Dishin’: Racha’s Gotcha

We really hesitate to head out for curry, as it’s a staple in our cooking repertoire – sort of our emergency food. But when we found ourselves at Racha recently, we decided to give the exotic sounding Jungle Curry a try.

It’s not that it was bad… we just don’t get it. A small sampling of vegetables along with some slices of pork (our choice of meat) cooked in a curry paste for $12.50. (Prawns or seafood are three dollars more.) That’s it. Good value? Let’s not even get started on the practice of charging extra for rice.

We saved some money using an Entertainment Book coupon, but like our last coupon episode, we continue to cast doubt on restaurants that “give away” their food for half-price. Chinoise and Racha are almost bookends on the blahness of Queen Anne Ave. Pleasant enough places, but overpriced and underspiced for what they are – somehow lacking soul, depth, complexity. Safe havens for unadventurous Queen Anners who don’t realize they’re missing good, realistic, hole-in-the-wall pho, Ethiopian, and other ethnic eateries.

For a city that seems to have a Thai joint on every corner, Thai food here tends to be uninspiring. Our favorite Thai restaurants, ones showing off variety in the face of conformity, are far from the usual swell of people. Sripraphai (with its crispy watercress salad) in Queens and Lotus of Siam (with its jackfruit curry and Issan sausage) away from the strip in Las Vegas come to mind. In Seattle, perhaps Uthaithani is worth a try. Heck – you can even use your Entertainment Book there for a half-priced roll of the dice.