Ok Noodles

I have been chasing the restaurants at this location on the Ave for years (starting with Veggie Veggie, then What da Phad, and now Ok Noodles) and seemed to always arrive when the restaurant was closed and transitioning. So one recent evening, after seeing the bursting at the seams, super line spilled onto the street at our intended Thai Tom, my dining companion and I decided to instead sate our appetites a few doors down at Ok Noodles.

Ok Noodles now serves meat, but maintains a huge menu of vegetarian options (including not only tofu, but many fake meats).

We ordered garlic tofu and phad kee mao. The garlic tofu had a tasty pile of crunchy browned garlic bits on top, but this was really the only interesting thing about the dish.

It's possible that we had our expectations set too high by way of our initial anticipation of Thai Tom, but the food at Ok Noodles seemed mostly unnoteworthy.

Of course it is always a welcome thing when a restaurant makes a large accommodation to vegetarian and vegans, but Ok Noodles was kind of a ho-hum disappointment. If I had been in a small town or shopping mall or some other culinary desperate situation, I would have probably been really stoked to find this place with their large vegetarian menu, but just steps from some pretty danged good Thai food, it was a little harder to appreciate.

CP Thai

I was recently in Georgetown tasked with the responsibility of bringing home lunch, preferably of Asian persuasian, to a group with vegan preference. I decided to give CP Thai (in the little strip mall that holds my home-Kinkos) a try. The waitress was skeptical of my special requests (no fish sauce, unfried tofu), insisting that the food would have "no taste." I persisted, and unfortunately, she was right.
Can't say what the food would have been like with meat or fishsauce or fried tofu, but we ordered Garlic Tofu, Ginger Tofu, and Rard Nah (wide rice noodles with some veggies and tofu in a cornstarch thick gravy), and the vegan versions of these were more or less bland and greasy.

Eh, now I know I guess.

Thai Cuisine

I usually count on Thai food in an unfamiliar city to have something that can be made vegetarian. On my trip to Maui, I looked up reviews of Thai restaurants and found high rating for Thai Cuisine, in the Maui Mall in Kahului.

Eating in a mall, even an open air mall like the Maui Mall, isn't usually a preferred destination, but in this instance is was a great way to eat a tasty, reasonably priced, non-tourism oriented meal.

Thai Cuisine has a nice large selection of "Vegetarian Lovers" dishes that are vegan. We ordered Evil Prince tofu, and Garlic Vegetable tofu.

The Evil Prince tofu was a spicy, rich, flavorful dish made with coconut milk.

The garlic vegetables were especially savory and delicious.

I found both of our dishes to be really tasty... not too heavy, greasy or sweet. What a find!

To add icing to the cake, they brought us a free dish of tapioca coconut pudding at the end of the meal. It was creamy, sweet, slightly salty, and a perfect finish to a wonderful vegan feast.

Mae Phim

I had heard good things about Mae Phim, the inexpensive hole in the wall Thai place near the viaduct downtown, and went recently for lunch.

The restaurant is small but cute, and my dining companion and I ordered tofu Phad Prik King, green beans in chili sauce, and Phad Kee Mao. We ordered it all vegan, with soft tofu.

And therein, I believe, lay a problem. The dishes we ordered were supposed to be, by nature, spicy and chili pepper oriented. The waiter didn't ask for a spice preference, and I forgot to mention it. What arrived was incredibly bland and totally void of nearly any interesting spice or flavor. I think the waiter made a common assumption: A picky vegan who comes into a Thai restaurant and removes all sorts of elements of Thai food (fish sauce, egg, etc), and then special requests their tofu unfried, is probably going to be a big complainer baby who doesn't like spicy or complex tasting food. I understand why that assumption is often made, but it just isn't always true.

Phad prik king before

I had to gather chili sauces from all corners of the restaurant to add some much needed heat and flavor to this dish: Sriracha, chili garlic paste, and my favorite dry roasted chilis in oil.

Phad prik king after, ahhh, much better

Similar story with the Phad Kee Mao.

I really don't feel like I got a fair assessment of this place. I would like to go back and tell the waiter to make my food good and spicy. I would also like to go back with a meat eater and hear what they say about the un-veganized dishes. If you've been there and have an opinion, I'd love to hear it!

