Our Thai House

While driving by myself one day I noticed this new restaurant called Our Thai House.  It looked interesting to me and so I decided to tell Geo about it so that we would try it out sometime.  The funny thing is that when I mentioned it to Geo, he had seen it on his own too.  Needless to say, since we both like Thai food, it was the next one our list.

Finally, after many evenings, we have a chance to go!  We called ahead to make reservations, but as it turns out they were not needed, the lady on the phone told us to just come in.  Se we did.

This place is located at 1415 n. Hamilton St. Spokane in the the Gonzaga area of town.  It is very welcoming inside, the kind of place that will make you want to visit Thailand.... (Geo always wants to go to Thailand and visit.).

We ordered Tom Kha soup....one of our favorites.  This one was made with tomatoes... a little different style than other places I have been.  It was good!  Curiously enough we were asked what kind if meat we wanted in our soup.  Other places I have been, it has always been served with chicken, so we asked for chicken.  This was our choice of "appetizer."

To go with our soup, we ordered the sticky rice.  I think I prefer the regular rice, for the soup, but Geo really liked the sticky.

We also ordered Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles and Mussamun Curry with Rice.  We also had Thai Tea.   There were three of us eating and when we were done we still had food to take home.

The waitress returned after taking our order and told us they had run out of chicken.. go figure!  So we  had to make adjustments in our order.  Instead of chicken  in the Tom Kha, we had beef and we liked it very much.

Our meal was served with a little salad.  This was a nice surprise.

Phad Thai

We enjoyed our soup first (not pictured) followed by the rest.

Adjustments to our dinner meant that we had pork in the Pad Thai and Shrimp for the Drunken Noodles and I do not remember what we asked to have for the curry, but it came with chicken... to our surprise.

Go figure that one too.

Drunken Noodles with Shrimp

Mussamun Curry with Rice

We really liked the curry.  It wad very peanutty and yummy-spicy too.  We would've had to ask for (or order) more rice to go with the curry though...if we didn't already have so much food to eat.

The other two dishes were good, but did not stand out, like the curry!




It is really good to have another Thai food restaurant in town and a pretty one too.  There are definitely some special touches here....

They have what they call, a "spirit house."  (seen here in the left.)

Most Thai food places have some representations of their homeland culture, usually there are pictures of the king and queen, sometimes little altars with fruits and food and things... but this is the first spirit house I have seen or noticed.  I did not inquire about the house, but you can read about it at the links provided here if you want to know more about what it is, or you can ask if you visit.

This is a tasty spot, but I do think that it's a little more expensive than some other of my already favorite Thai places around town.  (See photo of menu above.) They do have that coupon card though, where ...if you buy 9 meals and have your card punched  you'll get ten dollars off your total bill on one of your subsequent visits, but probably that will have paid for itself, so I didn't get one, but in my opinion, Thai food, is always delicious and definitely fun to eat with friends.  If in the neighborhood, I would love to eat Thai food here again..

Maw Phin

To our surprise a Thai restaurant recently opened up just a little bit north of Spokane.  Located on Hwy 2 in Mead, the parking lot was loaded with the cars of customers trying the new cuisine.  If you are familiar with the area, you know that the building it it is in has been the home of several other businesses in the past.  Things have changed.  Enter through the door and you'll notice it's something completely different than anything else in Mead.  The delicious aromas and simple but elegant decor warmly welcome you into the Maw Phin dining experience.

The address is 14891 N. Newport Highway, and it is right across the street from two other well known and liked local eating spots, a Subway sandwich shop and the Cinola Restaurant and Lounge.  Maw Phin, offering a little something different in their Thai dishes, like Pad Thai and Mussaman Curry, certainly stands as a nice addition to the mix of restaurants in the Mead area.  Thai food lovers traveling north and south on Hwy 2 or who live on the north side of town will find all their favorite food dishes in this quaint restaurant, we did.  And you do not have to simply eat -in, you can drive thru and pick up your orders to take home too.  They are open from 11:AM to 8 PM.  Customers can get dinner or lunch!



















Our dinner began with the Spring Rolls....

 and Thai Tea.

This was followed by Tom Kha Gai, a delicious coconut milk and chicken soup.... (flavored with exotic things like galanga, and lemongrass.)

