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Wednesday, February 5, 2003 (SF Chronicle)
Bill Daley, Chronicle Staff Critic
In a city loaded with Thai restaurants, Lemongrass in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood deserves a second look. It's a cozy place where it's easy to spoon into a big bowl of beef red curry or to roll unblemished spinach leaves around a savory mix of toasted coconut, dried shrimp, peanuts, red onion, garlic and lime wedges.
The restaurant has some atmosphere. The tables may be crowded together,
but triangular-shaped pillows arranged on the wall-length banquette serve
as armrests and dividers. It's a clever, colorful touch. Lighting is dim,
there's a smattering of Thai art on the wall, and stylized golden figures
of musicians guard the tall wooden chest by the front door.
When one of the waitresses, born and bred and gone from New Hampshire for
more than 20 years, makes a beeline to the table because of our "Maine"
sweatshirt and then offers some advice about living on the bay, the place
begins to feel a bit like home.
The appeal of Thai food is the mix of raw and cooked, spice, texture,
color and aroma. This is epitomized by mieng kum ($5.95), the spinach leaf
appetizer mentioned above. Every flavor is bright and distinct within a
delicious whole of the spinach packet. The lime wedges, a typical
ingredient, are particularly nice, giving the dish a tingly effervescence.
You get the same celebration of tastes and textures with the crispy rice
salad ($6.25), a standing special. Pillowy mounds of rice fried until
lightly browned are tossed with strips of red pepper, cucumber, peanuts,
chopped onions and posed next to lettuce leaves. The salad is vibrant with
chile, ginger, cilantro and lemongrass.
A whole skewered prawn is coated with minced greenery, then folded into a
crepe and deep-fried. The finished skewer, called a Thai Stick ($6.25),
looks like a miniature flagpole and flag. It's worth saluting; the shrimp
emerges from its casings with a delectable moistness.
A rice paper roll stuffed with minced tofu, cucumber, snowpeas and carrots
($5.95) arrives hot with a topping of warm sweet and sour tamarind sauce.
It looks like soggy manicotti but tastes far better. The tod mun fish
cakes ($6. 25) have the usual leathery brown skins, but inside, the
scallion-laced filling is quite alive.
Despite an appealing deep-fried crunch of skin, the boneless chicken wings
($6.25) offered a disappointing mix of minced chicken, shrimp, silver
noodles and mushrooms. The filling was so ground up it was hard to tell
what was what. Chicken satay ($5.95) was also lackluster.
You couldn't say that about a Thai noodle soup called yen ta foh ($6.95).
Throwing lots of chile-fueled sparks, this one-pot meal is crowded with
shrimp,
calamari rings, fish balls, fish cake, rice noodles, stewed greens and
enough fiery chile sauce to lightly stain the broth red. This dish, not
often found on menus, is the sassiest thing on the table, offering notes
of smoke, citrus and spice. A more orthodox soup is the tom kha gai
($6.95), slices of pearly chicken poached in a coconut milk broth. Lemon
and lime leaves infuse the broth with a citrusy tang.
Red beef curry ($6.95) is primal comfort food, with chewy slices of stewed
beef awash in spicy-sweet coconut milk. Coconut milk also soothes a chile-
flecked dish of sauteed shrimp with lemon leaves. Also pleasantly creamy
is the param gai ($6.95), a mound of spinach dressed with peanut sauce and
topped with slices of chicken meat.
Less successful is a pork stir-fry with eggplant, green chile and fresh
basil ($6.75). The pork is good, but too polite; it needed some of the
flavor and texture interest of the eggplant, which could have been made
more plush with more oil and spices. "Spicy" tofu ($5.95) offers a
moderate burn, giving a zip without overwhelming.
Barbecued chicken ($6.75) was dry, although it had a wonderful
smoke-kissed aroma. Pad Thai and other sauteed noodles are a Thai
hallmark, yet a bowl of the pad see-ew ($6.25), rice noodles tossed with
egg, broccoli, cabbage and a choice of beef, chicken, pork or shrimp,
offers few hints of what the fuss is all about. It's little more than an
ordinary stir-fry.
On all three visits, servers brought the bill without asking if we wanted
dessert. Maybe it's because the only thing for dessert is bananas -- fried
bananas with honey ($2.50), fried bananas with ice cream ($2.95) and
boiled banana with coconut milk ($2.25). The fried banana is an ample,
sturdily battered dessert. It's good, but you're not missing anything if
you skip it.
Service is generally friendly and attentive, even if you don't get the
lady from New Hampshire. Only when things get busy do we feel a bit
forgotten.
Still, with moderate prices, reasonable quality and an attention to
detail, Lemongrass is a good value and a good neighborhood choice for Thai
food.
Bill Daley is a Chronicle staff critic. E-mail him at
bdaley@sfchronicle.com. His reviews can also be read on SF Gate at
sfgate.com.
LEMONGRASS
Address: 2348 Polk St. (between Green and Union), San Francisco
Phone:(415) 346-1818
Hours: Lunch 11 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, dinner 4-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, until
10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Beer and wine. Major credit cards and reservations
accepted. Difficult street parking. Valet parking $10 at dinner only.
OVERALL: TWO STARS
Food: TWO STARS
Service: TWO STARS
Atmosphere: TWO STARS
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PRICES: $
NOISE RATING: THREE BELLS
PLUSES: Neighborhood Thai can offer bright, flavorful dishes showcasing
quality produce. Friendly service.
MINUSES: Not every dish reaches full potential. Dining room is charming but
crowded.
RATINGS KEY
FOUR STARS: Extraordinary
THREE STARS: Excellent
TWO STARS: Good
ONE STAR: Fair
(box): Poor
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$ Inexpensive: entrees under $10
$$ Moderate: $10-$17
$$$ Expensive: $18-$24
$$$$ Very Expensive: more than $25
Prices based on main courses. When entrees fall between these categories,
the prices of appetizers help determine the dollar ratings.
.
ONE BELL: Pleasantly quiet (under 65 decibels)
TWO BELLS: Can talk easily (65-70)
THREE BELLS: Talking normally gets difficult (70-75)
FOUR BELLS: Can only talk in raised voices (75-80)
BOMB: Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
.
Chronicle critics make every attempt to remain anonymous.
All meals are paid for by the Chronicle.
Star ratings are based on a minimum of three visits.
Ratings are updated continually based on a least one revisit.
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