Week 17-Thai Satay

Thai Satay, at 1376 E. 14th St. (www.thaisataysanleandro.com), is another small looking restaurant on our way down East 14th, but this one, is significantly larger than it looks on the outside.

The restaurant was fully decorated with all sorts of little Thai tchotchkes that filled up the mostly empty restaurant. The host & waiter led us to a table by the window, which is smart! Makes the place look full from the outside, and sucks you in. He was the almost the perfect waiter in my mind, because I usually hate it when a waiter wants to be all chatty with me. He snuck in the food without a lot of hoopla, and cleared and filled water seamlessly. 

For some reason, I can never seem to order Thai food and be happy with it, so I left it up to my family to order something I would like. Greatly successful. 

First thing up was an order of the most tempting sounding thing on their HUGE menu, the angel's wings.  These rather large chicken wings are stuffed with noodles, celery, ground chicken and spices, and deep-fried till crispy.  The sauce on the side is the perfect add on, both sweet and spicy.

The shredded papaya green salad, I'll be honest, I don't remember trying, because I don't usually like papaya. Family enjoyed it though, and there wasn't much left on the plate at the end of the meal. I remember thinking that it had a bit too much of the chili dressing on it.

This pineapple fried rice with shrimp was great. Maybe it was the festive bowl it came in, maybe it was the deliciously sweet pineapple. The rice was cooked all the way through without being soggy, and was nice and crispy. We ate all of it. I need one of these bowls for my house desperately. I would eat everything out of that bowl, I swear.

The Pad Thai definitely wasn't one of the best I've had. It wasn't at all spicy, and everything was a bit soggy, but the shrimp were cooked with something special I haven't tried before.  But since I'm not a huge fan of spicy things, (for those of you who don't know me, I get terrible hiccups that last for hours) this wasn't a negative thing for me. 

My father ordered the grilled calamari and shrimp, and was reluctant to share. We did manage to wrestle a few from his clutches, and they were tender and well cooked. In most places I've eaten grilled calamari, the squid is rubbery and tough, but this order was neither.  

The Thai noodle soup with shrimp (in hind sight, I am now noticing that we got 4 out of 5 dishes with shrimp in it.  Guess we love shrimp!) was a bit more spicy, and made terrific leftovers the next day. It had a great deep red Thai curry sauce.

Thai Satay is the first Thai food I've had in San Leandro, so I'll let you know how it compares to others down the road.

Distance traveled:
Thai Satay:  2.0 miles round-trip
Total traveled so far: 26 miles