Thai Siam in Old Folsom

We were looking for someplace new to try out on a Saturday night, and hoping for slightly more spicy fare, when we found Thai Siam in Old Folsom. At 7 PM we were a little past the dinner rush, and there were only one or two other tables filled at the time, so it was a nice quiet dinner in a very pleasantly decorated establishment. The one odd thing was the choice of background music. I went in expecting something that matched the food and decor, and was surprised to hear a cover of The Beatles “Imagine” playing as we walked in. Luckily the volume was low enough that we didn’t notice the background music most of the evening.

As we were looking for spicy fair, the Spicy Duck on the specials menu was a must try. We also went with the Pad Thai with chicken, and a side of brown rice. While the Spicy Duck wasn’t nearly as spicy as we had hoped, (and trust me, if I say it wasn’t spicy, that means it was downright tame) the sauce was quite flavorful.  The Pad Thai was good, but nothing impressive.

All in all a good meal, and we’ll probably go back again, but not quite to the level established in the previous couple of blogs.

Bidwell Street Bistro

The seafood bisque was YUMMY! It was so well balanced all the flavors danced in my mouth. The seafood, the broth, the seasonings; all delectable!
The sandwich was a grilled chicken breast with artichoke pesto, goat cheese and baby arugula on a very soft roll. I was sort of wishing for a firmer roll, but otherwise it was great. The artichoke pesto threw me for a minute because I was not aware of the different ways to make pesto. I always thought of pesto as being basil, garlic, pine nut and olive oil. I didn’t know there were other pestos! I like it.
This restaurant looks like it would be a little fancy shmancy for dinner, but for lunch we fit in fairly well. The dessert menu was pushed on us pretty hard. The waitress went on about how everything was freshly made in house, blah, blah, blah, but we skipped it as we were filled to just the right amount.

Andy’s

On Friday 11/20/09 we found ourselves at Andy Nguyen on Broadway and 20th St.

You can see when you walk in the door that this restaurant is not large. Like many asian food restaurants though, they maximize their seating in a way that makes it feel like it isn’t that crowded. The large mirror on the far wall helps make it seem larger than it is and helps even the corner seats feel spacious. I liked the enormous potted plants and the spot lights on Quan Yin and Buddha.

Andy Nguyen’s serves what they call ”Buddhist inspired cuisine.” It is all vegetarian and the names of the dishes are, indeed, taken from Buddhist terminology. I liked the all veggie menu, as most restaurants are far too meat centric and serve substandard vegetables and side dishes. 

We ordered:

Iron Goddess of Mercy Tea, which didn’t really taste like anything special to me. It was tea and it was good, but I did not taste all of the notes it was supposed to have. Maybe my tongue is not sophisticated enough.

Zen Egg Noodle (from the Fire Grill section)
 - Egg noodles, soy shrimp, mushrooms, tofu, and mixed vegetables sautéed in basil sauce.   This was yummy. The noodles made the dish for me and  I was surprised at the texture of the soy shrimp. It really felt like shrimp when I ate it! Crazy how they can make tofu taste and feel like meat.

Peaceful Curry Soup: Rice noodles with soy chicken drumstick, button mushrooms, mixed vegetables and tofu in light yellow curry broth.    This soup was DELICIOUS!! I loved it! The curry was very flavorful without overpowering everything else. It also was not spicy, for those like my fellow Chewer Rob who can’t east super spicy food.

I give this restaurant a big thumbs up!   

~Amazing D~          

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