We ordered another dish we like too, called Druken Noodles.  We ordered this one a bit on the spicy side.... not too much.  (Yum!)  The flavors were wonderful.  They can make most of the dishes as mild or spicy as you enjoy.

We passed on the dessert tonight though I must say that the black rice with coconut ice cream sounded really good to me.  This is definitely something you will want to try at a Thia restaurant sometime if you have  never had before.

In the traditional Thai style we were offered a lovely little sweet treat upon our departure- a delicious buttercream mint, which topped off the meal very nicely.

Thai Bamboo (again!)

Thia Bamboo opened a larger restaurant on the north side of Spokane not too long ago and Geo and I finally had a chance to go there, for dessert!  We ate Deep Fried Banana with Banana Ice Cream and Black Rice Pudding with Coconut Ice Cream....  Yum!

Both were absolutely wonderful treats. The Banana Ice Cream was the highlight though as it seemed we have never had banana ice cream before.

I think a part of me has been reluctant to come to this restaurant because it is such a monstrosity from the street.  Seriously, Thia Bamboo on N. Division street used to be just a little quant restaurant... easy to miss if you are driving by too fast.  Apparently when they undertook the endeavor to build anew, they wanted everyone's attention.  Here it is at night:
I

Those are fake Palm trees, by the way.  At night is is lighted up and in the daytime it kinda looks the same but instead of lights it is painted in bright red and yellow, and green.  It is quite different from all the other buildings in the area.

(They apparently do not want people to miss this place.)

Inside there is a bar area and a restaurant area... and there is outside seating too.  We sat inside.

Now, I have known several people who have come here and the only thing anyone told me was that it was "good food but a little expensive."   No one told me about this:

 THIS... is the beautiful twinkly, colorful ceiling they have in the restaurant.  It is beautiful!

 The colors change and almost swirls, as tiny lights move across the "sky."

I thought it was great.  I loved the atmosphere and the delicious desserts.... and I have to admit, when it comes to Thai food, Thai Bamboo has never let me down.  It iw just that usually, when you eat such good food, you never have room for dessert.  Sometimes you just have to live it up and go out for dessert!

The outside of the building is a little much, if you ask me....  One thing is certain, if you are looking for it, and maybe even if you are not, you wont miss it!  The address is 5406 N Division St, and their website: http://www.thaibamboorestaurant.com if you want to see a menu. 

Savanny Food Express

I read on Urbanspoon that this restaurant is closed.

Savanny ...11808 E. Sprague Ave,  is a little tucked away place.  It has only been open since the beginning of this year.  It is run by a husband and wife team.. Savan and Ny... so the place is appropriately named, "Savanny!"





We were driving by, noticed their sign that said Thai Buffet, and since we have never seen a Thai food buffet before, and because we love Thai food, we just had to stop and have dinner there.  It  also just happened to be a Saturday, which is one of the buffet nights, so we were in the right place at the right time.

The place was busy since there was a party going on in part of the restaurant.  It was spacious and pretty, with real live flowers on the tables, and nice buffet selections.

There were yummy things like  Mussaman Curry, Phad Thai, Tom Ka Gai, Orange Chicken, Spring rolls, and bamboo skewered barbecued chicken and pork.. and a few other things too.

The "All you can eat" buffet was 9.95, but there was a lovely menu too.  The Soup, Thom Ka Gai, was not really spicy, so I asked if there was a way to make it spicier.  We were brought some spices and shown how to use them to make our soup the way we liked it best. 

The "All you can eat" buffet was 9.95, but there was a lovely menu too.  We enjoyed our dinner very much.  This is one place we would like to visit again, especially for the buffet!  It was great!

 

Thai Grill

Thai Grill is located in a little shopping center on south Argonne.  The address is 101 North Argonne Road
(Spokane Valley,)We have always wanted to try this spot when we drive by, and finally, we did!

We ordered the spring roll appetizers... chicken, (it has veggies too!) and Thai tea.  Please note that Vietnamese Spring rolls are not the same as Thai Spring rolls....  Thai Spring Rolls are more like Egg rolls only they are really rolled up.. and deep fried.  (Veitnamese Spring Rolls are very different and sometimes even I have been confused... but I am learning!)

We then ordered Tom Ka Gai and Mussaman Curry, which came with rice.... and we ordered it at heat level 4.  It wa just right.... well, actually, just " maybe" just a little spicy, but we like it that way.

It was very good!
We had to visit again...