Thai on Esplanade -- Siam Cafe'

Man does not live by marchand de vin sauce alone. Well, at least if he's a local. I'll be the first to admit that many of you who come to New Orleans for two to five days at a time aren't interested in eating ethnic cuisine that you can get back home. For those of you who are here on extended visits, or are locals, or are otherwise just jaded, we do have some interesting restaurants that don't do Creole in one fashion or another. One such restaurant is the Siam Cafe'.

Siam Cafe' is an interesting Thai place on Esplanade. I'm no big expert on Thai food, so my comments are not based so much on how accurately the place duplicates authentic Thai cuisine as they are on how the food tastes. There were three of us at the table, so we started with an order of spring rolls. These were nice and light, and not greasy at all. They had lots of meat--more meat than veggies, something you don't often find in Chinese places. For the main course, my colleagues ordered Chicken Red Curry, and I had the Himalayan Chicken. My chicken was interesting. It was a chicken breast smothered in a light sauce with green peppers and cashews. The flavor was subtle--for some reason I was expecting overly spicy, and I was pleasantly surprised at the taste. The curry was not overly spicy, and very rich. One of my friends had a Thai iced tea, which was sweetened and contained condensed milk. Too rich for me with this meal, but he enjoyed it.

Siam Cafe's decor is pretty much what you'd expect from a Thai restaurant. Lots of oriental-style art, Buddas and Thai-style buildings on the wallpaper, etc. What's interesting about Siam Cafe is that the location used to be the (in)famous Ruby Red's. There was a time when Ruby Red's gave its neighbor down the street, Port of Call, a serious run for its money for best hamburger in town. As for atmosphere, Ruby Red's was actually *funkier* than PoC, if you can believe that. What made this trip to Siam Cafe' so interesting for me (other than the good food) was the fact that the floor was so clean. Ruby Red's used to serve peanuts before your burgers got there, and you threw the shells on the floor. If you got there late (and Ruby Red's was a *late* place), you were wading through the shells. Makes your local O'Henry's look like a hospital cafeteria. The transformation from Ruby Red's into a Thai place was a bit mind-boggling at first, but it grows on you.

Again, Siam Cafe' isn't a place I'd recommend over NOLA or Antoine's for a first-time or infrequent visitor to the city, but it's still good for a heavy-duty change of pace.

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