Coach and I needed to catch our respective flights back to our respective homes, and we needed to eat lunch before we left. We also needed to run downtown and buy an Alamo T-shirt for EyeHeartPizza. We raced downtown and then headed back towards the airport and stopped at one of DeliveryBoy and Amanda Hugginkiss’ favorite Thai places for a late lunch.
Tong’s Thai is a really cool place. Like a lot of San Antonio restaurants, there’s outside seating (with an awesome waterfall/face fountain on one wall) and various inside seating rooms. We grabbed a spot inside and DeliveryBoy warned us we may not be able to understand a single word these people said – and he wasn’t far off.
The waiter was very polite, but super difficult to understand. I think he took our drink orders and then came back for appetizer orders. I love to get fresh spring rolls at places – these were called white spring rolls (why do they have to be white? – That’s for you, FunHater) , and the others got fried spring rolls. The waiter then took our entrée orders and I went with the Pad Se-Ew (made spicy) – always a winner in my book.
The appetizers took a while to come to our table and I started to worry about the timing of my flight. It was fast approaching and we hadn’t gotten our entrees yet. The white spring rolls looked pretty tasty though. Also notice the fancy folded napkins that look like dinner jackets - classy!
The rolls were about average compared to some I’ve had in the past. They were pretty small rolls and not a lot of filling. There seemed to be more room in these than I expected, or they just weren’t tightly rolled. The hoissin sauce was really good, but was really thick, like peanut butter rather than liquidy. So I had to get over that texture block before I could truly enjoy them. They were good, and I’m not complaining at all. But they didn’t make me swear out loud like Belcher used to do when she got a good spring roll. I tried a bit of the fried spring roll and was surprised at how pungent it was. Coach said he could smell it (he must have a nose like a dog), and as soon as I tasted it, I knew what he smelled. It wasn’t a bad smell/flavor, it was just super strong. Maybe a bit vinegar-ey.
We waited a bit more and I realized I was going to seriously be pushing this flight thing. Oh well, I knew there were other later flights if I missed this one.
My food came out and really impressed me. I’ve gotten Pad Se-Ew at other places and have been happy with it, but this looked better than the other places.
Fortunately, it was just as amazing as it looked. This is one of the best I’ve had. The pieces of chicken were perfectly cooked and not stringy. There was a n appropriate amount of egg in it and the perfect amount of spice. The flat noodles were super tender without being mushy and the broccoli was firm and tasty. AWESOME dish.
I tried DeliveryBoy’s Pad Thai and it tasted good, but after y spicy dish, it was a bit bland. I’m sure it would have been much better had I tried it first. But overall, I’d say the Pad Thai is a keeper. It’s not the best (that’s at the King and I in Minneapolis), but I’d recommend it if someone didn’t know what to get at Tong’s.
Coach’s dish was a little weird. He got some sort of beef dish with peppers and asked them not to put onions in it. Plainest meal ever (not unusual for Coach). Because of his special order, the chef didn’t put in garlic into his meal either but put it in a little cup on the side in case he did still want it. We were all impressed by this and Coach gladly dumped all of the garlic into his dish. His food was good, but they used some sort of weird fish or oyster sauce on it, which I’m not used to. It just added a weird after taste to his. Not bad or anything, just an unusual combination.
Over all, I think everyone was happy with their meals and we all took off to the airport. We left the restaurant within an hour of when my flight was supposed to take off. With some weirdness with the checkin process (apparently you can’t check baggage when your plane leaves less than 45 minutes from now) and some boarding pass issues, I somehow made it through security, was able to sue the restroom, and still make it onto my plane in time. Apparently, the San Antonio airport isn’t really that large, so I managed a quick escape back to the cooler temperatures of Minnesota.
Top 5 things about Tong’s
1. Pad Se-Ew
2. Pad Thai
3. Super friendly, yet unintelligible) staff
4. Atmosphere in the restaurant
5. I’m glad I got my nephew hooked on Thai food. I’m the best uncle ever
Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd loved Thai food second only to Mexican food. This would have been right up her alley
2. There was a drunk military guy slamming drinks (literally slamming them down and spilling them all over his table)
3. Kind of slow, not just because we were in a hurry
4. Weird fishy sauce with the beef
5. Weird texture of the hoissin sauce
www.tongsthai.com
3 comments:
"There was a drunk military guy slamming drinks (literally slamming them down and spilling them all over his table)"
Noooo, this should NOT be a bottom thing!!
Your the best uncle ever? Isnt he the nephew that you ran right into a sign post while you were holding his hand at the age of 2 or 3? What.. are you trying to make up for that? LOL
I ran both of my nephews into various things - I'm not picking favorites or anything. And that was in Mexico, so it doesn't count.
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