Dad and I had dinner by our lonesome selves last week and he treated me to another dinner at the fabulous Takhrai Thai in Poway with one of his fancy groupon/coupon/discount deals. Also, Dad let me choose all of the items for our dinner that evening which made me incredibly happy. I took the opportunity to order a bunch of stuff we’d never tried before.
[shrimp twists – marinated shrimp wrapped with crispy egg noodles and quick fried / $8.95]
I saw “shrimp twists” on the menu and I thought “what on earth is that?” And how on earth did they get those egg noodles wrapped around the shrimp?! It looks like chow mien nests or something. I love how the noodles were wrapped around the shrimp and how you couldn’t even really tell WHAT the heck was inside.
Here’s a side view, after I took a bite. Once you bite into it, egg noodles pretty much fly all over the place making it look like maybe a bird WAS eating at the table after all. There’s a little cup of some deliciously sweet plum sauce but there’s no way you can dip this thing. You have to spoon it over the bite you’re able to take and it really needs the sauce. Otherwise it just tastes like a whole lot of dry crispy egg noodles but that bit of sweet sauce contrasts with the whole she-bang and makes it pretty tasty.
[yum nuah (beef salad) / $10.95]
I keep waffling about what our second dish should be and ended up going with the Yum Nuah (beef salad). This came with slices of beef, lots of fresh mint, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and a bit of lettuce on the bottom. It was tossed in this sort of sweet, mostly tangy dressing that complimented all of the flavors very well. The beef here is cold (like room temperature cold, not ice cold) and marries well with the mint and veggies. Dad really loved the sauce/dressing on this one.
[east west steak – grilled rib eye steak with sweet peanut sauce / $16.95]
For our main entree, I went with the East West Steak. I had something sort of similar to this at Thai Time 2 in Sports Arena so I was familiar at least with the idea of the dish.
The stead some pre-sliced (not that you can tell from the first photo) and covered in a sweet Thai peanut sauce. The sauce is not super sweet, more like “sweet-ish” and has that savory element from the peanuts within in the sauce and the nice extra crunch from the sprinkling of peanuts on top. I asked for the steak medium rare (they ask how you’d like it cooked) and so it was nice and tender. Dad was surprised by how good it was since he said he wanted to warn me away from ordering any beef dishes since he didn’t like any that he had ordered in the past – but he really, really liked this. It came on a bed of sauteed veggies which were also delicious and a side of steamed rice (not shown).
All in all another excellent dinner from the cozy little Takhrai Thai in Poway.
Takhrai Thai
12265 Scripps Poway Pkwy, Ste 116
Poway, CA 92064
(858) 549-1848
I feel like every time I visit Takhrai Thai, they’re under new management. We used to love their beef dishes, then the beef got mushy, dry, and chewy so we stopped ordering anything with beef. But, the last time we went, the beef was good again. It’s very confusing. But they’re close and I like the noodle dishes, so we keep playing Thai-food-roulette.
I’ve never tried those shrimp twists before. Maybe next time!
Hi Leanne – Oh, that could explain why my dad didn’t like any of the beef dishes that he tried before. It must be good again since we both enjoyed both of the beef dishes we tried. The shrimp twists were pretty fun, I’m not in love with them enough to order every time, but they were a fun change.
Impressive shrimp twists. I think I’ve only had something like that once before and you’re right about it needing a sauce. Lucky dad and lucky you for the grilled rib eye steak! Yum.
Hi Darlene – The rib eye was very good that day, the peanut sauce made it extra special!
I’ve never heard of this place. What was the coupon your dad had? The beef salad looks so good! Did they ask you how spicy you want it or is there no option to do so?
I’ve never ordered rib eye from a Thai restaurant before. The peanut sauce looks a bit scary to me. That’s nice that they were able to prepare it that beautiful med rare.
That’s awesome your dad let you choose all the items 🙂
Hi Faye – My dad answered below but I’ll tell you again! It was a $20 for $40 worth of food, groupon or livingsocial or UTdeals one of those deal sites, I don’t remember which one. They did ask us the level of spiciness, but I asked them to make it mild for me (like a tiny, hint spicy). So you can make it spicy if you want! The peanut sauce was really delicious, I know it might look like an odd color but it was really good.
We used a Groupon for 40 Dollars (paid 20), excellent coupon and enuf to feed 2 generously.
I don’t remember them changing ownership, been going for a couple of years now.
I enjoyed all the Thai goodies, salad was extremely tasty and the steak was excellent, don’t be afraid of the peanut sauce its not like eating peanut butter at all.
Glad Mary chose the meal, I was very surprised and happy with her choices.
I loved that peanut sauce steak. Yum yum.
Interesting shrimp twists, although they seemed awkward to eat. I like how your dad let you pick everything. Very trusting! 🙂
Hi CC – They were kind of awkward to eat and I didn’t taste the shrimp at first because there was so much noodle, but I still liked them. I don’t think I would crave them, but they were definitely a fun, new thing to try. 🙂