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Oh man....I JUST discovered the search feature on yelp where you can check the type of food you want and then select only reviews on places that deliver!!!
I needed Thai delivery in SF for 25-30 people and that is just how I stumbled on Modern Thai. My CEO requested Thai or Chinese for our meeting and shit, given that choice, there's no question.
So I went by rating and location and Modern Thai in Nob Hill had great reviews and was close enough for delivery. Plus, the guy who helped me, Derek (and he just called to make sure we liked it!!!), was super helpful in making decisions on what to order for a large group.
I ended up with fresh spring rolls, chicken satay and basil tofu for appetizers. Then we got papaya salad, crispy tofu salad, chix/shrimp pad Thai and tofu pad Thai. For main courses we ordered basil chicken, ginger chicken and spicy green beans with beef, with rice for all.
Everything was not only delicious it was devoured. We have a total of 2 vegetarians in our group, but since the majority is pretty health conscious I thought it might be good to order a bunch of tofu dishes. The great part about that is, my meat and potatoes boss sort of complained until I insisted he taste a piece. He actually thought it was tasty!
Not only did they deliver, with plates napkins, forks and serving spoons, their customer service is tops and the food is outstanding for a working luncheon or a lazy "don't feel like cooking" dinner. We'll be ordering from them again.
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My thai delivery place of choice for sure!!! I always get the thai basil chicken dish (extra spicy) and am never disappointed. The delivery guy is always cool and they get here really fast. Only thing I would change about this place is the delivery minimum, I wish it was 10 bucks instead of 15 so I could order from em more!!
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Good Thai in the Gulch
Not exactly my kind of neighborhood filled with he-women with fake boobs and chronic wailing of fire engines taking off. However, when the bite hits and I'm suddenly craving some of my fave Pad See Ewe, Modern Thai is the next best thing when I'm out of my neighborhood.
I was running a bit late but starving, so I ran in to pick up my order of Pad Thai and some Penang Curry. The portions were huge and since these dishes were typical, tastewise they delivered in comparison to my fave Thai place I fell in love with in Noe Valley.
Prices are right and the staff quite friendly. They are open late, so for a quick order before they close, I would totally recommend this place before having to step over California and walk on the trendier side of Polk where prices go up and so does the snootiness of the clientele.
I can say that. I'm snooty at times too ;)
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Modern Thai has seen a change of ownership this year (evident, mainly from the colorful paint job and addition of shutters on their patio to separate themselves from the Polk St element), and with some tweaking to the menu, some of the food is slightly better.
I have yet to dine in, but have gotten take-out on numerous occassions, and even delivery. Service has been stellar in both regards. Their appetizers and desserts seem to be the standouts, notably, the fresh spring rolls, mango and sticky rice, and blueberry roti (yes, it's as good as it sounds). Entree-wise, I've tried their sauteed pumpkin, and found it to be too dry and plain.
Still, there are other dishes to try, and the majority of what I've sampled so far has me returning for more.
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05/04/2006
EDIT 08/02/07: I've eaten here several times recently, the latest being today, and the food and… Read more »
Walking into this restaraunt I expected it to at least be up to par. In my experience with asian cuisine, I've found dirty dive joints more appetizing than these overdone, pretenious restaraunts like Modern Thai. Thai places are a dime-a-dozen and seem terribly difficult to screw up.. but this place is just an abomination. My roasted duck was pathetic and disappointing. After taking a bite, I began questioning myself if it fell on the floor prior to reaching our table. My girlfriend's curry was done excellent though, minus the overcompensation of veggie's in her curry. It just seemed to me like the head chef was either very careless and insecure or tries to overcompensate with other ingredients to cover up the mediocrity of this establishment. Search more efficiently and I'm sure you can find a better spot.
ja. and i were hungry after an evening at the club so ne. suggested we go here. so we did. its cute! i like the front porch room, and the main room is cute too. love that bright green! it was sunday at 9sh and we were seated right away. besides of the cuteness, there was a lot of yummy looking things on the menu. i had the special, pineapple seafood curry with sticky rice and thai iced tea. it was quite tasty. ja had a regular chicken curry which could have used a lil more seasoning. the teas were good. id come back.
