Thai Siam has been a mainstay at the Amador Ridge Plaza shopping center since it opened, and my family and I have eaten there for many years. Though my family and I have always eaten in the restaurant, in light of the public health emergency we decided to take advantage of Thai Siam’s take-out service on July 8.
Thai Siam’s take-out service is a core part of its business, so much so that they have online ordering built into their website so you can order directly from them. (You can order through DoorDash, too.)
I ordered the Pad Thai Noodle dish with tofu, which is a noodle dish I hadn’t had in a while. My mother usually ordered noodles, but this time she ordered Pineapple Fried Rice. I ordered at about 6:00 p.m., and two Styrofoam boxes were ready for me at the pickup area at the back of the restaurant when I arrived at about 6:20 p.m. It only took a minute for the helpful family member who helps run the restaurant to confirm my order and send me on my way.
When I got home, I noticed the Thai Siam staff also wrapped the noodles in aluminum foil, which helped keep them warm during the trip home.
My Meal
The pan-fried rice noodles included big sticks of green onion, bean sprouts, ground eggs, and ground peanuts on the side of the Styrofoam box that I sprinkled over the noodles after I put it on my plate. The dish also came with a large lime wedge that I squeezed onto the noodles to give it some fruity flavor.
You can get the Pad Thai Noodle with various kinds of meat or seafood, tofu, or only with vegetables. I prefer the tofu not just because it’s healthy, but because the large, triangular wedges add good weight and flavor. The tofu itself is firm and the outside is crispy, so at times it seems to me like I’m eating chicken instead of tofu.
Mom’s Meal
The Thai Siam online ordering system allows you to send a message with special instructions, so I asked them to hold the curry powder that usually comes with the Pineapple Fried Rice. The dish comes with ground eggs, shredded chicken, shrimp, onions, cashews, and pineapples, of course.
My mother noted that the rice and the chicken was a bit dry, so she added teriyaki sauce to give it some moisture. As with any Thai Siam dish, my mother had large pieces of shrimp and chicken to go with her large chunks of pineapple. Though my mother doesn’t like too many onions, the pieces were small enough that they blended in with the rest of the meal and she never mentioned them.
The Verdict
Thai Siam gives you a lot of food, and when we eat at the restaurant, we usually eat the entire meal and leave stuffed. This time, we decided to eat half of our meals and save the other half for dinner the next day. There was plenty of food for both.
The Pad Thai Noodle was as good as I remembered it: not very spicy, but a good peanut flavor that I enjoyed from the first bite to the last. Just be sure to have a knife on hand to cut the noodles because they do clump together. I kept the noodles in a large Ziploc bag in the refrigerator overnight, and after I put some water on the noodles and warmed them up in the microwave for two minutes, the noodles tasted just as fresh as they did the previous day.
My mother enjoyed her Pineapple Fried Rice so much that she said she will order it every time she goes to Thai Siam from now on…or at least until she finds a new dish on the menu that she wants to try.
Thumbs up from both of us.
Want to Try It?
Thai Siam is in a multi-restaurant pad that includes Jamba, Vermicelli, Round Table Pizza, and Oko Sushi. Thai Siam is open for dine-in eating and there were a couple of tables filled when I arrived. You can order online at the Thai Siam website or DoorDash, and you can also order by calling them at 209-223-2373.
Amador Business Ticker food reviews are adventures in local dining with Editor Eric Butow and his mom.
