A Return Thai Trip to Lotus of Siam

Lotus of Siam

953 East Sahara Ave. #A5

Las Vegas, NV 89104

I usually do not like revisiting a restaurant that we have been to before while on vacation, especially in a city like Las Vegas, where there are so many places that are on my wish list, that there is no way that I'd be able to hit them all. I came back here for two reasons though. One being that I have been in a real Thai food phase since the first of the year. The second, and probably most important reason is because Katie wanted to come back to Lotus of Siam. She doesn't really ask for much, so when she request a return trip to a place, I'll usually oblige.

Also joining us on our Thai food adventure is my longtime friend Steve, and his friend, Jason. They both just happened to be in Vegas attending their yearly conference, so we decided to have dinner with them before they had to fly out the next morning. I could kind of sense that they were both new to Thai food, but they seemed pretty excited to give it a try. Maybe they just loved our company.

For someones first time having Thai food, eating at Lotus of Siam is kind of like going from being a high school football player, and going straight to the pros, playing your first game in Cowboy Stadium in front of 80,000 people. Of course if you're on the Cowboys, most people expect you to lose anyways, so there's probably not that much pressure. Sorry about that Steve, I had to slip that in there.

Lotus of Siam has been on tons of TV shows, been written about numerous times, and has a steady stream of taxi cabs coming from the strip dropping off hungry tourists. Owner and Chef Saipin Chutima has owned this place since 1999, and won a James Beard Award in 2011 as best chef in the Southwest. As if all of this was not enough, there are tons of pictures all over the restaurant of all the famous celebrities that have eaten here over the years.

We arrived here on a Thursday evening at about 7:30, and were met with a 45 minute wait. No worries for us though, because we found a dive bar in this desolate shopping center, enjoyed a few cocktails, and listened to a know it all bartender telling some tall tales. Both Steve and Jason really enjoyed this guys company, but we finally got the call on Katie's phone that our table was ready, so we settled up with our new friend.

Lotus of Siam features food from Northern Thailand. I'm by no means an expert on Thai food, but I can tell you that the food of Northern Thailand is generally a little more mild than that from the south. The menu here is pretty hefty, and whether you are into seafood, curries, noodles, fried rice, or one of the northern specialties, you will most likely find something to your liking here. Let's see if that was the case for the four of us on this evening.

Starting things off for us were two appetizers, the first of which were these Fried Wontons ($7.95). These fried pockets were filled with ground chicken, and served with a house made sweet and sour sauce. These were fried well, with the absence of grease, but they needed to be filled a little more than they were. The ground chicken did not shine here. We'd probably forgo these on future visits.

One of my favorite things to try in Thai restaurants is satay, so we definitely needed to try the Chicken Satay ($10.95) at Lotus of Siam. This was an excellent version. The chicken was tender, and flavored nicely, and the peanut sauce here is out of this world. If I could have, I would have asked that this sauce be packed up to go, and I'd use it sparingly when I got it home to make it last as long as possible. This was also served with a cucumber salad, which kind of got neglected at our table.

The real reason I think Katie wanted to make a return visit to this restaurant was because of this Tom Kah Kai Soup ($4.95). She has been trying to find a local replacement for the one served here, with no luck. This Bangkok style soup comes with sliced chicken, mushrooms, galanga, which I learned is a root that resembles ginger, lemongrass, coconut milk, and a touch of fresh lime. A complex soup, but simple in taste, she of course enjoyed this immensely, and is still on the lookout for another version that can equal this one.

Entrees were up next, and we'll start things off with my good friend Steve's meal. He kept things pretty basic here with his choice of Sweet and Sour Chicken ($9.95). This had everything you would expect from this dish, pineapple, tomatoes, cucumber, red and green bell peppers, green and white onion, and it was topped with cilantro. He felt this was a good version, but it did not dazzle him. He'd definitely try something else if he were to come here again.

Katie's meal was probably the best of the night. She could not be happier with this Pad Se-Ew ($8.95), even claiming that this was the best version of this dish she has ever had. Very high praise indeed for this noodle dish that also had eggs, Chinese broccoli, black soy sauce, and some very tender beef. After two trips to Lotus of Siam, she has now found her perfect meal here, and will probably not deviate from it.

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When I knew we would be coming here for a return dinner, I checked out Yelp for their most popular items, and the one that kept popping up were these Garlic Prawns ($27.95). They were mentioned in over 300 reviews, so I had to give them a try. The prawn portion of these was great, with a very good burst of garlic in each bite. Good sized, and they were cooked well. I did not really like the shell portion of these, which was attached to the prawn. The menu states that these are like potato chips, but after eating a few of them, I decided they weren't for me. A very good dish though, and I'm glad I had the chance to try it, even though this did not fill me up too much.

Probably not the best choice for someone having their first Thai food experience, Jason went with the Seafood Pad Ped ($17.95). This seafood combination dish was filled with crab, octopus, shrimp, and other seafood, along with a roasted curry paste, mushrooms, lemon grass, lime juice, and mint leaves. Jason was very game with this dish, which was not what he was expecting. He enjoyed the flavor of the sauce, but found the seafood here not to be of his liking. Maybe he should have started with one of their very good curry dishes, or maybe a pad Thai. He does get points for at least trying everything in his bowl. I have a sneaky suspicion that he and Steve went by In-N-Out on their way back to their hotel after this meal.

