ROM MAI THAI

Once every two months, Sav and I drive down to Washington State for groceries and light shopping. Occasionally, when we have that time and money to kill we will drive all the way down to Seattle downtown and enjoy the area as an one-day tourist. My sister recommended this Thai restaurant in downtown Seattle and we gave it a try.

Rom Mai Thai chef and owners are Thai natives. The restaurant is small but cozy and has the touch of Thai decors.

Everytime I have Thai food, the first thing I would order is the Thai ice tea. I will not recognize any Thai meal without this. If you haven’t had Thai ice tea before, you’re missing out big time. Normal ice tea is the common yellow label tea with evaporated milk or creme milk and syrup. This Thai ice tea is a rich ice Chai tea with condense milk. The tea is richer in flavour and the condense milk gives a sweeter thicker taste to the drink. Beware! If you’re usually light on sugar, you will get a sugar high from this drink! However, Thai ice tea is the perfect match for Thai food because it balance out the spice and heat from the food!

Remember to stir your drink well so the condense milk is evenly mixed into the Chai tea!

For starters, we ordered the Angel Wings – Deep fried chicken wings stuffed with mixture of vegetables and crystal noodles. Served with sweet and sour sauce.

The wings have a nice crunch but I thought it was lacked on seasoning. There’s not much taste on the crust or the on the veggie stuffing.

Another starter we ordered is the chicken satay – Grilled chicken marinated in a delicious blend of fresh coconut milk and mixture of Thai herbs on skewers. Served with peanut sauce and cucumber salad. I would say this is a decent dish but not anything spectacular. The chicken is tender, not dry. But it lacks seasoning.

We ordered two Tom Yum Goong – Hot and sour soup with prawns, mushrooms, lemon grass, scallion, cilantro, lime juice, and galangal. The first soup we ordered mild spiciness. It was NOT spicy AT ALL. I don’t even had any taste of heat, and if you guys know me well by now I keep mentioning I am quite sensitive to heat and don’t take spicy well. So that was disappointing. Even for someone like me who don’t eat spicy well. The next soup we ordered regular spicy. There’s more heat but it was not strong at all.

For entrees, we started with some Chicken Green Curry – cooked with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, and sweet Thai basil. I really have no comment on this dish. Everything was cooked perfectly but there’s just no spark in the food. The flavour was there but it’s very mono tone.

We ordered another curry dish, the Duck Curry – Roasted duck meat with red curry sauce, coconut milk, tomatoes, pineapple, bell peppers, and sweet Thai basil. The red curry is actually very spicy. I couldn’t taste the sauce at all and only ate the duck cause it was too spicy. The flavour is better than the other dishes. It was strong and rich in coconut milk.

For our carbs, we ordered the signature Pad Thai – Stir-fried rice noodles, green onions, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, and egg. We ordered ours with tofu instead of meat. Very disappointing. No seasoning at all, the flavour was not there. Very very mono tone flavours. 

And just to make sure our tummies were satisfied, we ordered Sav’s favourite calamari. This is the Garlic Calamari – Sauteed calamari with fresh garlic, pepper sauce, and zucchini, shredded cabbage, and carrots. Topped with cilantro. The calamari has a nice texture, knowing it is fresh. Flavour was there but it is very mono tone.

I thought this place is pretty legit but it turns out very disappointing. I would not drive all the way down to Seattle for this restaurant, and I’ll probably  will not even drive down to the restaurant even I live close by. I’m spoiled with legit Thai food back in Asia.