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.