Thai Lotus..uh,hmmm

Ok, so I know that Thai Lotus is not new.  In fact, it's been around for quite awhile. Since I haven't lived on that side of town since I graduated high school (that would be 1986 folks...can you believe how terrific I look?), I've never actually darkened the door of this restaurant. I've meant to; it just hasn't come to pass.  In fact, years ago, I had a real estate closing in Camden (y'all do know I'm a Realtor(r) right?  And a damn good one, I might add.) and the buyer was a military guy whose mom was Thai.  He told me back then that Thai Lotus was the most authentic Thai food around.  I've remembered it all these years, but once again, just hadn't made it over there.


So, back to the future.  I was in a class on this side of town yesterday and called the B-A-C (my beloved ball-n-chain).  Let's finally try this joint out. So we did.  Well,  here goes...

If you like to read me, you know that I am a huge fan and devotee of Mai Thai.  Unfortunately, Thai Lotus "ain't no" Mai Thai.  The furnishings are old and tired.  The vinyl on the sloping booth seat was ripped and made me wish for hand sanitizer gel.  (btw:  sloping booth seat = not comfortable) The ladies (all both of them) who were servicing the entire dining room were pleasant and friendly, but it was ridiculously long to get from the drink order to the food order.  Also, the lunch menu doesn't come close, in price or variety, to Mai Thai's.  


Ok, onward.  Neilio was eating light and ordered the chicken satay from the appetizer menu.  It was 4 good-sized skewers of marinated chicken complete with the little personal sized grill to sear them yourself. Neil removed it from his plate, as evidenced from [this] photo:

Accompanied by a clear sauce that I'm not familiar with and a really nice peanut based sauce.  Not sure of the point of the clear sauce, since it pretty much had zero flavor.  

I went "creative" and ordered pad Thai.  I mean, really, if you've never been to a place before, you gotta check out their pad Thai, right? Well, it was quite good.  Nice flavors and came with lime slices for spritzing, which really brought out the subtleties of the dish.  Mine came with a cup of soup, Tom Yum Gai, which was very, very good!  Nice coconut undertones, spice of lime and beautifully sliced white chicken meat.  The veggie spring roll was good, but not the greatest.  


If I were in a Thai deficit and really Jonesin' for it, I'd go here again, but as long as I have a car with gas in the tank, I'm headin' over to W.C. for Mai Thai.  Mai Thai kicks the competition in the stomach on so many levels:  the food is righteous, the decor is hip, they have a nice wine list and the folks who run and work in the place are awesome.  Sorry, Thai Lotus.  Not hating you, just not loving you.