Don't hesitate to try TOP THAI !!!

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Posted by: meyling87
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Date: Feb 12 2012 5:59 PM

DOTHAN, Ala. --When I asked my writer friend Amanda to help me review Top Thai, she checked her schedule and readily accepted for a Saturday at lunchtime.She said she enjoys reading the newspaper’s restaurant reviews and, as she dines out frequently, would enjoy the opportunity to sample “some new culinary delights.”She’s visited another Thai restaurant in town, but had not been to Top Thai. With my directions (behind the Sonic near Flowers Hospital on South Woodburn Drive in Dothan), she arrived promptly at 12:15.The place has been open about nine years, tucked away on a side street just off West Main, and if you don’t know about it you could drive right by. But from what we got for lunch that day, that should definitely change.The food was good and the service was excellent, and it probably wasn’t just because we were two of only a dozen diners at the time. Our waitress brought our iced teas ($1.79 each) and waited patiently as we asked questions and narrowed down our selections from the extensive menu, which included a lunch section, appetizers, entrees, soups, salads, fried rice, vegetables, noodles, a kid’s menu, house specials, bowl specials and desserts.We took the “let’s share items” approach and got a good sampling of what the restaurant has to offer, but didn’t order anything with a “hot and spicy” warning.We got two appetizers, Shrimp Roll (six deep-fried whole pieces of shrimp wrapped in spring roll skin, served with sweet chili sauce, $6.95) and Lettuce Wraps (ground chicken, mushrooms, water cashews, bamboo shoots and special sauce you spoon onto lettuce, $6.50).We ordered two selections off the lunch menu (prices for the items are higher after 3 p.m.): Yellow Curry Chicken (filet tenderloin slow cooked with potato and coconut curry sauce, $7.50) and Pineapple Shrimp (shrimp stir fried with onion, bell pepper, pineapple and peanut sauce, $8.50). They were served with fried rice, soup and salad.The soup and salad arrived first. The clear soup contained a few chopped green onion pieces and the small salad had a delicious light, Thousand Island-type dressing that Amanda particularly enjoyed.Then the appetizers arrived. Both were fresh and delicious. The shrimp rolls were ready to eat, but you had to get your hands involved in the lettuce wraps. The lettuce was contoured for easy handling and you could put as much or as little filling as you wanted on each piece. I overfilled one and wound up spilling ingredients as I bit into the lettuce.The appetizers were ample, and had we not been “on assignment,” as Amanda put it, we might not have felt compelled to consume the rest of the meal.The entrees offered us the least to rave about. The fried rice was moist and flavorful, but the Yellow Curry Chicken bordered on “bland” in Amanda’s words — “not much kick in the curry department” is how she put it, and the Pineapple Shrimp was “most notable for the pineapple.”Of course, as the menu says, the spice can be altered according to your taste, but at that point both of us were full.Amanda said she looks forward to telling her girlfriends about Top Thai and visiting again, “Although next time, I’ll be probably more likely to make a satisfying meal of a few appetizers rather than one entrée.”Amanda called it a good value ($36 tax and all, plus a $5 tip) for a lot of food with excellent service. Our iced teas were kept brimming for the entire hour-plus we spent talking. As Amanda put it, “not everywhere in Dothan is that minimum basic requirement so graciously and conscientiously accomplished.”If you’re hesitant about trying Thai food because you think it might be too spicy or unusual, give Top Thai’s selections a try. Ours went down as smooth as any good Southern comfort food.

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