Issara Thai Restaurant

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Margie, Paul, Terry & I did a recon at the restaurant, www.issarathaicuisine.com,  to check out if it would be a good match for Margie's Monthly Wine Activity. Located in a strip mall on Warner near Goldenwest, Parking is ample. The owner David, who is an engineer and his wife , who s a doctor, decided to open a Thai restaurant because they could not find any Thai places that were good in Orange County. They had not heard of Nayada, located in Long Beach just close to the OC border.  Place was new and clean and the staff was very accommodating.

We started out with the mixed appetizer plate - Vegetable egg roll, Shrimp rolls, Chicken Stay and Bangkok cups. Terry also ordered a side of Calamari. The egg rolls were very good, the shrimp rolls are like everyone else's, more dough than shrimp which I personally are not partial too, would rather just have the shrimp. The cups had a mixture of chicken and potato salad in them, the satay was very good, the calamari was OK, but not much for the price. What set all these items off was the sauces. Excellent sauces,

We then ordered several dishes.The Crying Tiger steak was OK but did not hold up to Nayada's, it was also not very hot, closer to room temperature. The Crispy Sole with green apple was excellent. moist and good flavor. The Tofu with green beans was interesting. Flavor was good but the amount of very small diced green beans was minuscule. Vegetables are cheap, they should have thrown more into the dish. The Pineapple Rice was very good.

The Roti with yellow curry was good. Not my style of dish but very good flavor.

Paul &  Margie have eaten at Issara a few times and have been happy with the food. So Issara will show up on one of the monthly wine activities soon.

We brought several whites wines to go with the food and they all were a good pairing.

2012 Ponzi, Willamette Valley, Pinot Gris, 2011 Willy Gisselbrecht Gewurztraminer, 2010 Longoria Albarino and for the end of the meal a 2007 Clos Pepe Pinot Noir. The pinot did not hold up to the spicy food but was an excellent way to end the meal.