Thai 88 Cafe

My family and I had our weekly dinner on Sunday night. I chose to go to Thai 88 in Plano by 99 Ranch. I had a friend tell me it's really good so I thought we'd check it out.

Thai 88 Cafe
141 W Spring Creek Pkwy, Ste 401
Plano, TX 75023
(972) 801-9676
Price: $

The place used to be a yogurt shop... you can tell when you walk in. haha. Pretty creative if you ask me. Bright and clean. A small shop for a restaurant though...a bit crammed. It's owned by a couple. The husband is Chinese and my parents talked to him when we walked in. He was really nice. His wife is Thai and does the cooking.

We ordered a bunch of stuff to share.
Thai Spring Roll (5) $4.25~ Pretty standard.

Tom Yum Soup (with shrimp) Bowl $5.95~ I'm not a big soup person (well, the broth kinds anyways). But everyone said it was really good. Very good flavors.

Green Curry (with vegetables and tofu) $8.95~ This is one of the staple items I have to get when trying a new Thai place. It was awesome. We ordered it spicy (3 out of 1-4 scale). It had good heat and was nice and creamy. And it was so fragrant. Reminded me of my mom's friend's Thai restaurant in Taiwan. Her husband is Thai and it's super authentic. I've yet to have something in Dallas that reminded me of those flavors. This is the first! I will for sure go back for this!!!!!

Pad Thai (with chicken) $7.95~ This is another staple to try. It wasn't as sweet as some other Thai places which is good. My mom and sister don't like pad thai because it's usually really sweet, but they liked this one.

Pad Kee Mow (with beef) $7.95~ Their Pad Kee Mow had a slightly different flavor than most other places. We all liked this one better. Not sweet at all. It was really good. Very authentic.

Ong Choy with Shrimp Paste (sauteed water spinach) $7.50~ I love water spinach. I'll eat it almost any preparation. This was done well.

Som Tum (Papaya salad) $6.95~ The papaya was a bit tough but not bad. My mom said it should've had more acid though. Not sour enough. I've had better at Royal Thai.

So we got there around 6:45PM or so. We were immediately seated and the place was about half full. It took us a while to look over the menu but from the time we ordered to when we got our food was about 45 minutes. Other tables that arrived when we did were finishing up and other tables that were already there, were all gone. We were getting hungry and confused. We didn't want to make a scene but finally my mom said something to the waiters. There were 2 young guys there as waiters and they both seemed a little confused. Nice...but didn't come by to tell us what's wrong with our order or anything. So after we called them over, they said it was coming out shortly, which it did. But turns out the order either got messed up or was never put in or something... The owner was really apologetic and said one guy was first day and the other was only 2nd day on the job. Geez... I can understand them being new, but if you see a table without food for 45 minutes, at least come by and check on them or inform them that it's coming... But whatever. They weren't rude about it so we just brushed it off. Later the owner came and gave us a bunch of Thai Teas on the house for our inconvenience. The teas were pretty good. (Normally $2 a piece...pretty good price!)

We also got some Curry Puffs (4pcs.) $6~ to go. All handmade...and they only sell these on Fri-Sun.

So the service was lacking but hopefully with a bit more experience that'll be fixed. But the food is legit. Very authentic, good portions and reasonable price. I find a lot of Thai places in Dallas are wayy overpriced and they taste the same as everywhere else. I definitely recommend this place. Go check it out. Spread the word and keep them in business! I'll be back in the future. I wanna try some different curries and also their beef noodle soup!

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Thai-rrific

It's Valentine's Day! Since my bf left for another business trip, I went to dinner with some of my awesome single friends! :P

We decided to go check out Thai-rrific because I've heard great things about it, and also my friend is currently selling his cakes (see The Cakepad ) from there. Plus it's BYOB, which is always good for my friends. haha.

Thai-rrific
3068 Forest Lane #212
Dallas, TX 75234
(972) 241-2412
http://www.thaidallas.com/
Price: $$

It's a fairly small restaurant in a strip mall behind the IMAX theater on Forest and Webb Chapel. It's dimly lit with lots of Thai decor. It was busier than I had expected! Half of our party came super late, but the waitress never gave us any grief about it. If it had been more packed, I'm not so sure then...

We got a few appetizers. Egg Rolls (4 pork egg rolls with sweet sauce) $4~ They were fried nicely and the flavors were ok. But the inside was kinda mushy...I couldn't really tell what wat really in it...

Fresh Spring Rolls (2) (lettuce, carrots, green onions, noodles, and choice of protein: tofu) $3~ These were really light. I've never had spring rolls with tofu in it. I wished there was some meat for extra texture. But overall it was fine. The peanut sauce was a little runny but the
flavor was good with the spring roll.

