Budda Ruksa!

It was Wednesday evening,  we didn't have a dinner plan and tonight, Valentines Day, I have to go to Bainbridge for a school meeting. Why not try Budda Ruksa again? It was still early.

We got there about 5 pm. Plenty of street parking available. We were immediately seated, I mean, we weren't even in the door yet when the Host was asking us how many and leading us to our seats. That set the tone for the rest of the night.

We were seated in a two person table by the window. The place was maybe half full. The server gave us three menus. A drink menu, a bar menu and a dinner menu. I passed the drink menu to B, and scanned the bar menu. The menu was an 8X11 laminated sheet, white background with busy Thai patterns on it.  It was a little hard to read, especially in the dim lighting.  It wasn't that interesting of a bar menu.

I grabbed the dinner menu and opened it. It started out with appetizers. Calamari, Crab Rangoo, the usual Tha apps. The last thing on the menu, hard to read because the menu has a gradient background that starts white at top and blends to a dark red at the bottom. The last thing on the menu was fried bananas. Cool! I don't even like bananas much but this was fun to see.  

The entree menu was equally impressive. An amazing collection of dishes. Lots of seafood. Lots of everything. It was a very expansive menu.   I read it all, every page with great scrutiny. Everything sounded fantastic.  I knew before I walked in I was getting Phad Tha with Tofu. It is my barometer of a Thai Restaurant. If it's good, I'll come back and try something a bit more exciting.

We ordered beverages and Salad Rolls. The appetizers came before the server even left the table! Ok, exxageration, but not by much.  I swear we had three servers, all filling things and bringing things. Practically hovering.  It was impressive, borderline over the top, but they were all very nice and sincere. They truly wanted us to have a good dining experience.

The salad rolls were fine. What can you do with a Salad roll? Everytyhing was very fresh.

Dinner came minutes after we ordered it. My Phad Thai was simply amazing. It may very well be the best I have ever had. Not too orangy, like so many places do, cheating with Orange Juice concentrate. The closest I could compare it to was Thai Simple Curry. Not over the top on seasoning, just right. Three stars was a little mild, but that is what chili sauce is for.   I actually used all of the sauce. I left the jar out on the table, so they could fill it for the next table, before I took my hand off of it, a server grabbed it and refilled it!  Wow. How did they see that?  Oh, and the Tofu. Did they make it fresh to order? I have never had such fresh Tofu before. It tasted really good.

B had the Crispy Garlic Chicken, the fan favorite. Everyone I have heard talk about this place has said to get the Garlic Chicken.  She loved it, couldn't stop eating it.  

We will definately come back here again!





http://www.buddharuksa.com/