Araya's Vegetarian Place

If you are a vegetarian or vegan in the Seattle area, you probably already know about Araya's vegan Thai restaurant in the U-District. And if you don't, woah gentle readers, consider this your lucky day!

Simply put: Araya's has a full delicious vegan menu and an awesome lunch buffet. For the most part, every dish I've ever had there has been a complete winner, the prices are good, ambiance is pleasant; I love this place. Araya's is a great restaurant to visit with a couple of friends so that you can order a bunch of dishes. Here is what we had on a recent, exquisite, vegan feast:

Tofu Larb: Little, garlicky lime covered tofu cubes sprinkled with roasted rice powder and served with thinly sliced veggies. You scoop it up and eat it with the green cabbage leaves.

Tom Yum: Delicious, fragrant hot and sour soup.

Spicy Noodle: rice noodles stir fried with tofu and misc veggies and chilies.

Lemon Tofu: This was the only dish that sort of flopped for me. The sauce was mega sweet, like poured corn syrup, which wasn't what I was expecting or wanting. I probably should have known better.

Thank goodness for Araya's! I hope they never go out of business.

Thai Palms

I live in the south end of Seattle and have been on a somewhat casual mission to seek out and patronize the restaurants in my local neighborhoods instead of always defaulting to Capital Hill, the International District, Fremont, Ballard, and all the other foodie heavy (far away) stand-bys.

The search for Thai food that is delicious, vegetarian/vegan friendly, reasonably priced and located down south is a pretty tall order. I recently discovered Thai Palms, which is located just south of Holly Street on MLK, and it caught my attention as potentially fitting the bill.

The restaurant isn't located on the most inspiring stretch of MLK, but it is clean and calm inside, and has convenient access to the Light Rail (Othello Stop). We placed an order to go, and the staff was friendly and understanding of making food vegan. While we waited for our meal, there was a steady stream of people coming to pick up their orders to go too.

We ordered three things: phad kee mao, spicy green peppercorn, and ginger with vegetables. All were made, at my request, vegan and with fresh tofu. We ordered 5/5 spice stars.

Two dishes that looks the same, but taste quite different!

And again, considering my mark of a good Thai restaurant is based upon the removal of many key Thai ingredients, these guys made some very good food. I am excited to try some more dishes. I should also mention that I found the 5/5 stars to actually be hot, which I considered a real bonus.

Phad Kee Mao

The prices were very reasonable, more in the $7-9 range than in the "fancy Thai "range of $12-13. So give them a try, and let me know what you think!

May Kaidee

Many people have asked me about my experience eating vegetarian (well, vegan, as I tend to eat in the realm of Asian food) in Thailand. Honestly, I was nervous. I knew that there are plenty of Thai dishes without "meat," but that most of these still contain the ubiquitous fish sauce or shrimp paste. I had even (sort of sheepishly) packed myself some protein bars from home in case I found myself on a diet of rice.

What I discovered was mostly as anticipated, but with a huge saving grace: much of the food we ate was prepared fresh, either in a small restaurant kitchen or street side, with a pretty standard selection of sauces (light and dark soy sauce, vinegar, Mountain Sauce, fish sauce) making up the final product. If I could communicate that I was a vegan, the concept was well understood and something appropriate could be thrown together for me.

I learned how to say, "I'm a vegan," in Thai, and while it took me a long time to learn to get the tones right and actually be understood, I eventually did and the cooks got it. I ended up eating way better than I thought I would, and ate tons of green papaya salad, curries (some could be made vegan, some already had shrimp paste blended in), spicy glass noodle salads, roti, and a great variety of noodle/veggie dishes.

In Bangkok, which has all of the culinary variety of an international city, it was even easier, and I followed a friend's recommendation to May Kaidee, a vegan Thai restaurant with multiple locations.

The food wasn't the most spectacular food that I ate in Thailand, but it was wonderful to be able to order easily and without doubts and for that reason it was a positive experience. We started with a hot sweet chrysanthemum tea and spicy banana flower salad.

And then on to a ginger tofu dish with a heavy sauce that seemed more like the Thai food I'd get at home than what I'd been seeing in Thailand:
And then the most interesting item: pumpkin hummus with sticky rice. I'd never had anything quite like this before. It was roasty and spicy and savory, and, per usual sticky rice protocol, we ate it with little paddies of sticky rice we formed in our hands.

