Thai Place - Sturbridge, MA - Ian

OK, so we've been venturing outside of Worcester lately and we discovered that there lots of great places hidden away in Sturbridge. One of which is a Thai restaurant called Thai Place. Sheri loves Thai food. I like it.

The Service
I have to say, though, that the best thing about this restaurant is the waiter. He's dry and deadpan with a great sense of humor and goes around telling everyone that he's half Polish and half Korean and how funny that is. He mostly makes fun of his Polish side. If he forgets something you asked, he says: "Oh, I guess I had a Polish moment." And if you ask pointedly for something, he'll just refuse. But you know he's just playing because one of us asked for some extra peanut sauce and he brought a bucket size portion with a huge spoon. We wanted to take it home. Suffice it to say that the service here is excellent.




The Food
As for the food: The winner was the Tom Kha Kai soup. With coconut milk, scallions and chicken, I have to say that it had the best flavor out of anything I sampled that evening.

The runner up were the wings. Wings with hot Thai spice and a cucumber dipping sauce--ooh yum.

My main dish, the spicy chicken, came with celery, carrots, peanuts and some great spicy sauce with a hint of peanut flavour...OK, and I added a little bit of that peanut sauce too. Oh yeah, good stuff.

I did get dessert and it was OK--red bean ice cream. It was a strong vanilla base and I don't know if I was experiencing anything much different from a traditional American ice cream cone experience. I guess I expected Thai ice cream to be different. I have had green tea ice cream at a Thai restaurant before, and that was defintely a new experience. So, nothing amazing in the Red Bean ice cream, but it was tasty.

The Location and Ambiance
Positioned right next to the entrance to Old Sturbridge Village on Mass Rte. 20, the atmosphere fits nicely into the old-world, Sturbridge scene. The building was old with creaky, sloped floors and there were little stand-up, folding dividers around several of the tables that added a nice little private feel to the ambiance. And it was sufficiently warm on that very cold evening. We all know how important that is. Nobody likes to dine with wind blowing underneath their table.

The Drinks
Also, I should mention that they had a fairly good selection of wines but there was not a full bar.

All in all, it was a favorable experience. Comfortable, fun and tasty.

Here are the numbers:

// Menu Selection: 8.6
// Taste: 7.5
// Presentation: 7.1
// Ambiance/Atmosphere: 7.3
// Service: 8.4