Gastrolust

Dish: Drunken Mushrooms
Place: Araya’s Vegetarian Place, University District
Price: $13.95
On the plate: Per the menu: “Classic Thai spicy wide rice noodles stir-fried in garlic & chili with veggies beef, Portabello and other mushrooms.” The other mushrooms are shiitake and white button mushrooms, and there’s also red and green bell pepper, asparagus, [...]

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Dish: Boat Noodle Soup
Place: OK Noodles, University District
Price: $6.78
In the bowl: Per the menu: “Small rice noodles, bean sprouts, spinach.” “Small” is written in because “Wide” is crossed out. Beef is the logical choice with boat noodle soup, so I went with that, though chicken, soy chicken, soy beef, and tofu [...]

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Dish: Pad Thai
Place: Thai Palms, Rainier Valley
Price: $6.99
On the plate: Per the menu: “Thai noodles mixed with ground peanuts, onion and bean sprouts.” There’s also lots of shredded carrot and purple cabbage, and my meat choice of pork.
Supporting cast/What to do: No supporting cast, and some of the main characters are quite [...]

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Dish: Ayutthaya Noodles
Place: Ayutthaya Thai Cuisine, Capitol Hill
Price: $8.50
On the plate: From the menu: “Seasoned stir-fried wide noodles with chicken, egg & garlic. Served over green lettuce. Garnish with ground peanuts & green onions.” Julienned carrots add color and crunch.

Supporting cast/What to do: Spice up your dish if you like from the [...]

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Dish: Drunken Beef Noodles
Place: Indochine Asian Dining Lounge, Tacoma (on Pacific Ave.)
Price: $13.95
On the plate: From the menu: “Tender marinated beef, rice noodles, bamboo shoots, onions, and bell peppers are sautéed with Thai basil and dressed in sweet soy sauce and rice wine.” From the photo, you can see that there’s also [...]

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Dish: Guay tiow nua nom tok
Place: Spice Room, Columbia City
Price: $11.00
In the bowl: Per the menu: “rice noodles & rare beef in spicy rich broth,” but that’s not the end of the story.

Supporting cast: A tray with chili flakes, chili oil, and whole chilis.
What to do: You can order this at heat level 0-4, and [...]

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Dish: Boat Noodles
Place: Kamrai Thai Cuisine, Shoreline
Price: $9.50
In the Bowl: Per the menu: “Rice noodle with steam beef, green onions, cilantro and bean prouts.”
Supporting Cast: A caddy of condiments: salt, chili flakes, chili oil, and Sriracha, I believe.
What to do: Just eat. You can spice up the soup if you like, but if you order [...]

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In a town of 10,000 Thai restaurants (or so it seems), it might seem a bit strange that the best is actually a distance out of town: Noodle Boat in Issaquah. I assert this for three reasons: (1) There are many unique dishes, (2) Prices are great, with very few items exceeding $10, and (3) [...]

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One: I read this pretty awesome review of Thai Curry Simple and decided I had to check it out for myself. Then I decided I had to share my review in the same format.
The problem was that a lot of people decided to check out Thai Curry Simple after the review. My companion and I [...]

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Still catching up on all my pre-December restaurant reports. Consider these quick bites of the Asian variety:

Buddha Ruksa serves up some beautiful plates, placing it in the upper echelon of Thai restaurants in the Seattle area. Not as high as Noodle Boat in Issaquah, which might be the best around, but certainly a solid choice [...]

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