Monday, October 27, 2008

Restaurant Review: Jasmine Thai Restaurant

Last Saturday, J10X & I popped into the new Jasmine Thai restaurant at Columbus Corner in New London for lunch. It's a nice improvement on the horrid retaurants that had recently occupied that spot!

The retaurant was fairly quiet as it was 2 PM, but the staff are very nice, the place is clean and nicely decorated, but bring your own atmosphere- it's been a bit Americanized, so you get Muzak instead of some nice SE Asian music. Oh, and a nice view of the Colombo statue.

The menu has many choices, and the prices are very fair. Appetizers & desserts are in the $4 range, lunches in the $6-$10. There are plenty of vegetarian options, as to be expected. They also have a sushi bar, so we may have to try that next time.

J10X & I tried the steamed dumplings and spring rolls to start- excellent, beautifully served but not extraordinary. I orderd the massaman curry with shrimp , and J10X had the pork Four Companies. Both dishes were delightful, and the portions not immense, which is just great. They each came with the standard bland Thai salad of iceburg lettuce & peanut sauce and a mound of rice. I orderd my curry 'hot', and it was delightfully zippy, but not blister-inducing. I'm not sure if the 'extremely hot' would be much hotter, but the food was very tasty, so there was no need to mask it with the taste of my own burnt tongue. I had also ordered an Sweet Thai Iced Coffee, which may have been a mistake- I think it contained a whole can of condensed milk, plus the curry had plenty of coconut milk in it, and the rice sort of poofed everything up.....I was nauseatingly full by the time I was 2/3 of the way done. I should have skipped the spring rolls!

It's nice that a second Thai place has opened up (Bangkok City is getting tired) and while this is a good place, I think Thai Sawasdee in Groton has food that is much more exquisite.

And as an extra added bonus, J10X actually had green tea ice cream! Anytime that the green tea ice cream order is made a reality is a good day- he has a looong history of being bilked out his ice cream in the past. Even funnier, they served it with chocolate sauce, whipped cream & a cherry....

5 comments:

CL said...

How do they make their spring rolls? Fry them or steam them? And there's no meat in it, right?

Looking for a decent spring roll...

C. Margery Kempe said...

Sounds yummy! At least it had some spice, too. The last thai place we went had just the barest hint of heat.

The Queen said...

Cranky, the spring rolls were traditional - they had pork & were deep fried, but they're finger-sized. I had meant to order the Garden Roll, which IS vegetarian, and not fried.

And you & joey Z may want to order the food extra hot if you go there- it may not be hot enough for you, but it would be hotter thatn what I had.

This is kind of what I meant by the place being a bit Americanized- the lack of spice in the food. It seems to be more and more prevalent, too.

And I am not kidding about the richness of the food, but keep in mind I drink lo-fat milk and use lo-fat coconut milk when I make curry.

Wendy said...

I had lunch there with my department a couple weeks ago, and I agree with the Queen that they will make it hot if you want it that way. I had Pad Thai and I opted on the hotter side. It was pretty good. I can't stand it when restaurants make the food so bland even if you want some spice!

CL said...

The best spring roll (with no meat) I ever had was a Vietnamese place in Providence, RI. It was steamed and served with peanut sauce. Deeelicous! I wish I could find something like that around here.