Much as I enjoy exploring food, it can become stressful as a vegetarian/vegan always being vigilant about everything I eat and sometimes it just feels good to be in a place where I can relax and order easily off the menu. May Kaidee served as a wonderful little vegan haven in the great fish sauce nation, and I would recommend stopping in if you find yourself in Bangkok looking for a rest.

Website:
http://www.maykaidee.com/

Boonyarit Kitchen

I was in Thailand recently and was lucky enough to take a cooking class in Khao Lak, which is in the Phang Nga province in the south. Khao Lak is a touristy town that serves as a departure point for dive boats heading to the Similan and the Surin Islands. There are many options for cooking lessons in Khao Lak, but I was drawn to Boonyarit Kitchen by two things: first, the bold advertisement of vegetarian options available, and second, the positively magnetic and joyous Chef, Kun Aek (who also spoke great English).

Kun Meaw and Kun Aek. Friendly, open, delightful hosts.

Aek runs the courses in a pleasing way. He teaches just one group at a time, and begins with a field trip to the local market. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the course, and found it to be a treat to be able to ask him about the foods I didn't recognize and get my questions answered about what I saw.

After the market, we went back to his restaurant, where my cooking companion and I had already perused the restaurant menu and had each chosen an appetizer, soup, main and dessert to prepare. Lucky for me, the menu has a section dedicated to vegetarian and vegan food. Aek was a patient, clear and non-hovering teacher, and we carefully made our appetizers in his tidy little restaurant kitchen. I made vegetarian spring rolls, and my dining companion made Larb Gai (spicy chopped chicken salad).

Boonyarit Kitchen furnished aprons and slippers for the duration of the class.

Next we cooked our soups. I chose Tom Kah with Tofu (spicy coconut based soup), and my cooking companion chose Tom Yam Goong (spicy prawn soup with herbs). They were exquisitely delicious. Unfortunately we were both already getting full full full (maybe I didn't need to eat all 5 of those spring rolls).

Next we prepared our main dishes. My cooking companion made a ginger chicken dish he had been enjoying all over Thailand, and I made a minced tofu dish with basil and chilies.

Again, both were fantastically delicious: spicy, flavorful, fresh and complex. It was such a treat to get to see how these dishes were made by a professional chef, and I was surprised to realize how much of the preparation (all of it) is done after the customer orders. Aek's food at Bookyarit Kitchen is truly prepared as you would prepare food at home; from scratch.

For dessert, both of us ate the rich, creamy, sweet and slightly salty bananas in coconut milk.

The quantity of food that we prepared was staggering, it was a full four-course meal, and Aek was kind enough to box up the majority of our main dishes for later consumption.

Our experience at Boonyarit Kitchen was an absolute pleasure. Aek was great both interpersonally and as a chef, the food was plentiful and delicious, and we got as much individual attention as we needed. Plus, after seeing Aek in the kitchen, I'd say the Boonyarit Kitchen is one of the better restaurants in Khao Lak (where we found most of the other restaurants to be unfortunately watered down for tourism.)

If you're in Khao Lak, you should stop by, if not for a full cooking class, then for a meal. My guess is that as a vegetarian or vegan especially, you won't get a better meal in the area.

Boonyarit Kitchen is located near Dr. Chusak's clinic in front of the Andaburi Hotel at the north end of town on the main road on the way to Bang Niang.

Thank you Aek and Meaw!

Address:
Baan La On,
Khao Lak,
Phang Nga,
Thailand

Phone:
(+66) 083-8283-991

Website:
http://www.boonyaritkitchen.com/

Thai Recipe

Thai Recipe is located in the dingy stripmall at McClellen and Rainier alongside Schucks, Nail Studio 206 and a Dominos Pizza. I'd long heard rumors that it was actually a good place for Thai food, and recently gave it a shot with dinner to go.

When I entered the restaurant, I found it to be a respite of calm and cleanliness. The staff were friendly, the ambiance pleasant, and the food smelled great.

I ordered phad kee mao, and my dining companion ordered a ginger dish. The waitress understood veganism and alerted me that their chili paste has shrimp in it, but that they could indeed proceed with a vegan version of my dish as long as I didn't mind it possibly little different tasting from a standard phad kee mao. No problem!

