Thanh Do

3005 Utah Ave S
St. Louis Park, MN
952-935-5005
http://www.thanhdorestaurant.com/

Category: Chinese, Asian

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 7
Service: 6
Ambience: 6

Recommendation: Good. This strip mall restaurant serves a variety of Asian cuisine, including Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese.

Thanh Do was started by Tom Pham, a notable Twin Cities restaurateur, who also owns Azia, a hip Asian fusion restaurant on Eat Street and until recently Temple (now closed). The interior is better than most the other strip mall Asian places – a little more cozy and comfortable. The menu has a good blend of dishes found at Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese places - Kung Pao and Sweet and Sour Chicken sit side by side with Pad Thai and Curries. Lunch specials at $8.50 are a bit pricier than most other Chinese restaurants where you can get them for under $6.

Tom’s restaurants are known for their Cranberry Puffs and Cranberry Curry so we had to try at least one of them. We went for the Puffs. The puffs are essentially cream cheese puffs but include some spices and dried cranberry – cream cheese and cranberry form a surprisingly good combination. The Thai Style Spring Rolls were fresh and flavorful. The herbs complemented the dish well. We weren’t too impressed with the Green Papaya Salad – it needed a bit more citrus and lots more heat. The Thai Style Red Curry was nice and creamy. We would have liked a little more curry and fewer vegetables but overall it was a nice dish. We’re huge fans of the Holy Basil Chicken at King and I Thai and are not often impressed with this dish at other restaurants but to our surprise, we really liked the Thai Basil Supreme at Thanh Do. The dish was spicy and fragrant with a beautiful curry and plenty of chicken. For a vegetarian entrée, our server recommended the Garlic Lover’s with Eggplant. The curry had lots of vegetables – mushrooms, peapods, carrots to name a few but the undercooked and bland eggplant took away from what could have been a good dish. The menu lacks Fish dishes - Salmon and Tuna are the only options, there are no white fish dishes. We were really looking forward to a whole seabass or walleye, but were disappointed to not see something close on the menu. For dessert, we were disappointed with the Mango Sticky Rice – it’s a usually a problem when the Coconut milk is too watery. The Thanh Do Coconut Almond Joy is an interesting take on a Hot Fudge Sundae – except it’s served with Toasted Coconut ice-cream with plenty of nuts. Service was ok. Our server was in a huge rush to clear our table as we arrived shortly before closing time (we arrived at 8:30pm on a weeknight while they close at 9.) She took our wine glasses away before we had a chance to finish the wine.

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