Neighborhood Notes

Here in P-town we are chock full of tasty Thai food. So much so that one of my editors recently put it like this, "Thai food in this town is like the Burger King of gentrification." While this may ring true it still doesn't stop me from wanting to chat up my favs up here in the North end.

Here in North Portland, Thai food is plentiful, which is why it is so surprising that one of my old favs has become such a pain that my last meal was returned and I refuse to step foot in there anymore. The place I am speaking about is Thai Ginger on N Lombard.

Once a haven where some of the best Thai in NoPo could be found, it has over the past few years dropped its standards. First opened by husband and wife team, James and Noo Gerritsen, when they ran things this place was my favorite Thai spot in the 5Q. My Pad Thai was consistent, the curries delightful and service was fast and friendly (especially to go.) A few years ago the Gerritsens sold Thai Ginger to the current owners and things began to slowly go down hill.

Though, they still use the Gerritsen's recipes (the reason I continued to go) they do not have Noo's flair in the kitchen or James' friendliness in the front. Now, every time I order dishes I cannot consistently count on them in heat or in flavor. Still I continued to eat at Thai Ginger hoping for those uncommon days when flavor and heat both went right. To give these new owners a try I began to branch out to see what new dishes I might favor over the others. Maybe they were just better at something other than my pad thai or pa nang curry. But every time I called and asked about ingredients or how a dish was prepared (ordering to go) I was made to feel I was a nuisance. This got increasingly worse. Yet, I persisted (they are close to home and the food was good if not as good as the original) UNTIL...

The day of the aforementioned altercation, in which the owner's sister when faced with a complaint on an order she had taken and gotten wrong became so rude and condescending to me that I re-boxed my to-go order and took it back demanding a refund. I got the refund- with another side of attitude and they will no longer have my business.

Thankfully, I thought there is enough Thai in this city to go around and I had heard recently that the Gerritsen's had just opened a new place a few months back called Wild Spice, even closer to my house. EXCEPT when I showed up they are now gone. The sign on the building now reads Thai Terrace!

I called and asked the new owners (Thai Terrace) if they kept the old menu- they said no but told me that their menu was online and if I wanted they could make any dish from Wild Spice's old menu.

Now, that was a great start- so I checked out their site. Turns out these folks are pretty well known for some of the tastiest Thai in the Couve and I'll tell you why...it's not only great food with some dishes you may not have had anywhere in town before but it's family-owned and this family is focused on customer service.

AND the food is out of this world good! It would have replaced Thai Ginger in my book on the basis of cooking alone. But when you see their gorgeous dining room and feel the warm, friendly demeanor of Jeff and his brother Tony working hard to not only make sure you get what you want, fresh and delicious but also giving away yummy freebies like free egg rolls with to-go orders over $20 or freshly brewed Thai Iced tea while you check out their digs, well, you'll see why Thai Ginger should watch their backs!

Everything I have tried so far at Thai Terrace has been delish from the stellar Pad Thai to signature dishes like Three Flavored Halibut topped with sweet chili paste, pineapple, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms and bell peppers or Dancing Spinach in which fresh seafood (whitefish, squid, shrimp and scallops) is stir fried with spinach and garlic sauce- YUM!

My favorites are the tart Chicken Larb Salad, scrummy, smooth curries and crispy shrimp rolls. But the mother of them all is an appetizer called Star on Earth which features shrimp and ground chicken wrapped in a large won ton type skin, deep fried and served with a tangy Thai sweet and sour sauce. This dish is huge and delectable- kind of like a Thai quesadilla in its presentation but oh so temptingly good. I'm still working my way through their extensive menu and you should start too!