Sai Jai Thai
771 O’Farrell St. (between Larkin & Hyde)
415-673-5774
Free Delivery! $15 minimum, limited area
I finally got a chance to attend the wonderful SF Dives Meetup gang that recently held an event at this Thai restaurant in the Tenderloin. Dragging Ms. Stein with me since I had no idea what to expect, we cautiously drove past the Mitchell Brother’s theater and tiptoed into this place.
Bright, clean, and simply decorated, we saw our tables lined up for the 25+ guests that were going to be in attendance. (Kudos to the organizers for dealing with what I could foresee as an avalanche of Bay Area folks exerting their individuality with various dietary and budget requirements. I can’t tolerate doing that for a party of 4…25+ is unthinkable unless everyone chooses to listen to and obey Mistress Grubgirl!)
It’s definitely a popular local spot – on a Friday evening we saw families, funksters, and yupsters all coming in to eat or grab their takeout. Bummer for the sit-in folks who saw about 5 of their tables taken up by non-PLUs (people like us).
Here’s the lowdown on what we ordered at our end of the woods…7 mouths total:
BBQ Beef – $7.50: Slices of grilled steak on a bed of lettuce, with some Thai spicy dip on the side. Tasty, though with 6 other mouths to compete with, my second time to the plate resulted in fatty slices meeting my fork.
Pad Thai – $6.95: A good standby. Not too many soy beans, which I like.
Pad See-Ew – $6.25: These noodles are flat…it comes with egg and Chinese broccoli. I didn’t see too much of the scrambled egg, but the broccoli was fresh and tender, not overcooked.
Pad Kra Praw – $6.25: Ground pork with chili, garlic, bell peppers, and basil. Another old standby. I think this one had some kick to it.
Pad Ped Nor Mail – $6.25: Meat in curry paste with bamboo shoots, and more bell peppers and basil.
Pad Prik Pao – $6.25: Another variation of sauteed meat with chili sauce.
Yellow Curry: A thick soup-like consistency with potatoes in it.
Brown rice and white rice….and a few Thai Iced Teas.
The most different dish we’d had was the BBQ Beef, so that stands out the most. Overall, the dishes with veggies were all served hot, and the veggies were fresh. The service was friendly, and, thankfully, they deliver to my ‘hood. The only area for improvement would be to increase the portion size of an order, for my grubby stomach. Among the seven of us, I was definitely using fast reflexes to go for second (and third) helpings. I’ll definitely sample their delivery prowess soon.
