The best Thai restaurant in the U.S.??

"The single best Thai restaurant in North America"
- Jonathan Gold, Gourmet Magazine

We were in Las Vegas, looking for a place to have lunch, when I recalled reading about Lotus of Siam years ago. I had not visited because I didn't have a rental car at my disposal on my past few trips - but since we did have a vehicle this time, we decided to venture forth and try to locate this famous place.

If you think it looks pretty unprepossessing, you're completely right. It's located about a mile off the Strip, in a dingy strip mall with Korean restaurants and an Asian senior center. Everyone in the car was ragging on my restaurant choice when we parked, and I have to admit that I was having my doubts.

We walked in to a completely packed restaurant with a 30 minute wait for a table. This was at 11:55 am on a Wednesday in Vegas. With baby in tow, the wait was beyond us so we ordered a number of items to go. Clearly it was very popular and successful.

Now the specialty of the restaurant is northern Thai, or isaarn, cuisine. Unfortunately, we just ordered what Thais would consider regular lunch food - pad see eew, chicken panaang, fried rice and noodles. And it was all just ok - adequate but nothing to rave about. A touch sweet on some of the dishes (btw this is usually the biggest complaint that Thais have about Thai food in the U.S. - it's usually sweetened up for American palates).

We did try their mango and sticky rice, which was touted in all the reviews I had read. This is one of my favorite dishes and all I can say is, meh. It was gussied up with extra flavors that detracted from the authenticity. Although we still gobbled it all up...

I don't know if our reaction was due to the simple food we ordered or Jonathan Gold's lack of expertise on Thai food. I'm inclined to think it was the former and am hoping to give it another try the next time I'm back in Las Vegas.