Playing With Lunch Food

My day job is that of Attorney at Law. This requires me to have an office - and I do - on Mayfield Road in Lyndhurst Ohio. My firm, Petronzio Schneier Co., LPA, consists of six attorneys, and we are a social group who enjoy playing with our food.

Today, three of us re-visited Bangkok Thai, 5359 Mayfield Road, Lyndhurst OH (440) 684-1982. These folks have recently moved into their new location, formerly a series of Italian restaurants, most recently Trivisonno's and Argento's.

The space has been completely cleaned up and renovated - a truly delightful place to dine for lunch or dinner. And for you vegetarians - their lunch menu has a nine item vegetarian section.

My favorite starters so far, from a previous visit, are the Tom Yum Goong (Hot & Sour Soup with Shrimp) and Duck Spring Rolls.







The soup is tart and spicy with a healthy dash of fish sauce. The duck rolls were superb, both on their own and dipped into an accompanying dipping sauce that was sweet and hot at the same time. The serving of 4 rolls was most generous.


Green Noodles Curry


Rad Nah

Both of these entrees were ordered "Thai Hot". Our servers, who we learned are the daughters of the Chef, were delighted that we wanted it that way. My companion that day and I were not disappointed - the dishes sang with heat and flavor. The Green Noodles Curry had pineapple and coconut milk in the dish to counteract some of the spice (along with chicken, tomato, onion, yellow squash, and bell peppers). My wide rice noodles rested in and soaked up an incredibly spicy brown gravy ("Thai Style Gravy", according to the menu). This was topped with chicken, broccoli, carrots and mushrooms.

I still don't know where the green in the green noodles comes from - but they are wonderfully fresh. I've had them as take out and they made it to my office hot and delicious:


Mee Yok Mu

Choice of meat (I had chicken) with garlic (and I mean LOTS of garlic), soy sauce, orange juice, red peppers, snow peas, green peas, baby corn and green onions in light chili sauce served over green noodles and bean sprouts. I did not notice much orange flavor, and there were no green peas, but that was fine with me! I did notice fish sauce - I suppose they don't list that as an ingredient because it might turn off the locals. Anyway, the peppers, snow peas and green onions were fresh and tasty (I passed on the canned baby corn).

The green noodles continue to intrigue me - I didn't notice any spinach flavor, but they are definitely a little different than regular wheat noodles. And they were perfectly cooked, I might add - just a bit al dente so they had bite. Another intriguing thing in this dish was the placement of the bean sprouts under the other ingredients, where they got soft as they soaked up the sauce. Usually in Thai dishes I have had, the sprouts are on top or on the side, where they stay crispy. I really like the sponge effect here!

I ordered the dish medium spicy, and it packed a very pleasant punch. I liked the balance of flavors in the sauce, which was light yet spicy. Overall, a great lunch choice!

Today's meal started with Thai Iced Tea


Anna and Jamie each had the Pad Thai:


I had "Crazy Noodles":


The dish consisted of medium-thick rice noodles stir fried with choice of meat (chicken for me today) , Thai Chili Sauce, Thai Basil (which infused the whole dish with complex flavor), onion, hot pepper and exquisitely crisp vegetables. I asked for it "**" spicy, as indicated in the menu, but I think it was spicier than that. No complaints from me, though. Ironically, it was a slight language barrier that brought the extra heat, but not what you might expect in a Thai restaurant - our server was Russian! It was an excellent, inexpensive lunch.

Bangkok Thai remains highly recommended!