Relish: Ayutthaya Thai Cuisine

This week Seattlest was craving Thai. Something simple and something nearby--but since we live only five blocks from where we work, it's hard to avoid eating dinner at the places we frequent for lunch. We find our lunch haunts unseemly for dinner. Not that there's anything wrong with them, it's just that we eat at them practically every day and we associate them with daylight hours. So when we walked down to Ayutthaya for dinner, it was a little disorienting.

Seattlest doesn't pay as much attention to things like decor and service at lunch time. At dinner, however, these things weigh in more. We looked around Ayutthaya to evaluate the atmosphere. The space is minimal with two banks of tacky, yet comfy booths, Formica tabletops adorned with plastic flowers and wood paneling with a few wall hangings to lend a Thai flavor. It's rather practical; picture a diner, Thai-style.

For our first entrée, Seattlest convinced our dining companion to order the Coconut Chicken ($7.95). Our friend thinks chicken is boring and we're always trying to prove him wrong. And we did. Ayutthaya's Coconut Chicken is slathered in an amazing, rich and creamy coconut curry. It's loaded with lemon grass which gives it a slightly grainy texture, but the flavor is so incredible that we can easily forgive the texture. The menu claims that the chicken is barbequed, but it's always so tender and perfectly cooked that we suspect it's poached then grilled lightly.

For entrée number two Seattlest was craving the Pud See-Ewe ($7.25). Seattlest loves this salty-sweet dish and Ayutthaya makes one of the better ones in town (although the preparation can be a little inconsistent). The wide, soft, slippery rice noodles are coated in a Thai "gravy" made from dark soy sauces and a touch of sugar. Ayutthaya tends to go heavy on the meat and light on the veggies, so we recommend asking for extra veggies; the crisp-cooked broccoli and carrot wheels are delicious in this dish.

Ayutthaya has a large menu, but as a creature of habit, we almost always order the Coconut Chicken or Pud See-Ewe. The only other dishes we've tried (and enjoyed) include the Drunken Noodles and the Pineapple Fried Rice--a very unusual, sweet and savory rice dish packed with lop chong. Almost all of the dishes can be ordered with a choice of beef, pork, chicken, tofu or seafood, but we've found that the pork and beef tend to be overcooked and recommend sticking to the perfectly cooked chicken or seafood.

The main difference that Seattlest noticed between lunch and dinner service is that the dinners are about $1-2 dollars more than lunch--even though the portions remain the same size. Also, at lunch they serve a complimentary cup of an amazing soup with bits of ground beef and lots of pepper. It sounds odd, but we love it and were disappointed that we didn't get soup with dinner.

The service is very friendly, fast and seemingly omnipresent (our water glass was refilled practically every time we took a sip). Maybe it's because the place is so small, but we could always see a waiter hovering out of the corner of our eye. In general, this isn't the type of place where we'd feel comfortable lingering and enjoying a long meal. It's more of an in-and-out place with great food, which makes it an ideal place for lunch or a quick dinner after work.

Ayutthaya Thai Cuisine
727 East Pike Street
206.324.8833