Lanna, there's now Thai food in B/CS

EDIT (11/16/2015): Lanna Thai has closed. A new Thai restaurant, Kluay Kluay in Bryan, recently opened up in Bryan, near the Wal-Mart. I will blog about them soon.

Alright, so there's been Thai food in B/CS for some time. Chef Cao's in Bryan serves it, as do a few others.  BUT now there's a Thai restaurant in B/CS.  They just opened. 

In fact they don't even have a sign yet. That's how new this place is.

I found out the name of the business from the water glasses.

You'll find Lanna where Teriyaki Park used to be, along Texas Ave in the same shopping center as La Riviera and Cindie's, across the street from Smokin' Joes and a tattoo parlor. Pyro, the Mongolian fusion place used to be in the same shopping center and Mac Resources is nearby.

The first thing I noticed was the decor.  I didn't get a good picture of it, but it's dark.  Which is surprising considering there are floor to ceiling windows on one side of the restaurant. But, hey, as long as the food is good I can live with it. 

Another thing I noticed right off the bat was that the menus were fuzzy.  It's the material that covers them. The restaurant is brand new so they're all clean, but, man, over the years that fuzzy material is going to be impossible to clean. I also noticed the menu is quite extensive and is lacking in drinks.  I'm going to assume they don't yet have a permit to sell alcohol.  So The Lovely Spouse and I ordered Thai iced teas.

Talk about a tall one... And notice the cute salt and pepper shakers, as well as the neatly folded paper napkin.

So in the interest of giving the restaurant a really good try we ordered appetizers and entrees. I ordered the chicken satay and The Lovely Spouse ordered what I think was the dumplings.

The chicken satay was enough to share and was quite deliciously prepped. The peanut sauce and pickles were also very tasty. This could also work as a light meal in and of itself.

I thoroughly appreciate that they kept the cilantro in large leaves so that I could pick it off.  These were filled with a bit of shrimp and either beef or pork (I don't remember exactly).  The savory sauce was quite nice but also very garlicy. I only had a taste of it.

The Lovely Spouse got the garlic beef.  It was quite true to its name but not very spicy.  For whatever reason he didn't request the condiment tray (available upon request).  The serving was a bit small, but filling with the rice that came with the meal.

I got the panang curry with squid.  You have a choice of meats or veggies to go in the curries.  I chose panang because for some reason I have the least problems with it no matter where I go.  This was quite delicious, although the veggies were all kinds of sizes, with some massively large and others tiny and bite-sized. They were still nice and crisp. The squid was a bit fishy and I might just get all veggie next time. The curry itself had a nice coconut and spice flavor.  Not too spicy for those who don't want too much heat. This was also served with rice and was two meals for me.

Will we be back? Most likely.  I'd like to give this place another shot.  It's about time we got another Thai restaurant in town after all the others closed.  The prices were a bit high for the college crowd ($13 for entrees and $6-7 for appetizers) so in the future I'm likely to skip the appetizers, unless I get them as my meal.

Do I recommend this place? Sure!  Try some Thai food.  I'm not sure it's authentic as I've never been to Thailand, but it's as tasty as any other Thai place I've visted.


Note: yes, it's been a long time between posts.  I've been busy with grad school and trying to find a job. The job search is ridiculously frustrating but I'm keeping at it.  It seems that the whole "shortage of STEM professionals" thing we've all been told isn't true at all.  So while there are job advertisements all over the place, there are also hundreds of people applying for all the same jobs as me. Why am I wasting time on this blog when I could be applying for jobs? Because it's mind-numbing and soul-crushing applying for jobs all day and my brain needs a break.