At this point, I think the Modern Thai delivery boy could identify me in a heartbeat. Give him a police line-up under an icy bare-bulb light, and he'd sign my death warrant in a dash. I'd be handcuffed to the railing, dried blood stiffening my grease-stained wifebeater, and he'd just shake his head.
"That's her," he'd say.
"She attacked me in full daylight. Went straight for the duck fried rice." And a flicker of disgust would roil beneath his features like a La Brea tar bubble.
Because the duck fried rice really is quite good.
And I'd do it.
Oh yes.
But luckily for the delivery man, he's a Delivery Man. And the only time I see him is when he's *already* bringing me a duck rice-laden plastic bag, a little can of Sprite curled up in a smaller paper bag within. So for now, he's safe.
For now, my hunger and madness can rest, mercifully sated.
OH, but if only he knew! He'd clutch that duck rice talisman that much closer to his delivery-man breast, and cross himself twice before rapping at my lock.
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My former go-to Thai place was Thai Spice on Polk. However, the last 3 times I ordered from there, the quality had slipped to the point that I couldn't order from there again (I so didn't want to admit to myself that I would need a new place). It was quite fortuitous that my next book club meeting was at Modern Thai. Everything I ordered was wonderful-delicious pumpkin curry, tom kha soup, and spring rolls. The restaurant itself is cheerful and the service was great. A week later I ordered delivery and was so pleased. The pineapple fried rice and the basil chicken were great. I was so happy that I found a new go-to Thai delivery place.
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I really wanted to like this place but it just wasn't worth it. The decor is beautiful but the food was just so mediocre... green curry with brocolli and cabbage in it? Filler... dry duck... bad thai ice tea.
Pass
Overall, Yelp has enhanced my life. But there are the occasional downsides. I've become crippled when it comes to trying new places, absolutely unable to try anything that hasn't got four or more stars from at least fifty reviewers. I can't even order a dish I've had before at a restaurant I know myself to be good without wondering if somewhere in its reviews another Yelper has revealed a superior dish. I was already on the phone giving my order when I read Cheryl L's assertion that the veggie pad thai was better than the pad see-ew I had planned on ordering. I gave the rest of my order to the lady on the phone very slowly while I desperately scanned the other reviews for a second opinion, but eventually had to just go ahead and order the pad see-ew. She was right, it wasn't that great. But would I have even felt that way if I hadn't been prejudiced against it before it even arrived at my door? Maybe I actually liked the dish. I just don't know anymore!
One thing I do know for sure is that their sticky black rice with mango wasn't sweet enough and it was too dry. I liked the black rice with its rougher texture, but it really needed some sort of sauce like they put on the sweet sticky rice at Osha.
The other couple of dishes I had were very unremarkable. So unremarkable that, just a couple days later, I have no idea what one of them was.
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I have a sneaking suspicion that their red curry tastes like the red curry in Thailand. I can not find good Thai curry in the states and I dream about it all the time. Ok, I haven't had their curry yet, but what makes me think this is that they have sticky rice, and Thai people dip their sticky rice into the curry. And I ate there, had the tom yum soup, drunken noodles, and chicken prig king.... and they all tasted suspiciously authentic! Also the decor reminded me of being in SE Asia (although Thailand was never colonialised and the colonial-ish places are in Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.)
So I will go back there and hopefully upgrade my review when I have the curry!
We brought Modern Thai take-out to a friend in the hospital and while it was certainly a step-up from hospital food, it wasn't awesome. The vegetarian pad thai was much better than the pad see-ew. Portions sizes were generous and the plastic take-out containers are recyclable, so that warrants a few stars. I think we'll give them one more shot when we can eat at the restaurant and enjoy it while it's still hot.
Favorite Thai take-out!
