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Sala Thai
807 1st St., Benicia
707 745-4331

Stepping into [tag]Sala Thai[/tag]?s doorway is like slipping into another world. The main room is narrow, long, and windowless. There are hints of smaller rooms to the back, and a corner to remove shoes. The long dark room is decorated with Thai crafts, carvings and material. The effect is one of elegance and mystery.

On my recent visit, we chose to sit at one of the sunken booths. The table was set simply, glass over thick Thai fabric with a few condiments. The menu was extensive with pages of items to choose from. Most dishes were named in English, and each dish was described.

Our drinks arrived first, a couple of Thai iced coffees and a clay pot of hot sake. The variation in the Thai iced coffees was great; one had much more coffee than the other. Fortunately one person wanted to sip a creamier drink, the other a stronger coffee. We agreed that this lack of consistency is the advantage, and sometimes disadvantage, of food prepared to order by hand. This observation became the theme of this meal. Meanwhile, the sake complimented the food better than any wine.

We started our meal with Tom Kha Gai, a soup made with lemongrass, galangal, coconut milk and chicken. One surprise was that the soup had to be individually ordered instead of coming in one large portion. Despite this we all ordered the same and asked for it to be spicy. We each received a small bowl loaded with chicken and vegetables. The broth while not spicy, also avoided the tendency of restaurants to make this soup too sweet.

We followed this with Larb Nur, a chopped salad with cabbage, carrot, green onion, cucumber, lime juice, chili, mint, fish sauce, and ground beef. This salad had some of the fire we were looking for combined with salty and sour flavors and crunchy texture. While not as hot as the salads I ate in Thailand, this one was very clean and fresh tasting.

The Roasted Duck was a little bit of a disappointment for me; the skin was not as crispy as I hoped, and the meat tough. My dining partners did not share this opinion and ate it right up.

The Seafood Emerald Curry was a revelation. This bright green sauce was fabulous and came with lots of seafood such as shrimp and calamari, as well as vegetables. Every bite seemed perfectly cooked, the calamari tender, the shrimp cooked through, the vegetables firm yet tender. This was Sala Thai at its best.

Long ago I perched at one of the regular tables and ate lunch at Sala Thai. The dish I ordered was memorable only for having too many ingredients. Although every item seemed fresh, the flavors were complex like stir-fried leftovers. The dish lacked identity.

Sala Thai is too good to be labeled inconsistent, but some dishes are definitely better than others.

[tags]restaurant review, Thai restaurant[/tags]

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