Even though I would have liked to have tried a new restaurant on our last night in Vegas, I was more than happy to make Katie happy with a return meal to Lotus of Siam. The Thai food here is pretty legendary, and I really would not mind another trip here when we are back in Vegas. The menu is so large, it almost rivals Cheesecake Factory, and it would take numerous times to try a good cross section of it. For this restaurant being as popular as it is, the prices are more than fair. Service was pretty good on this night, until we straggled after our dinner talking, and it was clear that they wanted to close up shop and wanted us to leave, which is understandable. It's always good getting together with our good friend Steve, and our new friend Jason. Next time you guys can pick the restaurant.

Out of five water lilies, (because lotus is another name for these aquatic plants), five being best to zero being worst, Lotus of Siam gets 4 water lilies.

For more information about Lotus of Siam, go to their website here: http://lotusofsiamlv.com/

Tempting Thai Food Off of the Strip

Lotus of Siam

953 E. Sahara Ave #A-5

Las Vegas, NV 89104

When Katie found out we were going to Vegas, she really wanted to eat at Lotus of Siam. It is very rare that she is so adamant about eating at a restaurant. Usually she just lets me make a list, and then goes along for the ride. I was kind of shocked when she picked this place. Then after I did some research of my own about Lotus of Siam, I understood her desire to eat here.

Lotus of Siam is not only a Las Vegas institution, but an American institution as well. It has been dubbed, the best Thai food in North America. It has been featured on numerous TV shows. The owner/chef, Saipin Chutima has won a James Beard Award. The business has been reviewed on Yelp close to 1,500 times, and almost all but 15 percent of those reviews are either 4 or 5 star reviews. Not bad, for a restaurant that is well off of the strip, away from the bright lights of Las Vegas Boulevard, in a run down, dimly lit, odd shopping center that is easily missed when you are looking for it off of Sahara. The only clue that this iconic restaurant is here, is the continuous line of taxis picking up and dropping off tourists from the strip.

As dark, and eerily quiet as the shopping center is from the outside, the inside is bright and bustling with activity. Lotus of Siam is actually a lot bigger than it appears from the outside. Even with the large dining room, make sure you have reservations, as the wait times can be extremely long, from what I hear. With all of the accolades Lotus of Siam has garnered, you would think this restaurant would be fancy and expensive. Nothing could be further from the truth. The dining area had a real warm feel to it, kind of like you were dining in a family's large dining room. There was also a large cross section of people here; businessmen, ladies out for a night on the town, large groups of Thai families, tourists from out of town, and a couple of good looking food bloggers from Orange County, who wanted to find out what all the fuss was about.

The menu was not as intimidating as I thought it would be. The names of the entrees were listed in Thai, but there were nice descriptions of what these plates consisted of in English. The prices? Most items are well under the $25 mark. Not bad for a restaurant with such a pedigree. After checking out the menu for awhile, the very patient, and efficient waiter took our order. We were both very excited to see if this would truly be the best Thai food we have had.

Lotus of Siam was Katie's choice for dinner, so I let her loose with picking out what she wanted to try. She started us off with the Nam Kao Tod ($7.95). This dish was made up of crispy rice, sour minced pork sausage, green onions, chili's, ginger, peanuts, and lime juice. This dish was full of great flavors and textures. I like the crunch from the rice, I can still recall the sourness of the sausage, the chili's added a little pop of spice, while the lime juice added a nice tang to tie everything together. I will admit that when she ordered this, I was skeptical, but I became a believer after my first few bites.

Another item Katie was pretty exited to order was this cup of Tom Kah Kai ($4.95). From what the menu stated, this is the Bangkok version of this soup. This unusual soup was made up of chicken, coconut milk, straw mushrooms, lemon grass, lime juice, and galanga, which is a milder version of ginger. The waiter had asked us how spicy we wanted this, and we told him about a four out of ten. This came out pretty spicy, even for me. The coconut milk did cool this soup down though. There was plenty of chicken in this soup, which was nice and tender. I thought the spiciness would overpower, but the great flavor of this soup persevered. I will definitely be on the lookout for this soup when we go to other Thai restaurants.

Probably the most common Thai dish to most Americans has become pad Thai, and Katie selected the Chicken Pad Thai ($8.95) for her entree. This dish came with stir-fried rice noodles, bean sprouts, eggs, green onion, peanuts on the side, and of course chicken. She claims that this is the best version of this classic dish that she has ever had. She singed its praises for its freshness, portion size, and the preparation they used to create it. She left Lotus of Siam almost glowing. I really enjoyed seeing her so happy.

After reading the on-line reviews for this restaurant, I knew I would be having duck for my entree, but they have four different versions of duck on the menu. I went with the Crispy Duck with Panang, which is a milder red cream curry. Quite simply, this is one of the best duck dishes I have ever had. The skin was indeed crispy, the duck was fork tender and not as greasy as other duck dishes tend to be. The red curry sauce was mild, but still had a decent pop of heat. When I saw the portion size, I was a little skeptical that this was not going to be enough for me, but it did fill me up. I, of course could have eaten more, but I did leave feeling very satisfied.

I feel that I might have to agree with what everyone says about Lotus of Siam. They are the best Thai restaurant I have been to up until this point. All of the accolades that they have received are well deserved. We are probably going to have to make time to eat at Lotus of Siam every time we come back to Vegas. It has been over a month since we were here, and I still think about the crispy duck that I had. I am also impressed with how casual and affordable Lotus of Siam is. Normally a restaurant with all of this buzz would move to swankier digs and raise prices, but they have not. The service on the night we were here was very efficient and warm. Glad Katie picked this place. Maybe since she did such a great job getting us to come here, I will listen to her a little more than I have in the past.

Out of five Asian elephants, (which is the national animal of Thailand), five being best to zero being worst, Lotus of Siam gets 4 strong Asian elephants.

For more information about Lotus of Siam, go to their website here: http://www.saipinchutima.com/