Marysville welcomes dandy Thai restaurant

MARYSVILLE -- There's a small Thai restaurant in downtown Seattle a few blocks from Elliott Bay that opened in 1994 and made its reputation by being "fresh, fast and friendly."

But Marysville residents don't have to trudge to downtown Seattle for the same fresh, fast and friendly Thai food, because Mae Phim Thai opened a sister restaurant here about a year ago.

The restaurant is on the edge of the Safeway shopping center, and the front two booths overlook the parking lot. Unfortunately, we were seated at one of those booths. So we weren't able to enjoy the tropical colors, carved wooden chairs or the traditional low tables and woven straw mats that grace the main dining room. We made up for not being in the main dining room by filling our booth with the distinctive aromas of Thai food.

My friend ordered his favorites -- garlic chicken ($8.85) and chicken pad Thai ($8.95). I had soup and salad Thai style, and we added an order of chicken satay ($6.95) as our appetizer. The appetizer didn't arrive before our main dishes, so my soup cooled while I munched on a skewer of chicken marinated in green curry paste and dipped in peanut sauce. This simple dish has to be one of the best ever created.

My soup was an oval bowl filled with Tom Kha ($7.95), a hot and sour soup with coconut milk, mushrooms, lime leaves, green onions and cilantro. Beef, pork, chicken or tofu is added, and I feel tofu is the best choice because it doesn't interfere with the other flavors. The soup also can include lemongrass and slices of ginger. I first tried this soup during the recent winter holidays and could barely be polite and stop myself after a sample.

On this visit to Mae Phim, I had the whole bowl to myself. It was just as scrumptious as my first one and my request for "one star" gave the soup the perfect dash of heat.

Larb Gai is made with ground chicken that's tossed with lime sauce, sweet basil, mint, green onions and cilantro. It was served on a dark green leaf lettuce shell, and iceberg pieces were on the side. It was as beautiful as it was delicious.

While I was enjoying the satay, soup and salad, my friend was having a separate feast of garlic chicken and pad Thai. Both dishes were so tasty that I couldn't decide if one was better than the other. We did agree that the pad Thai was tastier than in other places because of the sauce. Our order of black sticky rice pudding ($1.79) went well with my Thai iced tea and my friend's jasmine green tea. My friend had only one complaint about his dinner -- no crane to carry him to his car.



Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers' suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.

Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.