thai chili

i received my march issue of sacramento magazine the other day and started thumbing through the restaurant section. i found a listing for thaichiliin elk grove that said this restaurant "offers an entire menu just for vegetarians." clearly, this was a place i needed to blog about! i drove through the pouring rain and found the restaurant in a strip mall on elk grove boulevard. looking through the three or four pages of vegetarian options in the menu , the first thing i knew i had to have was the coconut soup, made with lemongrass, mushroom, snow peas, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, cabbage, carrots, and tomatoes in a coconut milk broth. it was a little bit spicy, chock full of vegetables, and quite delicious. since i was planning to have an entrée too, i ordered only a small portion of the soup. if i had it to do over again, i'd have ordered extra to bring home, since it was just that good. with so many choices, i had a hard time deciding what to order for my entrée. i went back

best: to go. awesome food, good service, unfortunate problem with other diners having overly-loud conversations. all of the last four times we went there, we could hardly enjoy our food or hear each other talk over the obnoxious gossip of teenage girls (and 20 or 30-somethings that were apparently stuck in that stage of maturation, ugh). absolutely love the coconut soup, either chicken or tofu. the mild yellow curry is sweet comfort food, and the fresh salad rolls are the best appetizer(rice vermicelli noodles with shrimp/tofu and basil, wrapped in...rice pasta?), served with sweetchilioil and crushed peanuts. deep fryer-less = less guilt if you eat them all yourself : ) oh, and the peanut sauce on the vegetarian salad is yummy.

this place is the best! they have great food, great proportions, great prices, and even better, great service! the longest i've ever waited for food was 15 minutes and that was when they were flooded with people. the curry us fresh, hot, and super spicy if you want it to be. they also have a huge menu including things that aren't spicy if you have friends that are not into spice. they even have a vegetarian menu! i would recommend thaichilito everyone and anyone!