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Review of Typhoon! from a ThaiCuisine.com reader.
I found this Typhoon! to be unique in terms of being a Thai restaurant and putting on a flashy image. It is impressive, really, considering that the white linen and fancy overall setting is not typically what you find at a Thai place. I have an acquaintence that worked there as well, and he's impressed. He said that each server is required to train for two weeks, with detailed training a typical Thai place would not offer. Aside from that, Typhoon has got to be the only place that actually gets work visas for cooks to come over from Thailand. These imported chefs are likely to train others and improve the taste of Thai food for all :)
OK here are notes I took regarding Typhoon! for anyone that cares to read. Typhoon has an extensive menu of special teas. Even though we didn't try them, I think these teas must be very good. The person who put together this tea menu did a fine job. It's like a separate wine menu, only loaded with particular teas, all prepared just right. The teas are relatively expensive, just like everything at Typhoon!
Typhoon has very nice, big, clean, tastefully-decorated Thai plates. You feel like royalty eating on those plates! Great selection of Thai dishes to choose from. We started with som tam (papaya salad) and man, it was awesome. The best som tam I've had in a long time. Of course the main thing with som tam is having a green papaya at perfect stage of ripeness, as this was, but the papaya was shredded perfectly and everything put together so well. Great job on the som tam!!
OK, next there was a big, big, monumental disappointment with the Pad Thai. Shame on Typhoon!! It was train wreck. They make it with tomato paste, so it's red in color (or pinkish, whatever). This is "American Pad Thai", not even Pad Thai. Aside from that the noodles were all sticky and broken, which means the cook didn't know what in the heck (s)he was doing. To make matters worse, a good Pad Thai typically comes with shredded carrots and other vegetables like sprouts, etc, then you mix it yourself at the table. This Typhoon concoction had no veggies. Sheesh.
Tom Yum (hot and sour) soup. Another disaster. Now I am beginning to wonder if the food is so bad in order to sate the American palate, as the place is doing a good business with the locals. Anyway, this tom yum actually had to be sent back to the kitchen. It was not hot and not sour, and tasted incredibly bland, so bad! On the bright side, it was served with fresh mushrooms (most Thai restaurants here use canned mushrooms), and the shrimp were nice and big.
Next was Krathong Thong, which is a tough dish to make, and Typhoon! did it well. Kind of expensive, given the small portions, but this is a kind of "royal" dish in Thailand that takes careful preparation. Great taste, well done.
Finally we had the crispy duck which is a real treat. You don't typically find such a nice dish at a Thai restaurant. Job well done on the duck.
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