Monkey Business for the wife and Lemon Drop for Chris, and hence the funniest line of the evening from the dear wife, "Do you want a picture of my monkey business before I drink" HAHAHA!!!

      The drinks were quite good, though the Lemon drop was very strong, and at $9.00 each, they should be. The beers OK, the Thai beer, Singhai, better than my Chinese beer which was merely cold, but then again you really don't want a beer too flavorful as this will fight with the flavors of the food.  We started our meal with two sushi rolls, the shrimp tempura and the spicy tuna;

      Both were good, though I thought the tuna was the better of the two, not too spicy but very fresh with a great flavored sauce. The shrimp was OK but I found it to be a bit tough and lacking in shrimp, (plus I am not crazy about asparagus in my rolls). A quick word about the menus, first they are huge, with MANY options, ranging from exotic to steak and chicken (cooked on a hibachi at your table, though I didn't see one in use). But the menus are the plastic laminated style with pictures of the food that you usually see in really inexpensive Chinese joints, NOT what you'd expect from such a high end place (and it IS high end, as we will soon see). Plus my plastic laminated menu was really sticky.

      For our entrees we went all over the place. Mike went with spicy salmon, Chris with sweet and sour shrimp and scallop, wife with sea bass and tamarind sauce and I went with spicy duck and scallop. Mike had the only two chili pepper dish of the bunch. Everything was quite good, though the sauce on wife's bass was WAY too sweet, (my sauce, while a bit spicy, was quite sweet also). So unfortunately for her, she didn't touch her rice, and as we all know white Thai rice has to be dunked in a sauce to be good. That said it wasn't that the fish wasn't cooked properly, just the sauce didn't agree with her. And that can be a problem when faced with so many choices, it's very difficult to pick the winners and the losers on a menu this size. My food was good, though I thought the duck was rather skimpy for the pricing, more bones than duck. The scallops were good though.

      Douzo seems to be a tale of two restaurants. On the one hand it wants to be a high end Asian restaurant ,ala San Sai. and it does do several things correct. The martini menu is large and fun, sushi is fresh and well prepared, and the menu is large and diverse. On the other hand, the space is overwhelmingly large and can feel empty, service can be cloying, too many people constantly asking if everything is alright and finally some of the items (menus, chopsticks, glassware) make it feel like your in a fast food Chinese spot. I guess for me what it always comes down to, is it better than Tiny Thai. I would say yes, by a tiny margin (HA), the variety is much better, the food about the same or maybe just a bit less and you can order alcohol, though at a price. BUT and this is a HUGE BUT, is it worth more than two times the cost and this is a BIG NO.

      If I am going to pay twice as much for something, then it needs to be twice as good. And while Douzo was quite good, it certainly wasn't twice as good as Tiny Thai. Plus the ambiance is more warehouse than homey.

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     3.5   For the most part the food was excellent, sushi was fresh. Alot of the sauces are very sweet.
Beer and Wine,    3.   Limited beer and wine selections,lots of martinis. Some unusual wine selections (for the steakhouse side I guess).
Service,                 3    Can service be too good? We seemed to have someone at the table all the time.

Ambiance,             3    This is a tough one,where we sat was nice but the other room not so much.
Price,                     3    Very pricey, is it too pricey? That is up to you but I felt it was.

Overall                  3.1  I like that you can get Sushi, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and steak selections all in one place. Also that you can get a drink, without having to remember to bring your own. But the problem here is maybe the menu is too ambitious, the space is way too large and the pricing much too high. If we have a crowd where everyone wants something different, maybe we will be back. Otherwise, I'll stick to Tiny Thai. Still my champion for Thai food.  

Tiny Thai Essex Location

      As we are in the midst of our annual triple H heat wave (hot, hazy, humid for those of you not from the South, or June, July and August for you Southerners),cooking on Friday night was the furthest thing from our minds. After a brief, what do you want, I don't care what do you want, I don't care what do you want, (if your married, you know exactly what I mean).  It was decided Thai food would be perfect, and if its going to be Thai, we only visit one place Tiny Thai in Essex.

