The cover story

Posted by Kathryn @ 8:23 AM

Restaurants in Pittsburgh are hard to read. The exterior does not always give you a good read on how good the food is. I moved here thinking that this would be a great place to check out some dives and get cheap eats. I have found several good dives and several expensive and decent restaurants. For every good dive though, there are many many that are no good at all.

So the other night I was in Bloomfield at the Crazy Mocha picking up a 6 pack of tickets for the 3 Rivers Film Festival. I was in the mood to not cook even though I had a set of meatballs ready and waiting in the fridge. My husband suggested we eat out and I remember there was a local joint that I really wanted to check out, Thai Cuisine.

What a name. No pretty descriptions it just cuts straight to the point. With a name like that you don't know if you are going to get the best or the worst food of your entire life. It is going to be an adventure. So we walk in to the unassuming but clean restaurant and order some appetizers. The place is BYOB but we didn't bring anything along that night, so we stuck to water which was frequently refilled.

I started with Tom Kha Gai and my husband picked out golden pockets which were similar to wontons but with a curried potato filling. My soup was excellent although light on the meat.

I then ordered Panang vegetables with tofu (the watiress asked how hot I wanted it on a scale of 1-10) and Ian ordered Cashew Nut Chicken. At 6 the Panang was spicy but not blistering. The tofu was very soft, not my top choice, but the vegetables were overflowing and I had plenty of curry for two meals. I was afraid the Cashew Nut chicken would be like bad chinese take out, but fresh crisp vegetables dominated the dish and the chicken was nice cuts without grizzle. All in all it was a lovely meal. Not super cheap, but very reasonable and good flavors. I will be back!