Overall, it was decent I thought.
I got a dinner delivered to celebrate Memorial Day. Here's what I ordered:
For an appetizer, I got the E-san Sausage;
For a rice dish, I got the Siriwan Fried Rice Combination;
For the main entrée, I got the Crispy Basil (one of their specialties);
and, for a side dish, I got a serving of rice (jasmine I think).
There are so many little things to discuss!
First the delivery was OUTSTANDING!! Honestly, it was probably one of the best delivery experiences I've ever had in this area. It arrived 20 minutes earlier than I requested and the food was piping hot and completely intact. AND it was delivered towards the end of the evening which generally, for most restaurants, is customarily on the tail end of quality. Not this time though!! It went through Chownow instead of Grubhub or Doordash, so maybe that was part of it.
I was a tiny bit disappointed since they didn't include the utensils I requested.
I was a little impressed that they included an extra side of rice.
The online menu was very intuitive. (I used the menu on Siriwan's website since it allowed my to schedule the delivery a few days in advance) The dish descriptions were crystal clear, so I knew EXACTLY what I was ordering.
Many dishes had 7 spiciness options:
--not spicy
--mild
--medium
--spicy
--thai spicy
--thai extra spicy
--super thai spicy
My first impression was one of tremendous gratitude, since my few past experiences with Thai food were that it was all forebodingly spicy. Honestly, I don't mind spicy food, just so long as the zestiness doesn't completely drown out the flavor. I didn't want to compromise the authenticity of the dishes, so Just to be safe, I picked "spicy", since that was the middle option.
When I tasted each of the dishes, the thing that impressed me so much was also the thing that disappointed me. It turned out that every single bite was spicy, it was very uniform in taste and intensity. This could only happen (as well as the varying spice options), if the spice were applied with a powder or an oil. I'm no expert in cooking or Thai cuisine, but I think authentic spiciness comes from the ingredients, like peppers. It seems fabricated if the spiciness is just kind of added as an afterthought.
I kind of chose poorly for the spiciness level. For my palette it was almost the perfect intensity, but not quite. Next time, I'll go with "medium". Entirely my mistake. Anyway, I when I realized the source of the spiciness, I was compelled to ask myself, "what would it taste like if these dishes weren't spicy at all?" So let's go through it:
The e-san sausage was very good, it had a nice, yet simple sweetness to it. If this were a main dish, I could see myself ordering it.
The fried rice was pretty much exactly what you'd expect, although the cut of the meats were a little large compared to most other restaurants--which I LOVED!!
The crispy basil was basically just general tso's chicken coated with several soggy basil leaves (very subtle basil flavor). Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it greatly; no disappointment there. But i was just expecting something more exotic and complex
The overall impression for me was this was just Chinese fast food (albeit very tasty) with a few flourishes to make it seem like authentic Thai food.
**MINUS 1 STAR**
The other thing worth noting is the value.
I spent a subtotal of $73.95 for these three-ish dishes. Even with the spiciness I had a fairly hearty appetite. so I think the appetizer was large enough to feed 1 normal person, and the fried rice and chicken were each enough to feed 2-3 people.
The side of plain jasmine rice was large enough to feed a half a person; really small container. I mean, that side was $4 and it was about 1 cup. If I went to the grocery store, I could buy a 5 lb bag for less than $7
Though I appreciate the portion size of the fried rice and chicken, I think that the overall quality of all the dishes didn't deserve such high price tags.
**MINUS 1 STAR**
As I said initially though, overall the food was delicious and I could see myself maybe ordering from them again! read more