chantanee thai restaurant

great service and food!. extremely friendly and attentive servers. answered all our questions. food was some of the best thai i have ever had. the panang curry was so flavorful i wanted to drink thesauce:)

daily special the halibut was salty andsaucetoo sweet. before we even were half through soup, got rest of the order all at once and cold by the time we started entry. restaurant is family friendly.

salty! then more salt.... very disappointed! went to pen thai based on urbanspoon's rating, #1 in bothell, (and in some reviews #1 thai in the seattle area).

se asian cuisine is all about 'fresh', flavored with a balance of salt/sour/hot/sweet. i've been to thailand and love the food there. the basics for the food at pen thai was outstandingly fresh, i'll give them that, but the balance of flavors was truly awful.

the som tam (green papaya salad) came drenched in fishsaucewithout any hint of lime, kaffir lime leaves, onion, vinegar, or chili's. just a grated green papaya in fish sauce, not the utterly sublime dish that i love. grate a very mild apple and mix with anchovies and you'll be eating what i did.

i thought i might be able to compensate (after all, in bankok, on the street, you specify how much salt/sour/hot/sweet when the vendor is cooking it, so i asked for condiments, and was presented with dried off-color (old, orange-colored) chili flakes, chili oil (chinese), a chili paste, and what i thought at first was traditional "thai chili's in rice vinegar". i was ecstatic, sour/heat would make it better. but then i discovered that the traditional chili/vinegar condiment was chili/fish sauce, it only added to the saltiness, and had no heat.

the other two dishes we ordered, sizzling panang duck, and scallops prik pao, were equally brilliant in their freshness and the way they were cooked, and also equally salty and overwhelmed with fish sauce, and without any other flavor.

thought at first it might be a "chef's off tonight" thing, but this is saturday night. not going back until the reviews get better.

the first time i went to pen thai i knew it would not be my last, it had a thai lodge style look to it, very warm, and was greeted right away. they have extensive menu, my favorites are the heavenly beef, its a simple dish, thinly sliced beef in a darksauceserved on a bed of cabbage and the dish comes on a steaming sizzling platter, the second dish, green curry avocado shrimp, its a thick soup base served. in a large bowl with lots of large sliced avocados and large shrimp that look like they could be prawns, there that big and they don't skimp on the dish its hard to finish, its really tasty, and these dishes seem to be exclusive to pen thai, i've never seen them at any other thai restraunt, try it, you'll love it!

average at best. on a recnet visit to bothell we decided to use the the urban spoon app on my iphone and it suggested pen thai. we did a little more research and saw that it had some good reviews. the restarant was a little difficult to find because it just has a sandwich board for a sign. we we walked in we were very impressed by the aromas and decor.the service was exceptional. i oerdered the chicken satay and cashew chicken. when the satay arrived i was surprised at the number of skewers (6) ofthem. it was very tastey and the peanutsaucewas very good. i then received the cashew chicken moments after the satay had arrived. it was still trying to eat this mountain of chicken skewers while my cashew chicken sat on the table getting cold. when i finally tried the cashew chicken i was somewhat displeased at the flavour. i had asked for a heat rating of three out of five. the chcicken was tasteless and was coated in what i can only describe as a buffalo wing sauce. my partner had another chicken dish and when i sampled his i found the flavours to be very similar. the portions were huge!. we could have easily dined on one order of skewers and one chicken dish. this restaurant brings a whole new meaning to the term super size. sadly, i think the kitchen was more interested in pushing out the food rather than taking its time and developing the thai flavours in it's dishes.