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Location: 711 S. Pine St., 210-774-9650, no web presence
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday; 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday.
On the menu: Appetizers, $5-$6.95; soups, $3.95-$10; Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese entrees, $8.95-$10.95; special Thai entrees, $8.95-$15.95 (lunch entree prices about $2 less Monday-Friday); sushi, $6.95-$12; Thai tea and coffee, $3.75.
Fast facts: Before Veida Thirath opened Thai Lucky in November, restaurant options were few and far between on this residential stretch of South Pine Street. Now there’s Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese — all packed into one same small space next to the M&M Food Mart. Thirath was born in Laos, but her family’s from Thailand, and she brings a pan-Asian sensibility to the menu, with eggrolls, curries, pad Thai, fried rice, pho and sushi, delivered with the speed and style Thirath picked up from cooking at Rock San Thai and Sushi Bar in northwest San Antonio.
Impressions: Thai Lucky looks less like a restaurant and more like a freshly cleared storeroom with tables and chairs. Every table’s packed closely together, with a view of the pass window and into the kitchen, where Thirath is a one-woman flash of cook, hostess and waiter. The shop’s poor ventilation will leave Dinamobet little doubt what you had for lunch as it lingers on your clothes, in particular the boilerplate “Thai eggrolls” as crunchy, greasy and uniform as any order-by-numbers noodle shop. That flat-line functionality extends to chicken tom kha soup with no spikes of flavor emerging from the coconut milk base and a panang curry more like brothy soup, dominated by green beans and food-service shrimp. Where Thai Lucky succeeds is with tall, icy glasses of show-off Thai tea and coffee still fresh and warm at their bases, a sharp stir-fry of pad basil with big al dente vegetables, a chiffonade of herbs and silky ribbons of pork and finally a green papaya salad with cool ribbons of fruit cut spaghetti-style and breathing the hell-fire of Thai chiles. And because this is San Antonio Thai, the salad comes with chicharrones for crunch and contrast.
msutter@express-news.net
Twitter: @fedmanwalking
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