I ordered the Pad Thai (thin rice noodles with egg and bean sprouts served with peanuts and green onion, with tofu/veggies) $9~ This is one of the staple dishes I have to try at a new Thai place. It came in a cute dish but the portions were quite a bit smaller than most other Thai restaurants. There were lots of veggies and tofu in there which I like. The noodles were a little overcooked so they were too soft. But I really liked the flavors. I got level 4 spicy (from 1-5, 5 being spiciest) and I got a little kick, but it wasn't as spicy as I expected. The tofu wasn't fried like most other restaurants either. I actually really liked it like that. The soft texture of the tofu with the crunch of the veggies. I enjoyed it a lot. I would order it again.

Other people got...

Pad Peawan (sweet & sour with white onion, zucchini, snow pea, carrot, pineapple, with beef; served with Jasmine rice) $9.50~ This looked really good. I had a small piece of beef. It was good, I think...I don't really remember. haha. My friend finished it all tho.

Pad Kee Mow (thick rice noodles with red/green bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, basil, with chicken) $9~

Pad See Ewe (thick rice noodles with egg, broccoli, carrot, snow pea, zucchini, with chicken/beef) $9~ The Pad Kee Mow and Pad See Ewe had wider rice noodles but it wasn't as wide as most other places. They all looked pretty good. My friends all said it was good but was similar to most other Thai places.

After dinner, we all got a complimentary Red Velvet Cupcakes (provided by The Cakepad) for Valentine's Day. That was a nice surprise at the end of the meal. The cupcake was very similar to his red velvet cake. The cream cheese wasn't too sweet which was good. The cake could be a little more moist though.

**Note: There's no corking fee for BYOB, but if you use their wine glasses, it's $1 charge per glass.**

The waitress was good and the food was good. But for the price, the portions were a little smaller than most other Thai restaurants. They have a killer lunch deal though, maybe I'll venture back in the future for lunch...

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Craving Thai food ~

I was craving Thai food one night, so I looked up different places on Google maps and came across Thai Pan in Allen (on McDermott and Alma). Never heard of it…but hey, why not! Haha. :P

Thai Pan
1223 West McDermott Dr.
Allen, TX 75013
(972) 747-0057
http://www.thaipanallen.com/
Price: $

Usually I find the food at different Thai restaurants to be pretty similar in flavor, quality and prices. However, I think that Asian Mint (on 75 and Forest) has the best Pad Thai, and I use it to compare to all the other Pad Thais in other restaurants. Asian Mint is on the more expensive side of Thai food places though.

I pretty much already knew what I wanted to order. Gotta try the staple dishes at a new Thai place! While waiting for our order, they gave us a plate of shrimp chips. :) They were in a cute little dish. I used to LOVE these as a kid! They stick to your tongue and lips as you are eating it…it’s a funny feeling…definitely worth experiencing…hehe.

We ordered the Pad Thai (rice noodles stir-fried with chicken, bean sprouts, fresh green onion and crushed roasted peanuts). $7.45~ This price for dinner is fairly cheap for Thai food. The flavors were all there, and overall it was pretty good. It had plenty of ‘stuff’ in the noodles (chicken, bean sprouts, etc…), unlike some places that give you mostly noodles. Slightly sweeter than I would like it, but not as bad as some other places I’ve been. I would have to say that Asian Mint is still number 1 though.

We also got the Pad Kee Mow (spicy, stir-fried wide rice noodles with Thai peppers, basil leaves, tomatoes, yellow onion on a bed of mixed vegetable with chicken). $7.75~ I liked this dish. They did it differently than other Thai restaurants because they put in ingredients that normally don’t go into a Pad Kee Mow, like mushrooms. I LURV mushrooms so that was a big plus to the dish. The flavor was also slightly different than other Pad Kee Mows I’ve had in the past. So it makes me think that it’s not quite as authentic as some other places, but it tasted good, so I’m not complainin’. Hehe.

All in all, it was a good dinner. We had enough leftovers to have another meal! If I’m ever in that area again, I might go back…but I wouldn’t specifically make a trip out there.

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Start to a new year....

This is going to be a pretty long post...

Here are some of the places I went to in January 2009. I take food pics everywhere I go, but just now getting around to posting them…hehe. Enjoy~
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Bread Winners Cafe & Bakery
4021 Preston Rd
Plano, TX 75093
(972) 312-9300
http://www.breadwinnerscafe.com/
Price: $$

I took my parents to a late lunch at the Bread Winners Café in Plano. This is the 2nd time that I’ve eaten there; both times have been more brunch type foods. I really want to try dinner there one of these days.