Their brown/red/wild rice combo is stellar. Also, their food is not greasy, and I could believe that it is actually healthy in addition to being delicious.
This is four stars plus for take-out... never been to the restaurant, which I would certainly judge on a different five-point scale.
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Wow! Their crispy papaya salad was amazing! the pumpkin red curry was also very good, and the pad thai is pretty good. The place is very cute. We sat in the patio, felt like eating in the little garden--very nice. Everything is inexpensive!!!
The service is impeccable, the restaurant and bathroom is clean, the take out is prompt and the food is SO good! Their drunken noodles are my favorite but really everything is good, including the best brown rice - it's nutty and full of flavor. I also love their shrimp lemongrass soup!
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This past weekend i went to San Francisco with my family for my sisters 20th birthday.....
We went to Modern Thai on saturaday @ 9pm and it wasnt full...it was nice eating like that...
The food was delicious! my parents loved it. I would totally go there again if I'm in SF....
the fried bananas were the BEST!
I got pad see iw....and Thai fried rice and cucumber salad...which my sister loved. In all we had fun and enjoyed our Dinner.
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I think that Modern Thai is one of those places that seems pretty decent while you're in the restaurant but when stripped down of decor, presentation and service, the food just really isn't up to par....in fact, I'm getting a stomach ache as I write this.
The pad thai was a bland lump of congealed rice noodles. The calamari was extremely rubbery but gets points for its excellent fried-chicken-esque batter. And the string beans --- once I got past the spice, I couldn't taste anything else.
If given a choice, I'd think I'd go somewhere else. Prices were really cheap here though!
The area of Lower NobHill / Upper TL is littered with thai places. I mean...they're EVERYWHERE.
As such, I eat thai a lot.
My take on Modern Thai is that is a tad more posh inside. They care more about actually making a nice sit down restaurant which definately sets them apart from the typical thai joints around.
Bright colors, dim lights, simple plants and clean white tables create a light mood inside. Their menu is a tad more thai and bit less American. By saying that I mean it's less greasy, lighter, tastes very fresh. The chicken has no fat on it and is perfectly cooked. I feel like nothing is just thrown together here, they put a lot of time into making good dishes.
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I am playing hooky from work today since I'm feeling under the weather.... what will cheer me up? That's right - THAI for lunch!! I hop on Yelp to find a new place that will deliver during lunch.... Just my luck I see Modern Thai, and I can order online via Delivery.com... So far, so good right?? Well it just got a whole lot better. Within 40 minutes I received the following at my door:
1) Thai Iced Tea - still ice cold even after delivery, and not too sweet
2) BBQ Beef with a fab yummy sauce
3) Thai fried rice
4) Pad Thai with King Crab - the crab didn't taste that fresh, but noodles still yummy
5) Spicy mango chicken with steamed rice
I love it!!! My Thai obsession continues, with a new place! Now I am sick for a different reason (tummy too full).... :)
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I recently ate here for my birthday dinner with a group of 11. My party was seated in the outdoor area, where all of the crackheads &residence of the Tenderloin could see you eat, which was kind of disturbing to me. haha. Anyways .. for a group that size, it was GREAT SERVICE! The waiters were very friendly &efficient. Besides their great service was the GREAT FOOD. I ordered the Thai BBQ Pork. It was pretty good. It is also a really clean restaurant, especially that it is located in the Tenderloin. Parking is kind of a bitch though; there is a parking lot across the street though, but you have to pay. Street parking is kind of hard to find. But overall, a great Thai place to eat at if you're in the TL.
Pros: Great service, good food, reasonable prices.
Cons: Parking, location.
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I was in the mood for thai and so far in the city I haven't had much luck with that. My husband and I were walking up Polk and came across this place. It looked very nice inside but there weren't a lot of people inside so we hesitated but after glancing outside at the menu we figured, why not? So inside was very nice and the server was very friendly. The food was outstanding! I was in the mood for something with a little kick, and they did great on that. Not too overbearing but spicy with good flavor. I had the veggie/tofu meal. My husband had the chicken/Chinese olive meal that was probably one of the best Thai dishes I have ever had. I can't wait to go back to get more!
