Lotus Thai Restaurant
My husband likes to study Yelp emails and recently announced that Lotus Thai had been chosen one of the 10 best restaurants in Seattle. So a few days later, we ended up there. It is colorful, but do wear a sweater as the front door doesn’t close properly and one of the jobs of the waitperson seemed to be closing the door emphatically as she also deftly took orders and handled the take-out crowd. The place is small, but the main business seems to be take-out although several booths were filled with eat-in customers when we were there on a Thursday. The menu is extensive as with most Thai restaurants, and we took our time to peruse the menu and the posted specials before ordering. A word of warning: the servings are very generous. I have been to Thai restaurants where a plate is beautifully arranged, but let’s face it: there’s not enough food there for a picky 2-year-old. Not so at Lotus! You will be taking some home for the next meal!
There is a take-out menu on line but I couldn’t find either of our dishes on this menu. I ordered Rama veggies with Peanut sauce and my husband ordered Garlic Chicken. I asked for three stars but the server looked at me closely and said I should take two stars! She did allow my husband to order his dish with three stars. There was not too much heat in either dish, but I worried that I had a white bread with Velveeta look about me that I was not previously aware of.
The servings are VERY generous, as I mentioned. A heaping mound of rice, but not short on the other ingredients, and my husband’s chicken looked like an entire half breast. My only quibble was that the peanut sauce was thicker than I like: more cornstarch? It tasted good, but I would prefer a lighter sauce. I was able to order brown rice with my dish and there was no additional charge. My husband enjoyed his dish and said there was not too much garlic (in truth, we have only had too much garlic once in an Italian restaurant where we ordered garlic spaghetti.) The menu prices include the tax so it’s pretty easy to figure out your bill.
Disclaimer: When I checked YELP, it was NOT in the top ten restaurants, but was number one in the top ten Thai restaurants in Seattle. The top ten included Pike Place Chowder, which I consider a good lunch place, Toulouse Petit which we reviewed last month, and The Pink Door, which is one of my two most favorite restaurants in Seattle, the other being Ponti. Happy Eating in the New Year! So many restaurants, so little time!
Lotus Thai Restaurant
206-323-9445, 2724 E Cherry St. (next to the new Fats at the NW corner of MLK and Cherry)
~Diane Snell