~Tidbits of Food & Life~: Bai Tong

Monday, April 12, 2010

Bai Tong

So, I've been looking for a good restaurant to hold a party of 30-35 people in south Seattle. After much searching, I found through my reliable source (Yelp) the perfect place..... Bai Tong. It is a small Thai restaurant close to Southcenter mall in a little shopping complex. From the outside it doesn't look very big, but the inside is surprisingly spacious and beautifully decorated. Yelp gave great ratings for the food and the location worked well for my purposes. My friend and I decided to head down tonight for dinner to taste the food and decide on our menu for the party.

The waiter recommended several favorite dishes of the restaurant for us to try; an appetizer, Gai Hor Bai Toey (Chicken Wraps), entree of crispy garlic chicken, and we decided to try the pad sei-lew with beef.

Thai Ice Tea

Gai Hor Bai Toey (Chicken Wraps)

Thailand's favorite chicken dish prepared in a traditional way wrapped in

a Toey leaf (herb leaf) and served with a special sweet sauce.

Crispy Garlic Chicken

Crispy chicken, stir-fried in sweet garlic sauce, served with
shredded cabbage and topped with crispy basil.

Pad Sei-Lew

Wide rice noodles stir fired with beef, broccoli, egg, soy sauce

The chicken wraps were certainly the most interesting dish I've ever had in a Thai restaurant. It is a traditional dish with a pretty sizable piece of chicken wrapped in an herbal leaf and deep fried. Lot of moisture and flavor. The garlic chicken was not what I was expecting as I grew up with garlic chicken made local style in Hawaii. It did not have enough of a garlic flavor and was a little too salty, however, it was very crispy and the next time we order it I think I want to increase the spiciness level as well. We went with 2 out of 3 stars and there was no heat at all. The pad sei-lew was typical. We both thought it was just ok and for the party will probably go with their signature pad-thai dish. The Thai tea however, was perfect and refreshed our palates!

All in all, both of us were happy with Bai Tong. It is perfect for our party in terms of food, location, ambiance, and price. We'll add or take away to some of the dishes we tried today, but yay to finding and trying out new restaurants!