12/11/03 by Jarumas C. (Thailand), Matteo Crozzoli (Italy), Anurak Kengrian (Thailand), and Yasuhiro Miyagawa (Thailand)

On Fremont Avenue there is a Thai restaurant handy to reach for all. In fact, it is near the Fremont Bridge and all SPU students could arrive there in 10 minutes by foot. However, for a person who is really lazy and would use a car, we recommend the free parking in the narrow street beside Tawon Thai. One other solution is riding a bus that stops exactly in front of the restaurant. Therefore, you cannot say that is far or difficult to reach. There are no excuses! You must go to Tawon Thai.

Tawon Thai possesses a family-friendly atmosphere that has authentic decorations and a comfortable environment. When we entered the restaurant, we observed that many families with young children and older people were seated at the tables. We also noticed that Tawon Thai does not have a bar, so children can come to this restaurant. The decorations in this restaurant are awesome, authentic and classical Thai. All of the architecture is wooden. Old-fashioned wooden Thai furniture covers the room. We saw a carving of the sun on the wall that impressed me. When we were in the restaurant, it was not busy. We felt comfortable at the table because the table is far from other tables and noises. Even though, their kitchen is an open kitchen, it is not noisy. Sometimes we could smell it when they cooked. We recommend this restaurant that is a nice place to sit and relax with your friends or your family.

Tawon Thai restaurant has actual Thai foods with original taste. After the owner seated us, he recommended the dishes for us. We decided on one appetizer and four main dishes. The appetizer that we chose was “Spring Rolls” ($5.95). Spring Rolls are vegetables and bean thread rolled up in a wrapper and deep-fried to a golden brown, served with plum sauce. They were very crispy and the plum sauce that came with them made the spring rolls even more delicious. As we were finishing our appetizer, the main dishes began to arrive. Matteo’s dish was “Pad Thai” ($7.50). Pad Thai is stir-fried rice noodles with egg, tofu, bean sprout and green onion. It was very tasteful and had a scrumptious flavor.Yasu’s dish was “Neau Yang Esan” ($8.95). Neau Yang Esan is New York steak marinated in Thai soy sauce served with spicy roasted rice, lime sauce and sticky rice. The steak was superior to the beef in Thailand because they used American steak, which was extremely tender. Jar’s dish was “Larb Gai” ($6.95). Larb Gai is ground chicken tossed with lime sauce, onion, fresh mint leaves and served with sticky rice. The taste was genuine, as if it came directly from Thailand. Anurak’s dish was “Green Curry” ($7.75). It was coconut milk mixed with green curry paste, zucchini, basil and bell pepper. The curry was less potent than what they use in Thailand. The dish was too tame for his taste. After we finished all of the main dishes, we decided to order two desserts. The first dessert was a fried banana with mango ice cream. It was really luscious, so we liked it. The second one was an exotic coconut ice cream from Thailand. The taste was savory because we liked the coconut smell of the ice cream. Except one of our friends, Matteo, did not like it because he thought it was flavorless. Overall, all of the dishes were exceptional in our opinion.

The service at Tawon Thai is so attractive. There is a nice Thai owner and dutiful Thai servers. When we entered the restaurant, they welcomed us politely, not friendly like in the American style. Then the owner took our orders, and gave us good recommendations about foods. We were totally satisfied by these yummy dishes. They also were very spicy; therefore we drank many glasses of water. But we never asked for refills, as the servers were always attentive to us. Although the restaurant was crowded, their service was fast and careful. That made us really cozy.

Tawon Thai