How else do you begin an amazing Friday evening? Thai food! I went out with a couple of friends to Cville’s Thai 99 restaurant on Jefferson Park Avenue. I had been told by many other cVillains that this was THE place for Thai food…naturally I was excited. Charlottesville surprises me in many ways…it’s a small town with a wannabe big-city food scene. Some places get it right and others do not. cVillains are very proud of their local establishments…although I find that sometimes being proud just because there are no other options doesn’t make sense. So I urge you villains to not turn a blind eye and really think if what you are eating and drinking is actually good.
There are a couple tell-tale signs of a good restaurant:
- Dedicated Queue: Thai 99 was packed…on a brisk Friday evening there was a crowd waiting outside of the restaurant for tables. Everyone around me couldn’t stop talking about how good the food was and why the queue was worth the wait. I had never been, but I was just as excited!
- Herb Garden: There is a tiny plot of land, well, a rectangle, in front of the restaurant where myriad Thai herbs grow. I saw Thai basil and lemongrass to name a few. If someone takes pride in growing their own garden for their restaurant, they usually care for their food just as much, if not more.
- Busy wait-staff: After the cold weather scared us inside, I was amazed by the flurry of food coming out of the kitchen…quick, this is good!
Unfortunately my tell-tale signs failed!
Appetizers: a taste of what is to come
We began with a Thai 99 combo platter and pork larb. The appetizer sampler was comprised of fried egg rolls, shrimp in the blanket (fried shrimp), curry puff, wontons and dumplings. This was a diverse mix of mostly Chinese (Americanized) oriented appetizers and the curry puff.I could write an entire review on how bad traditional Chinese appetizers are, but its Sunday, and I am not in the mood. The curry puffs are another story. It was a fried dough (soft) on the outside, with a puree of what seemed to be curried potatoes. Mush on the outside and mush on the inside. Not good.
Larb is one of those great precursors to a wonderful Thai meal. It is made with miced pork, red onions, mint leaves, cilantro, fish sauce and lime juice. My mouth is watering just thinking about this dish. My mouth didn’t water at Thai 99. Thai food is all about vibrant colors, especially with the use of fresh herbs and spices. This dish came out on a very attractive pedestal-like plate, but looked lifeless. The onions lost their color, and the meat looked distressed. Thinking back, this might have been prepared hours before, and served throughout the evening. Larb should have a distinct limey taste derived from the delicate balance of lime juice and fish sauce. This larb seemed a little dead, or perhaps tired.
Main course: what we always look forward to (besides dessert)
I ordered something I have never had before in a Thai restaurant: Bah-Mee Hangh. Thin egg-noodles tossed in ground pork, bean sprouts, cilantro and chili powder. This dish reminds me of vermicelli noodle dishes at Vietnamese restaurants. The combination of these ingredients made for a wonderful base-sauce. Overall the dish was quite nice. My only qualm was the ratio of sauce/herbs to noodles. The noodle to sauce ratio was about 87/13. While the noodles were tasty, they overpowered the sauce in taste and sheer quantity.
My neighbor ordered the red curry which looked great except for one thing, the overabundance of sliced bamboo shoots. I was in New York City for Columbus Day, and there was a huge street festival outside of Wall Street. I was lucky enough to find a Thai street vendor making red curry…for $2.99 it was probably the cheapest Thai food in that states I have ever had. The main problem with it: bamboo shoots. They must be cheap because there were cans upon empty cans of bamboo shoots that went into the curry. I noticed the same thing with the red curry…those dam bamboo shoots staring at me. They are a very watery addition to a sauce-based dish and do not lend any particular flavor to the curry. Diversity, thats all I have to say.
Final Thoughts
There is a certain charm about a Thai restaurant in Cville with its own herb garden. That charm ends with the food. There is a certain depth Thai food needs to be considered authentic and Thai 99 misses the mark. The problem here is that if this is the most sought after Thai restaurant in cville and everyone goes there, and they all are told it is fantastic and they believe so accordingly…there isnt much left to be desired. I am telling you, there is, dont be satisfied, always keep pushing for more. I am not saying you shouldn’t go here, I am just saying that its definitely not the best.
If any of you have been considering opening a new Thai restaurant in Cville, go for it. When you can make diners feel like they are in the streets of Bangkok or the villages in Chiang-Mai, you have got it made. No one in Cville impresses me so far. If there are certain dishes at Thai 99 that are off the beaten path that I should definitely try to re-consider my opinion, please share it with me. You can take your pick at Thai 99’s online menu, here.
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Tagged as: Charlottesville, Thai 99, Thai Food
Lime Leaf is far better than Thai 99. Give it a try: It is near Dick’s Sporting Goods.