And for a dish that is by nature stripped of some of its key components (egg, fish sauce, shrimp paste), it was dang tasty! It wasn't just an oily glob like vegan phad kee mao often is.

The ginger tofu dish was good too.

It is nice to discover another good south end Thai option, and this one had good things going for it:

1. I think you could go in as a vegan and describe an approximate dish you'd like (Noodles or rice? Fried or fresh tofu? Spicy or not? Veggies?) and they would make something to fit your needs.
2. They understand that shrimp paste and fish sauce are not vegetarian
3. The tofu dishes are in the $7-8 range instead of in the $10-11 "fancy" Thai range

The only downside was that we both ordered our dishes 4/4 stars, and they were still relatively mild (for spice lovers anyhow). If you actually want it spicy, you might have to ask them to turn it up to 11.

Jhanjay Thai

After a recent morning of trying on wedding dresses (don't get excited, I was the oppinionator not the bride to be!) a friend and I wandered down 45th St in Wallingford in search of a good lunch. I was rather excited to see the magic words, "Vegetarian Thai Cuisine," and our decision was settled: Jhanjay Vegetarian Thai.

Jhanjay endeared itself to me right off the bat by making tofu (fresh or fried) the default protein, and charging extra for the substitution of fake meat (many vegetarian restaurants do this the opposite way). It is such a pleasure to go into a restaurant and have full menu access, and it was really hard to choose between the Green Papaya salad (no fish sauce!), the Tom Yum and Tom Kah soups (no fish sauce or meat broth!), the curries (no shrimp paste!) or the variety of delicious savory noodles, veggies, rice and other dishes.

Little bowl of glistening soup to greet us

We ended up ordering a red curry and the "Garlic Pepper" stirfry to share. Both were outstanding: savory, spicy, complex, fresh and packed with deliciousness, but without the enjoyment-reducing stress of wondering if they were truly vegetarian (vegan in this case).

Nice size bowl of red curry packed with tender crisp veggies

The tofu was my favorite kind: slick, gelatinous and very fresh.

It is really exciting to find a source of vegan Thai curries, and I am happy to report that this is a great option. It seems a bit unbalanced that Wallingford/Fremont has multiple good vegan curry opportunities while the rest of the city seems to have none, but c'est la vie!

Naam Thai

Naam Thai is a new Thai restaurant in the Madrona neighborhood. I went recently for lunch.

I began with my usual Thai restaurant inquiries about the restuarant's ability to make various dishes, especially curries, without shrimp paste or fish sauce. And like most Thai restaurants, with the glorious exception of the super vegetarian-friendly Tawan Thai in Fremont, Naam Thai is not able to make their curries vegan. No problem, there were plenty of other tasty dishes that could be made sans sea creature.

I ordered the Pad Bai Ka Pow, which was tofu (or whatever meat) with veggies and fresh basil in a chili sauce. My dining companion ordered a dish called, "Absolutely Garlic," which was a similar thing but in a "rich garlic sauce."

My dish, kindly made with fresh tofu instead of fried

Our lunch orders came with a variety of extras: rice, a small salad of sprouts and cabbage, phad Thai and a greasy vegetarian egg roll. Naam Thai makes two types of Phad Thai: one with a tomato base (what we commonly get around here), and one with a tamarind base. For some reason my request for an omission of fish sauce and egg landed me the Tamarind based version, which was a nice variation that I liked more.

$1 extra for brown rice. Dining companion splurged, I wish I had too.

Both of our meals were quite delicious. The main dishes came in small bowls with plenty of very flavorful sauce that was thin enough to feel almost light.

The ambiance was modern, clean and light. There were a few special raised platforms with low tables with seating cushions that looked like fun.

Perhaps not the absolute greatest Thai place for a vegetarian because of the curries, but the food that was vegetarian was satisfying.

I should also mention: I ordered my meal 4/4 stars spicy, and found it to be pleasant (not overwhelmingly spicy). If you really like your food spicy, don't be afraid to go for the stars.

The Spice Room

The Spice Room is finally open and I am so excited to have a Thai restaurant in Columbia City! I went for lunch today to check it out.

