Thursday, January 19, 2023

Phi Chay Thai Cuisine – St. Paul, MN

 

D and I wanted to check this place out, since we saw it had changed names/ownership. It used to be called Supatra’s and we really liked that place. So, we had high hopes as we went into check out this new iteration. 

The person working the register and hosting was really polite and helpful. And the interior of the restaurant looks like they didn’t change it a huge amount, so it still felt home-y. The menu is very large, so it took some time to narrow down what we wanted. We went the adventurous route today and tried some things we wouldn’t normally get. 

We ordered the Salt and Pepper Tofu Puffs, Coconut Curry Noodles with Chicken, and Pad Woon Sen, (stir-fried silver thread noodles) with pork. 

The tofu puffs arrived quickly, and piping hot. The little cubes of tofu were fried crispy and came with some peppers and onion, and also two dipping sauces – one was a rice wine vinegar sauce and the other was a peanut sauce. The tofu was seasoned with salt and pepper and the fry on them was perfect. I liked the peanut sauce a little more than the other, but both were very good. Really a much better appetizer than we expected. 


The coconut curry noodles were different than we expected. D took a bite and said, it’s sort of like the Thai version of macaroni and cheese. The noodles were in a very mild and light curry sauce with a couple pieces of broccoli and chicken. The sauce was good, but didn’t have much kick, despite us ordering it medium. However, D added a scoop of the dried pepper that was on the table and it totally changed this dish. Made it much better and more flavorful. Even seemed to bring out more of the curry flavor. This dish ended up being really good, after we massaged it a little bit. 

The Pad Woon Sen was perfect right off the bat. A rich brown sauce coated all the silver thread noodles and vegetables. It had good spice level to it and the pork was really delicious, as well. I always wish there was a ton more when I’m done eating it, even though I was super full. This is one of those dishes that I would probably order again and I’m not usually an -order-the-same-thing-twice kind of person. Really good. 

Overall, an impressive showing from Phi Chay and an excellent replacement for a restaurant we really loved when it was around. We’ll be back here again. 

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