Mango and Sticky Rice at Wang Thai in Itaewon!

So is Wang Thai worth it? Well, let me tell you interesting story about the Thai Restaurant scene in Seoul. 5 years ago the best Thai Restaurant was Thai Orchid, located where Thai Garden is at the end of Itaewon Road (across from the Cheil Building). The restaurant was great because they had a real Thai chef. As the restaurant become more popular the owners wanted to franchise, Thai Orchid. What I heard was that the owners started to fight and they split off. One owner took the name of Thai Orchid and opened up a restaurant across the street. The other owner renovated the restaurant in the same location and renamed the restaurant, Thai Garden. I went to Thai Garden when it reopened and it was...Koreanized Thai Food. This was the same case over at Thai Orchid. I was not impressed. Oh, you are probably wondering why I'm telling you about Thai Garden and Thai Orchid in relation to Wang Thai. The reason why is that the current management of Wang Thai is the same as Thai Garden. They simply changed the name. The owners missed the point. They thought the brand was what was important. They should have never left the Thai chef leave the peninsula.
So how is the food? Pretty much the name. It's expensive and lacks Thai authenticity. I have heard the excuses over and over again that it is difficult to get Thai ingredients. I know. It is hard to do, but I think the problem is in the kitchen. If you have a real Thai chef, he will substitute ingredients in order to get the authentic flavor. The Thai food at Wang Thai is spicy, but without the correct balance of lime and fish sauce to make it authentic. The Tom Yom Gung is good, but it just had heat and it needed more lemongrass flavor and lime juice. This was the same case with the Basil Beef. Also, they need to serve Thai jasmine rice. I mean at the prices they are charging, they need to do at least that.
On a bright note, their Thai Ice Tea was great. It was strong, but the milk balanced it.
Mango and Sticky Rice was, sadly, not like Thailand. They used mangos from a can and the rice didn't have the right texture- it was overcooked. I guess I will have to go back to Thailand to get the real stuff.

If you are looking for Thai food made for the Korean palate, then this is the place to go. If you are looking for real Thai Food in Seoul, I suggest you go to Yum Thai near Sinsa Station.


View Larger Map

Wang Thai (주)왕타이Korea
Address: 서울특별시 용산구 이태원동 176-2
Phone02-749-2746‎

Popular posts from this blog

5 of the Best Jajangmyeon 짜장면 in the City of Seoul, Korea

Image
The Best Jajamyeon in Seoul by Daniel Gray Jajangmyeon 짜장면: Korea's favorite hand pulled noodles in an black sauce is also a favorite dish of mine. It's so famous they even have a holiday for it. It's filling and hearty like a bowl of spaghetti but with Asian flair. It's one of those dishes that you can get whenever you need a quick meal and it doesn't break the wallet. It's a pretty ubiquitous dish and every Chinese restaurant must have it. If it does it well, the place becomes famous. If it is just alright, it is just a meal and gets classed in with all of the other places in the city. I can't say I have had any seriously terrible jajangmyeons except maybe some delivery places (where the noodles are overcooked and terribly clumped together so it takes like 10 minutes to get the sauce mixed into it) but even then it is still edible. With the noodles, I love to get fried dumplings and a place is good fried dumplings or some other sides like tangsuyok
Read More, See More >>

Calories in Soju and other things I Know about Korea's Famous Swill

Image
Just in case you were wondering, one bottle of Soju contains 540 calories. That's like 4 beers. So to put it in perspective, you would need to walk about two hours to exercise it off. (Walking two hours with a soju hangover is not an easy task.) Soju originally was made from rice but whenever there were rice shortages, people were forbidden to make Soju. Alcohol producers the started to use sweet potatoes and tapioca to make an ethanol based alcohol. Overtime they doctored up the taste so it has a smooth, crisp taste that goes great with raw seafood and grilled meats. The world drinks a lot of Soju. 61.38 Million cases of soju were produced in 2012 with Korea consuming about 2.75 billion bottles of Soju a year. You would think that everyone would be falling over drunk in Korea, but this is not the case. The alcohol is only about 17-19% so a bottle won't wreck you (but two or more might.) Koreans judge how good of a drinker you are by the number of bottles o
Read More, See More >>

5 of the Best Gamjatang Restaurants in Seoul: Korean Potato and Pork Stew

Image
Seobu Gamja-guk One of the dishes that came out of necessity is gamja-tang or pork-bone potato stew. This dish has its origins from the Incheon dock area where laborers that were working in the construction wanted to have a cheap and hearty food after a long day of work. The soup consists of pork spine that is slowly cooked with potatoes and topped with sesame leaves. The result is a satisfying dish that goes great with a bowl of hot rice. This was often cooked throughout the day and then eaten at the end of the work day. This dish goes perfectly with a chilled shot of Korean soju. After the first train line was built that would connect the Incheon area with Seoul, one entrepreneur decided that he wanted to make a restaurant focused on this dish. The first restaurant of this type was built near Noryangjin station, which was near the end of the han river railway construction. The dish became a big hit and soon many copycat restaurants started popping up all over Korea. The name gam
Read More, See More >>