On the 3rd weekend of July, the family and I made our way to the Bay Area to visit one of White Carrot’s fellow food bloggers, Mr WutDaPho, who also happens to be my cousin. Being the gracious host he is, he took us to the “Berkeley Thai House” for lunch. I have been there once before, before my blogging days and enjoyed it, so I was eagerly anticipating it.
The Berkeley Thai House is located on the outskirts of the UC Berkeley Campus. This place is quite popular among the local and student community. For Thai Cuisine, the Thai House isn’t exactly very spicy. As blasphemous as that sounds, it actually worked out very well for us since 5 of the 8 people present didn’t want the food to be spicy.
As usual, we started things with some “fried calamari”. That’s pretty much standard whenever we see it on the menu. I must admit that the calamari wasn’t tender enough, more on the “chewy” side if anything. Overall, didn’t really impress me.
The “yellow curry” (with onions and potatoes) wasn’t too bad. It’s pretty much like “Panang Curry”, being more on the “sweeter” side. I kind of wish it was less “watery”, though. I prefer my curry more on the “creamier” side. As for the “Pad Thai”, I have had better. I will probably skip both dishes next time.
The “roast duck” dish was actually pretty good. It was served with veggies and some ’spicy’ soy sauce. One of my favorites despite the fact that the fact that the “soy sauce” wasn’t even spicy.
The “Fried Rice” came with tomatoes, onions and eggs. Then you have the option to add shrimp or a mix of assorted seafood. I normally don’t do fried rice at restaurants because I know some restaurants have the tendency of using their “left-over” rice to make it. Frying the rice tends to “mask” the staleness of the rice. I’m not insinuating that this place does it, of course. I did have some and it didn’t taste like it was “old”. The shrimp used was fresh as well, so no complaints here. However, I can’t help but wonder…
Garlic Pepper Pork. Very good. Very tasty. This dish is actually very popular at the Thai House. They claim that they are the “Home of the Original Garlic Pepper Pork since 1986″, and I actually believe them. Don’t miss this one.
Dessert time! On my first visit here, I was introduced to their “fried ice cream”. It left such a great impression on me that it became the main reason I came back. This dessert consisted of coconut ice cream wrapped in fried slices of bread, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. How they managed to do that, I can’t say. We probably spent around 10 minutes speculating how they pulled this off. Some said they used a “quick frying” method, others said they “pre-fried” the slices of bread. Even now, I’m not quite sure how they did it.
I do have a couple issues with this restaurant that sort of “ruined” things a bit for me. First of all, they required that every person, adult or child, had to order one dish. Now I’m sure you realize how inconvenient this would be if you have kids at the table that eat less than birds. In the end, we did talk them out that requirement. However, it was under the condition that we ordered dessert. Not really a big deal since we were planning to do so anyway, but still left me with a slightly negative impression. Lastly, they charge extra for white rice. Not exactly surprised do to the current inflated rice prices, but somewhat annoying.
Stay Tuned for Part 2 of G-lato’s Bay Area Trip! Lot more food and sights to see!
Garlic Pepper Pork! Very enjoyable!
Reasonable prices. Ended up being around $10 per person
FRIED ICE CREAM, as tasty as I remembered it
Ridiculous ‘one dish’ per person rule
Extra cost for white rice was annoying
Some dishes left much to be desired
2511 Channing Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
510-841-THAI
Mon-Thu: 11am-9:30pm
Fri-Sat: 11am-10pm
Sun: 5pm-9:30pm
Coupons!
1. Weirdest thing you have had for breakfast?
* Sushi & Sashimi
2. Most desperate meal you've ever had?
* Canned corn with a slice of American cheese, microwaved.
3. When you eat too much, you...
* Sit back on my chair and stare at the ceiling blankly...in pain. 
Hm.. I agree with you that the Garlic Pepper Pork looks the best among all the pictures. Perhaps the photographer was biased?
Haahaa. Maybe…It left a good impression, so I put that extra effort edit it properly.