The waitresses were friendly and happy to talk with me about the possibilities of omitting fish sauce and shrimp paste from the various dishes. Turns out much of the menu can me made vegan, with the exception of the curries. I ordered the "Drunken Noodles," which is described as wide rice noodles with vegetables and herbs stir fried with a basil chili paste. Each dish included the option of either fresh or fried tofu as the "meat."

The menu failed to mention that this dish also includes egg, much like Phad Kee Mao. If you don't like egg, be sure to ask about it before you order; I spent much of the meal picking stringy egg bits out of my otherwise tasty dish. I ordered 3/4 stars, which was mild enough that I got to use the chili tray, which I very much enjoy.

My dining companion ordered the pork phad see lew, and said it was really delicious.

The ambiance was great. Half the restaurant is lined with bench seating, and the other half with semi-private booths separated with sheer hanging cloth. Everything is made out of shiny dark wood and the whole place feels clean, hip and modern.

I look forward to returning and ordering a little bit more carefully. In the meantime, I say go check this place out, I'd love to hear what you think. I suspect there are more than a few south enders thrilled to finally have a Thai restaurant down in our neck of the woods!

Ballet

Had the recent pleasure of lunch out with my mom. She was craving some belly warming soup and we decided to forgo my usual Asian soup standbys (Vegan Garden, Moonlight Cafe, Pho Cyclo and Than Brothers) for a new experience. I had long seen the tempting words "Vegetarian" on the sign for Ballet Restaurant just east of Broadway on Pike, and we decided to give it a try.

Inside was simple and clean, and surprisingly busy in the middle of a weekday. The menu had an assortment of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items, including no less than 4 varieties of vegetarian (meatless broth) pho.

We started with some salad rolls, which were large but otherwise not particularly remarkable.
My mom ordered the vegetarian Sate soup, which was a delicious idea (though a bit over salted for my taste). The soup contained tofu, tomatoes, cucumber, sprouts and roasted peanuts in a savory rich spicy coconut broth.
I ordered the most simple of the veggie pho options, which included broccoli, carrots and tofu. The more elaborate choices had various fake meats.
It was as could be expected. Nothing gross, but also nothing that made me rejoice in pleasure. They use fried tofu, which isn't my preference (but does seem to be the pho standard).

The prices were all very reasonable. My small pho was under $5, and her soup was just a bit more than that. The salad rolls were $1.50 a piece.

Thanks ma!

Tom Yum Koong

I was recently in West Seattle looking for a Thai restaurant open past 9pm, and came upon Tom Yum Koong on California Ave.

The waitress was friendly and patiently went through the menu with me, interfacing with the kitchen, trying to find something vegetarian (or vegan, as I tend to eat in Asian restaurants). Unfortunately (but not uncommonly), many of the dishes (curries, anything with peanut sauce, soups, etc) already had some sort of non-veggie item included. We ended up with what appeared to be the three dishes that can be vegan: Phad Kee Mao with tofu, Green Beans with tofu, and Tofu salad. Two of these were relative duds, and the third was a great shining star.

The Phad Kee Mao was edible but not spectacular. Probably would have been significantly enhanced by the presence of some non-vegan flavoring.

The green beans, unfortunately, were definitely of the fishy persuasion and I didn't eat them. (Meat eating dining companions didn't complain).

The surprise of the evening was the spectacular Tofu Salad. It came in a huge iceberg lettuce bowl and contained crunchy chopped iceberg, fresh herbs, onion, and tiny rectangles of deep fried tofu that exploded in the the most exquisite bursts of intense salty lime flavor. I had never had anything quite like this before and it was so incredibly delicious.

Some restaurants, like the fantastic Tawan Thai in Fremont, are really set up for vegan cooking, and know how to include and enhance the flavors of Thai cooking without using meat products, but most Thai restaurants simply omit the meat flavors at a vegan request and the result is an oily bland blah. Tom Yum Koong just isn't set up for the vegan/vegetarian crowd, can't really fault them for that.

One small thing I can fault them for is giving us the much dreaded table side spice assessment. We ordered 3 out of 4 stars, and the food came without any detectable spice at all. I'd imagine the kitchen played it safe because of all of my vegan requests. Fortunately they had the standard (I get a warm and loving feeling thinking about it) spice trays with ground dried chili, chili paste, and jalapenos soaked in fish sauce, and the meal was salvaged with these.