Sunday, May 22, 2011

Simply Thai

Tonight I took my cousin Pam and her mom, my Aunt Betty to a new Thai restaurant on the beach.  I have been visiting My Thai in the Cove for some time and have reviewed it here.  I have come to enjoy the fresh flavors Thai food brings to the table.  I do enjoy Chinese cuisine, but sometimes I get stagnet with it. 

Simply Thai is located at 944 Thomas Drive across from the Navy Base gate.  It's in a strip shopping center there.  The location has been home of other restaurants to no avail, so I don't know how long it will be there.  The service was friendly although the food arrived too quickly for me to enjoy the appetiser of chicken Satay's or my bowl of Tom Yum soup.  The chicken Satay's were good.  The peanut dipping sauce was not too salty or too peanutty.  It was spot on.  The Tom Yum was delicious, full of flavor from the chili oil, fish sauce, and Kafir lime leaves.  I did find the occasional tough lemon grass shoot that I had to remove from my mouth.  For dinner I tried the Drunken noodles.  The description said it is made with wide noodles which were like Lasagna noodles rolled up.  It also had vegetables, chicken and shrimp.  This is the first time I have tried this dish and I would recommend it to you.  My wife stuck with the classic Pad Thai noodle dish.  I tried a small sample and it was what I expected of it.  As you know I normally like to test a restaurant three time before a review is written, but with this place being in a location that other have failed, I wanted to let you know so you could try it.  I will not rate Simply Thai until I tray it two more times, and I will.

Simply Thai on Urbanspoon

Dee's Hang Out revisited

If you haven't visited Dee's in a while, he has moved several doors down from his original location.  The new digs are larger but not too large, and the decor is not overstated with the same throw back pictures of old Panama City Beach.  The menu remains the same, a good variety of seafood dishes with a New Orleans theme.  The daily specials on the chalk board are inventive and delicious.  Recently he offered fried Snapper topped with a fried soft shell crab, then topped with an etouffe sauce.  You know I love soft shell crab.  This was truly spectacular.  The wife had the shrimp etouffe.  It satisfied her Creole craving with gusto.  The gumbo remains satisfying and flavorful.  On a recent trip I called ahead to find out if they had any soft shell crabs.  He said he did and when I arrived the chalk board had a soft shell crab sandwich on special.  I was not in a sandwich mood so I asked Dee to fix me some soft shell crab meuniere.  Meuniere is a brown butter sauce with lemon and parsley.  I also had the blackened grouper as well.  As a side I tried the fried cheese grits and the collard greens.  The fried grits were creamy in the middle with a crunchy exterior.  You really have to try this.  I like them better than the hush puppies.  The greens are torn so they can be difficult to eat.  I prefer them to be smaller in size.  The pot liqour is great sopped up with the hush puppies.  My only disappointment with Dee's is the seafood platter.  For the money I expected more.  I guess I've been spoiled by Deanies Bucktown Seafood in New Orleans.  All in all Dee's remains at the top of my list of resaurants in Panama City. 

Dee's Hangout on Urbanspoon