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What a cute place! I arrived today (well now it's officially yesterday) around 11:25 expecting them to close at 3am. It turns out that they changed their hours and now they close at midnight on Fri/Sat. Anyway, we went in because we still had time to eat. We ordered the Hoi Jar, Tom Yum soup, BBQ pork, and chicken with eggplant. It was all really good! The service was also excellent. Even though it was already midnight, she came by and told us to not worry and take our time eating. Overall, this place is excellent and I will definitely be returning!
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Yummy, yummy in my tummy.
I totally stumbled onto this place after a boozy day of Oregon Football at the R Bar. It was so good, we ordered the Pad Thai and the Pra Ram, and a few other dishes that I can't remember. I woke up the next morning considerably less hung over than I should have been, and I owe that to Modern Thai.
I was happily surprised to find their To Go menu shoved in a coat pocket a few days later. I ordered delivery, it was at my apartment in about 25 minutes and steaming hot. I order something from them every other week-and last night I branched out and ordered the spring rolls (3 stars out of 5) and the green curry rice (10 stars out of 5). Ican't wait to try something else next week.
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I like this place :)
Super cute decor--this place would rock for an inexpensive date.
Of note, the Tom Kha Gai soup was AWESOME. That chicken was incredibly moist and the soup was perfectly seasoned. I want to buy gallons of this and freeze it for rainy or sick days.
The Crispy Calamari dish was amazing too but it was on the specials menu so not sure if it is a regular item. Had to knock off a star because their king crab items should probably have the cartilage removed before being served.
But, I'm still thinking about that soup...
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We found this spot by coincidence, while looking for a good Thai place in SF last night and were quite pleased. The attention was superb, I had a couple of glasses of Merlot that were both inexpensive and pleasant to drink.
The food was very good: we had a couple of dishes with tofu in them and another plate based on salmon. They were not too big and not too greasy: just fine. The following morning, my blood sugars were at 123, so that's gotta count for something.
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After a night of debauchery, what better place to visit than the Grubstake? Ooops. My bad. Although the 'stake is great, it is usually CROWDED after clubbing/drinking/strip clubbing hours.
Rather, have some Thai bbq, some pad thai, or some spring rolls. The ambiance is quiet during the wee hours of morning (we got here around 1:30?) ---you'll probably have the place to yourselves, and the owners will close up when you're ready to leave. There is nothing better to cover the taste of coconut oil (wink, wink) and patron than fried bananas with ice cream.
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a solid choice for Thai close to home, just can't bring myself to give it a full 4 stars - close, just not quite... cute atmosphere, decent wait staff, enjoyed the fresh spring rolls and the coconut shrimp were great (suggest you avoid the mango and soft shell crab salad - crab seemed bad to me, but maybe I just don't know what it's supposed to taste like)
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I love Thai food. I like eating it and I like to make it. Great place, tasty selections. Nice atmosphere in a cool neighborhood. The prices were decent. Ask for the extra condiment tray. Jalepeno's, and a selection of sauces. Yum!!
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mmm. the fried crispy papaya salad is sooooo good. coming from austin,tx where we have already established our favorites, we were pleasantly suprised. we are so happy to have eaten at modern thai. the food is excellent. the atmosphere is so happy and sunny and the service very attentive. i would recommend anyone to eat here.
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Good Thai in the Polk Gulch folks, eat up!
I got here in the hours just past mid-night and was ready to get fed and curb the alcohol that I was full of. The space was bright and open maybe even modern. Our waitress was a nice young woman who specialized in smiling and serving food. Though the wait for the food seemed a bit long it was not excruciating or ire inducing, I guess it was just long enough to notice.