      A quick phone call, revealed some intriguing specials, Skewered meatballs, and dim sum (OK really not a special, as its ALWAYS a special) for appetizers, Volcano shrimp for an entree. Yes, we will take all three and for wifey her one and only meal ever, Masaman with chicken and shrimp. I swear, if she could only eat one thing for the rest of her life, this would be it. I took a bit of a chance,with volcano shrimp as A)Deep fried doesn't usually travel well, but as we live pretty close and we would be eating as soon as I got home I thought I'd be fine and B) Ordering something called "volcano" at a Thai restaurant can be living on the edge. The nice person on the phone informed me it was two flames which is right at my threshold for pain. Sometimes 2 flames is OK, sometimes its ear ringing , throat burning hot. BUT he also said he could put the sauce on the side so I said go for it. Phew, disaster averted as the sauce was quite hot and a little went a long way.

      I got home in record time and as we were both hungry, hungry, we unpacked and started eating. Unfortunately, this would of been a good time for picture taking but was the furthest thing from my mind. It won't happen again, (well until the next day,as you will see later in the week, that's called suspense, kids).The Dim Sum proved once again why its our favorite appetizer, fluffy clouds of steamed dough filled to bursting with minced chicken, pork and spices, served with a side of soy based sauce. YUMMY. The other appetizer though didn't cut it for us. 3 skewers with three tiny meatballs, each looked great but the taste and texture left alot to be desired. the taste was very bland and the texture quite rubbery, as meatballs should be neither bland nor rubbery, we pass on this one.

      The entrees on the other hand were great. You really can't go wrong with the masaman curry, a nice blend of spice and coconut milk, with potatoes, carrots and your choice of meats, this never fails to satisfy. Ask my wife, its her go to meal every time.  My shrimp was great, a light crispy batter, (still crispy even after traveling, with beans, carrots and broccoli) and the before mentioned spicy volcano sauce, which tasted of chille's and tamarind. I was glad the masaman comes with alot of sauce as it was perfect on my rice.

      And what to drink with Thai food. Well, my suggestion would be a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. The perfect combination of fruit and crispness to cut through the spicy and sweet food. So which of the many incredible New Zealand wines did we choose...ummm oops the pantry is currently empty so we had to make do. We had opened a California Chardonnay, one of my least favorite wines actually, as they usually are too oaky, too much alcohol, too buttery, too hard to match with food but, I say BUT, on our recent trip to Paso Robles we happened too stumble upon (we had visited ALOT of wineries that day) a really cool, small family winery called Oso Libre, and lo and behold a shining golden moment. a chardonnay made from the grape and not the barrel.(really people, some Chards, you should just dump in the sink and suck on an oak branch same flavor profiles). Now this is wine to have with food, the bright flavors and crisp acidity complemented the flavors of the food perfectly. Alas ( does anyone say Alas anymore) we only had a half bottle, so into the wine fridge to find something else cold and out came a California Sauvignon Blanc, should be perfect right?  Not so much, one of hundreds if not thousands of generic California wines , this particular brand while not offensive was bland, I would say its flavor profile was..........cold. Pull off the label and this could of been any white wine you find in your local grocery store, not bad but certainly not good. So if you can find Oso Libre, buy it , Groth not so much. As Oso Libre is such a small winery, you may be better ordering online at;

http://www.osolibre.com/



                                                          Good, Yummy Wine

No so good but cold wine

In Conclusion;

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.

Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing 

Price,                 And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4 One appetizer wasn't ...well appetizing, but the rest Excellent !.

Beer and Wine,    No rating Tiny Thai is strictly BYOB.

Service,                 5 The staff here is great whether you eat in or take out.
Ambiance,             4 I know this was a take out order, but if you eat here it's a nice relaxed space.

Price,                     5 Two appetizers and two entrees for less than $35.00 DEAL !!.

Overall;                4.5 One of our favorite restaurants in Vermont, Always consistent, Always good.