We got a couple things to share. First is the Veggie Scramble: spinach, broccoli, artichoke, tomato, mushroom. We had them put the herb cream cheese on the side since my mom doesn’t like too much cheese. It comes with a side of Brunch Potatoes. $9.50~

Overall, the dish was very light and healthy, and the portion was quite large. The presentation was pretty meh…as you can see. Haha. I think that the scramble could’ve been a little more seasoned…a little more salt and pepper and maybe even a dash of Tabasco would do the trick. It was decent, the main thing is that it wasn’t heavy, which is what we wanted.














We also got an order of Buttermilk Pancakes to share. $3.95~

You can add different fruit toppings on it for an extra charge, but we decided not to. Now, for the price, I think this is a pretty good deal. The pancakes weren’t spectacular, but they were good. Fluffy, not too heavy or doughy, just what you would expect a pancake to be. Again, not much there as far as presentation goes…

And lastly, to satisfy my sweet tooth (my dad has one too…hehe), of course we had to go peek through their dessert display case. Bread Winners has a wide variety of cakes, pies, tortes, muffins, cookies, etc… And they all look delicious! We decided on a slice of their Chocolate Seduction Cake. $4.50~


I believe it’s 4 layers of different cakes: 3 of them are chocolate and one layer is a white cake; and topped off with a whipped frosting. Isn’t it pretty?!? :P

The cake was good…very chocolaty, but a little too sweet. It would go really well with a cup of tea or something. However, it was missing something…not enough different textures or something. I was a little disappointed on that note.

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**Update 12.28.10**

Tart Pastry Boutique is now closed.

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Went with a friend to Tart Pastry Boutique & Studio at the Shops at Legacy in Plano for the first time. http://www.tartbakerydallas.com/

They were having a 1 year anniversary special on their cupcakes. Buy 1 get 1 half off. They also had some samples out of their Lemon Meringue Tart. I normally don’t like lemon, but the tart was really good. The whip cream on top was slightly torched so it had a nice crisp to it.

So we decided take advantage of their special and get some cupcakes. If I remember correctly, each cupcake is $2.50~ I got a cinnamon cupcake to eat there and 3 to go: Red Velvet, Chocolate with vanilla frosting, and White with chocolate frosting. My friend got the strawberry cupcake to try.

Although they all looked really cute and delicious…I was unimpressed. First of all, I think most cupcake places overcharge… $2.50-3.50 for a cupcake seems pretty ridiculous to me. So if I’m going to pay that for a cupcake, I expect it to be awesome! The cupcakes were a little too sweet, and quite dry. I hate dry cupcakes. To make a moist cupcake, you need to use oil, but seems like a lot of places still bake with butter. Butter tends to dry out the cake…I don’t know why they never learn…
So I was pretty disappointed… At least they were pretty to look at… :/

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Me and two of my coworkers created a lunch club. :P We’re called “L2E” which stands for “Love 2 Eat”! hehe. Every few weeks or months we get together and go out to lunch. I’m usually in charge of picking the location since I love food more than anyone they know. Haha… I try to pick a new place every time.

This time we went to Thai Tanee…a little Thai place by Valley View Mall…on Alpha and Montfort.
5635 Alpha Rd
Dallas, TX 75240
(972) 960-1313
http://www.thaitaneecafe.com/
Price: $

We all ordered from the Lunch Specials menu. Every order comes with an egg roll and soup of the day.

I got the Pad Thai with chicken (rice noodle, egg, bean sprouts, green onion, tossed in a tamarind sauce, and garnished with fresh bean sprouts). $7.25~ Pad Thai is kind of my staple for every new Thai place. A lot of places make it too sweet…it’s hard to find places with really good Pad Thai.

The Pad Thai was not too bad. Slightly sweeter than I would prefer, but the sweetness wasn’t too overpowering. Not the best I’ve had, but it was not too bad. The portions were pretty big. I had to take half of my dish to go.

My coworker ordered the Spicy Big Noodle (Pad Kee Mow: flat rice noodle, egg, broccoli, onion, tomato, and fresh basil) with chicken. $7.25~ This is another staple for Thai food…best if you order it SPICY!! J However, the waiter didn’t ask if he wanted it spicy so this dish was lacking the heat that it needed...

Another coworker ordered the Tom Kha Noodle Soup (rice noodle, straw mushrooms, green onion, and cilantro). $6.95~ (with shrimp add $2). Tom Kha soup has coconut milk in it so it’s a creamy broth. She ate all the “stuff” in the bowl but didn’t drink much of the soup…not sure if she was just full or if the broth just wasn’t that great… I’m not a big soup person so I didn’t think much of the soup.
Overall, it was up to par with most other Thai places I’ve been to, but I’m not sure if it’s special enough for me to go back...

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