To start we had some coconut shrimp served on skewers which was hot, crunchy and tender; I would order this on a second visit. My dinner was the spicy green beans with chicken which I ordered with a side of brown rice. The beans were crunchy and flavored well for a medium request on the hot level. Unfortunately I destroyed my rice by mixing it with too much Sriracha =(
The Pad nice was nice as well and that pad Thai stink that some places mange to cut out. I guess it's the sauce used, does anybody know what it is?
I would totally come back here for a second go.
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Recently I came here for the lunch special and it was worth more than the $6.95 I payed; it was very nice and tasty as before!
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As far as Thai food go, there's nothing wrong with this place.
We came for lunch and we marveled at how nice it looked, and the enclosed balcony is awesome. They have a mango red curry which is good. My favorite is red curry.
Well worth coming to if you're in the area.
Four stars cuz I'd come back if I'm in the area and having a meal with someone.
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Wouldn't order again ... we waited over an hour for delivery and when it came, the food was not good.
I find that I judge Thai places based on the tom kha gai soup, and I didn't even taste the soup when it came. Usually we get chicken, but we opted for veggie/tofu this time...bad decision. Weird veggies (broccoli?), no mushrooms, and overpowering tomatoes.
The red curry with mixed seafood tasted decent, although the "mixed seafood" included a lot of calamari (slightly fishy) and empty mussel shells? For $5 extra dollars!
The cashew chicken was lightly fried I think. Couldn't quite figure out what was going on with the texture. It tasted OK though, but it was a bit on the dry side.
Bottom line, it was edible but nothing great.
UPDATE: I appreciate that I got a message on Yelp from the restaurant and that they take suggestions/criticisms from the community seriously. Half star added to my review for their offer of a discount for my next order should I want to try them again!
Wonderful place, amazing food, very good service! Love the 6.50 lunch special that come with yummy salad and aroma jasmine rice. Sometime feel like I was in a language school's canteen because many times I saw a lot of students go there for lunch and they like to go in a big party. they usually go there around 1 PM. I never had dinner there just yet but the delivery was super fast, my green curry arrived very hot. Will take my date there for dinner soon.
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ordered the vegetarian red curry. the tofu was tender and cooked just right -- i'm not sure i've ever had tofu that good!
place was almost empty when we were there for dinner, but the service was great. 5 stars for food, not necessarily ambience.
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here is the tragedy of modern thai - the food is genuinely good. so good that i would very much like to return to the place in the future - the red curry is delicious - nearly perfect in its balance of spices, with a little heat in there too. the chicken was of decent quality, and there was a fine mix of vegetables in the curry as well, including eggplant and bell peppers. i had a lunch special, which came with a tasty portion of rice that had been pressed into a flower shape and a small salad that included some beans on top. my boyfriend got some pra ram which was also very tasty. all of these things were great. i ate nearly everything. it only cost about $7. i thought, this food is very very tasty, and in a generous portion for the price. i would like to return here sometime, but i absolutely never will.
i am a glutton, but i have my pride, and while i don't consider my service expectations to be particularly high, i do have some standards:
-basic courtesy/non-rudeness
-make an appearance at the table within 10 minutes
-check in at some point if your table has been waiting over 20 minutes for their lunch
-at least pretend to listen if your table expresses concern over the quality of their food, service, or at the undue delay that has taken place in the receipt of their food
pretty much every one of those standards was violated by the servers at modern thai this afternoon. when my boyfriend and i walked in, the person who greeted us (if one could call it greeting) actually wrinkled up her nose at us when she asked, "are you waiting for a table?" we probably should have turned to run at that point, but our bar exam prep-course had created a deep hunger in both of us during the morning, so we answered in the affirmative and thus began the 1 hour and 15 minute odyssey of frustration, hunger-anguish and anxiety that was our meal at modern thai today.
it took 10 minutes for the churlish woman who so charmingly welcomed us into the restaurant to eventually show up at the table. it was very busy in the place, so i could have understood some delay, but while we waited i observed her take care of several other tables that had been waiting for less time than we had been waiting, as well as clean up some tables when there was no immediate need to do so (nobody waiting to be seated, etc.). when she finally took our order, she barely said two words to us and then snatched the menus out of our hands. it was so disdainful that i started wondering if one of us had some terrible odor about which we were unaware. but i know we'd both bathed in the recent past. maybe she didn't like the color of my coat? or my hair? about 7 minutes later somebody showed up with our water. this man was courteous, but that was pretty much it in terms of courtesy for the rest of the time there.
