Mission: Yellow Curry PDX Entry 002

Entry two in the log of my goal to eat yellow curry at every Thai restaurant in Portland. This time I went straight for the big guns - my favorite Thai place in SW Portland. It may seem like a long way to drive for some, but it's right around the corner from my house... and it's good. Thai Roses.

Thai Roses Cuisine
6840 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Highway - and yes, that is a Portland address.
http://www.thairosescuisine.com/

What I ordered:
Out to dinner with a friend so we got yellow curry, medium with chicken, pumpkin curry with chicken, spicy eggplant with pork and both steamed and sticky rice.

Overall Curry Rating: 5

Service: 5
Despite having gotten take out there a number of times this was the first time I ever had a sit down meal there. Lovely Thai themed decor and a friendly wait staff. They were out of the special we ordered but the waitress was very helpful and apologetic. Someday I'll have a meal at one of their outdoor tables. They're kind of in the parking lot, but they've put in a lot of plants to make it seem more secluded. No complaints on service.

Presentation/Packaging: 4
They used kind of modern, square bowls and plates to serve the food and everything came with a cute little carrot flower garnish. The sticky rice came in a super cool wicker basket.

Portion Size and Price: 4
8.95 for the dinner sized curry with chicken. I'm OK with that.

Flavor complexity: 4
Sweet and salty and pungent. I love Thai Roses' curry! I didn't like the flavor of the pumpkin curry as much but it did have basil leaves in it reminding me that I like that flavor in yellow curry a lot. I wonder if I would have missed the basil if we didn't have the other curry to compare and contrast.

Overall flavor: 4
It was wonderful. The potatoes were cooked through but not mushy, ditto on the carrots. The onion still had some crunch and onion flavor to it, and we even got bell peppers! I could taste a little fish sauce in the curry, but not overwhelmingly so. Could have been a little spicier, but it was very very good.

Anything else I ordered: 3 and 5
The pumpkin curry was a bit of a disappointment. The "pumpkin" was actually squash and it was a little dry and not terribly flavorful. Even with the basil it wasn't quite as tasty of a curry sauce. The spicy eggplant, on the other hand, was unbelievable. I wanted to lick the sauce off the plate after we had scarfed all the eggplant and pork down. I settled for dabbing balls of sticky rice in it. The eggplant were buttery and soft and the sauce garlicky, basily and soy saucey. They used sliced pork which I like, but I've had it elsewhere with ground pork and I think I like that even better. Either way, spicy eggplant rocks! Oh - and it was hardly spicy. Next time I might order that hot instead of medium.

Last thoughts:
It may be the forgotten SW, but it's worth a drive out there. There's a New Seasons around the corner so you can pretend like you are grouping errands together. Everything I've had from these guys has been great and they are always friendly and sweet. I love Thai Roses!