I’ve never eaten at Thai 99, so can’t comment there. But I do love Limeleaf up 29N. Caveat - I am not a Thai food officianado. I always get the Drunken Noodle Jay (Tofu), and it’s always right by me. I’ve eaten that dish enough times for them to screw it up, but they haven’t. My friends usually just get the Pad Thai Chicken or Shrimp, and it’s also always been fine. However, there’s usually not a line when I’m there (picking up takeout), there’s no herb garden, and the waitstaff, while hardworking, is only 2 or 3 people (a family I think). I’d give Limeleaf a try if you haven’t.
limeleaf is pretty good, but i think pad thai and monsoon are MUCH better. ’specially monsoon. i LOVE that place!!
Which Thai 99 were you at? If Jefferson Park Ave, that’s the problem. If 29/Albemarle Square, then you must have hit them on a bad night. The Thai restaurant downtown on Water Street is very good, but I would try the one on 29 again before slamming it this way.
I recommend Downtown Thai over all others. While it’s prices have gone up a bit ($10-15 for an entree), the food is excellent and the portions are generous. And if you can eat food at spicy level 10, you get a polaroid on the wall!
Jefferson Park Ave-just added that in the post.
Yeah, Thai 99 on JPA really sucks. Avoid that one like the plague (as you discovered).
Interesting…so what is it about Thai 99 at the other location that is really good? Thai should should have pronounced undertones in dishes and amazing freshness….always made to order, none of this buffet nonsense.
Thai Siam (out in Lovingston of all places) is the truly authentic, mind blowing place to go - it’s just a haul to get there.
I agree, Thai 99 on 29 North is much better.
Also: Have you tried Monsoon, on Market Street? I love the old house and funky lamp ambience - usually the food there is different than the Thai 99 offerings - we’re vegetarian and the pretend fish cakes are great.
My question is: Obviously the cooks at all these Thai places are Thai themselves - so what’s the deal?
Ask the same question of the white guy at any diner in the States when your turkey dinner comes out dry and you’ll know the answer, maiaoming.
Haha, that is a good question. From a restaurateur perspective, it usually comes down to cost. Margins on food are very thin, so any which way to make more money is usually taken by non-premium restaurants. For Thai restaurants the areas where costs are decreased at the expense of taste/quality are:
As you change raw-mat costs, margins go down. Thai food is expected to be cheap, but I think we would all swallow higher costs for better tastes. As for the diner, ingredients are one part of the bad-food equation, and the second is they are usually run by short-order cooks…While a turkey roast is a simple item, basic cooking knowledge can turn this bland bird into something delicious. Diner patrons are for the most part non-discriminating when it comes to food.
I totally agree with your point, cocoNUT, but the meta-reason I was going for was a simple as 1) actually knowing how to cook, 2) actually caring about what you’re serving and 3) a rampant assumption that customers won’t notice if you fail at 1 or 2 (especially if the price is right). I feel like you can pretty much chalk up all bad restaurant experiences to those three problem areas; the “my friends always liked my cooking” restaurants, the”canned broth is just as good as homemade broth” cooks and the “hell, I’d never eat any of this crap, but they keep coming back so why change” jaded owners.
plus, we might get most of the cooks who couldn’t cut it in Thailand…
The lady at Thai-Siam, though, is incredible. I believe she came here as a Vietnam-war-bride
Has anyone tried the new Thair resteraunt near El Paso and Cville Market?
Ah, that dam Thai Siam comment has become a popular come-back to my anti Cville Thai food posts. I really want to try it, but its 50 minutes drive from here. Is it REALLY worth it? I am so tempted…
Dijon, I think the restaurant you are referring to is Pad Thai, which was reviewed on cVillain a couple months ago….not so great, beautiful place though.
Ohh yeahhh! Forgot about that.
I guess it’s still Monsoon or Drunken noodles @ Lime Leaf for me…
I think both Thai 99s are consistently very good. The Yellow Curry Tofu is particularly nice.
Downtown Thai is also great, while Lime Leaf has been hit or miss for me.
Monsoon, though also good, can make you wait FOREVER to get your food.
On the whole, given that thai is quickly becoming chinese food restaurant-esque in terms of its proliferation across this great land, I tnink the C-ville offerings are solid.
We should rally so Thai restaurants don’t become tomorrow’s Chinese restaurants!
Went there for lunch once. We were wrapping up our meal at the 45 minute mark when the manager told us we had to leave, that others were waiting. We gulped down our food and left. Haven’t been back - though some I would suspect might find such bluntness from the manager to be somehow more “authentic.”