we continued to wait. we waited for so long that my boyfriend almost insisted that we get up and leave. we kept looking around to try and make eye contact with one of the servers, but nobody came over to see if we needed anything. they kept walking by with food for other tables that we had watched be seated after we had been.
we finally got our food after waiting more than 30 minutes. this sucked, but would have sucked less if somebody had bothered to stop by our table and just explain that the kitchen was backed up while we waited. i tried to explain this to the person who brought us our check. her response was basically, "sorry, but you came in when we were busy, so too bad."
i'm not an idiot - and i've worked in restaurants long enough to know that if it's busy, a table may have to wait for more time than usual for their food. i don't expect servers to be able to magically make the kitchen operate at light-speed. but i do expect that if you have a table that has been waiting 30 minutes for their food, it is well within your power to at least come and assure them that they haven't been forgotten about. and when one of your customers expresses concern over how she has been treated, you can at least act like you care.* don't insult the intelligence and dignity of your customers by blowing them off and treating them like they're too stupid to understand that there can be food delays during a lunch rush.
i probably should have asked to talk to a manager, but at that point i just wanted to escape. we'd been at the place for well over an hour already and i had evidence flash cards to make. so we departed modern thai, never to return. which is too bad, because that curry was damn good.
*for the record, i didn't totally chew out our server, either. i just asked what the delay had been with our food and told her that it would have helped if someone had explained that to us while we were waiting.
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I really enjoy the setting but not the food as much. It's not terrible but nor is memorable. The spring rolls are quite tasty and very lite, which is nice. The pumpkin and tofu lacked flavor and the pumpkin was not cooked enough, it also could use a little more sauce, it is a little on the dry side. I can only speak on these dishes though, maybe other ones are more up to par. The setting is great so it's a little disappointing, but worth a shot!
I just got back from Modern Thai, and shazam! -- that was really good. It was perhaps the best Thai Basil (with tofu) I've had in the Bay Area. Okay, so the fresh spring rolls were just okay -- and because I was having a late-night dinner by myself, I didn't have the opportunity to sample other dishes -- but the Thai Basil was worth fighting about. Perfectly cooked, brilliantly spiced -- perhaps on the slightly modest portion size -- but superb. It's in a nice, simple open space too.
I tend to like my Thai food spicy, and when I say spicy, I mean really, really hot. A good Thai restaurant can skillfully balance spice with flavor. Most Thai restaurants prepare their uber-spicy dishes so mildly that I need to hire a detective to find the chili. Ruen Pair in Berkeley/Albany has the spiciest food around, but it isn't the best by a long shot. Modern Thai wasn't nearly as spicy, but it was spicy -- and for me to acknowledge that certainly says something -- but it had three dimensional flavor. It was fresh, crisp, flavorful -- everything one should look for in Thai food. I'm definitely going back when I'm in the area to sample more of their wares. I'm anxious to learn whether Modern Thai delivers on their curries and noodle dishes as well. I will certainly update when I find out.
Added bonus: Open 'till 3a on Fridays and Saturdays.
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I usually judge a Thai restaurant by the Pad See Ew, very hard to screw up but even harder to get it exactly right. Modern Thai was a comfortable little place on Polk, with pretty average Thai food for pretty cheap prices. Great for a late dinner since they open until 11PM.
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A regular for me, after my yoga practice at close-by shop or after Alliance Francaise activities.
Singha + Trout lui-suan. Other choices too, left for you to fill in yourself.
Their tap water tastes awesome. I always shamelessly ask them to refill my water bottle from my yoga class :-)
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good delivery - great fresh spring rolls, and spicy pad see yew. will definitely order delivery from them again