arizona
flagstaff
flagstaff feature
food
northern arizona
FLAGSTAFF FEATURE: Pato Thai
10:30 PM
Hello lovelies!! So, welcome to my first Flagstaff Feature! In which I talk about places around Flagstaff, Arizona for a feature. Most of the time these places will be restaurants, other times they may be hole-in-the-wall stores, interesting places to hike, or more! One may never know until they read the feature. But for now, I think I'll be starting with restaurants - the weather in Flagstaff isn't good enough quite yet for hiking, and the festival season is usually in the summer months.
So today, I'm going to talk about a Thai restaurant my boyfriend and I discovered in downtown Flagstaff. It's called Pato Thai. Their website, with necessary information about service hours, menu, and their phone number and location can be found here. This restaurant is found in the bustling downtown area, on San Francisco Street - which is one of Flagstaff's most well-known, active streets downtown. There are about three main streets downtown where all the action happens, and this is one of them.
My boyfriend and I went window shopping downtown for Valentine's Day, and we were originally going to go to our favorite, newly-opened as of July 2014 Korean restaurant, which is also Flagstaff's only Korean restaurant (I'll do a feature on it the next time we visit)...but as we were browsing around downtown, we kept passing this Thai restaurant. And the smell coming from it was delectable! The more we passed it to go to certain places, the more we decided that, instead of Korean food, we'd be getting Thai food that day.
To start off with: The place is really quaint. It's small, doesn't fit a whole lot of people - but I'm sure if you called in and made reservations, it'd fit a decent party size. We went around four in the afternoon, and it wasn't very busy. It was just before the dinner rush, I think, so it was still a comfortable, relaxing atmosphere. It was decorated for Valentine's, as well - but ignoring that, the decorations on the wall are traditional and aren't overbearing. It's a nice setup that isn't cluttered for the small building it's in. It's also street side, with nice window seats if you get a chance to sit near them.
The service was wonderful, as well. There are a few people a bit older in age - and by older I mean older than my twenty one years. I couldn't tell you their exact age even if I tried - but most of the servers I noticed were young, possibly college students themselves. Many of the servers working appeared to be Thai, as well, which always makes a cultural dining experience fun. At least, it does in my opinion. The servers were friendly, always willing to come by and check up on those they were serving even if we didn't need anything, and often just came to ask us if we were enjoying ourselves. The food came out fast, efficiently, and thoroughly cooked. The best thing, too, is it was all very delicious!
Overall Rating: 9/10
Overall Pricing: $11-30
I'm going to give you a food overview now, with pictures of what we ordered below. The only thing not pictured is the vegetable rolls we ordered. We ate them way too fast for me to even think of taking a picture! Their food all has a spice level. It's on a 1-5 scale, with one being little to no heat at all and 5 being the spiciest level.
So as far as I can tell, most of their cold drinks come in a glass this tall! It's kinda freaking amazing, if you ask me. Especially since I am a lover of almost all things mango. This iced tea was addicting...and so, so good. I wanted about five of those tall glasses. Or a lifetime supply, honestly. I didn't ask for a refill simply because on the menu it doesn't state whether or not refills are free. Due to the prices being mid-range, I didn't want to put down too much money, so I held back.
I ordered Pad Thai with a spice level of medium, which is a three. Honestly the spice wasn't too bad at medium, although it was a bit spicier than I was expecting. Still, it was manageable, and it left a nice burning sensation in my mouth. The dish was probably the best Pad Thai I've had in a while, especially the glass noodles. They were delicious. Also, everything in the dish was fresh! I could taste it in all of the vegetables in the dish. The onions were so fresh they literally made me smile because they were so good.
My boyfriend, Jeremy, ordered their yellow curry at a spice level of five - the spiciest. Whenever I go to new restaurants, I like to try the food at a medium spice level so I can actually get a taste of the food and determine the restaurant's particular spice quantity. Jeremy, however, is Indian - and takes everything at the hottest level. I took a taste of this, and my mouth was on fire as soon as I swallowed. Chewing was fine. But once I swallowed, my throat and mouth were on fire and my belly was warm. However, the dish itself was delicious. It was some top quality curry. The only thing about this particular curry compared to others I've eaten was the fact that the potatoes weren't cooked all the way through. They were soft around the edges and stiff in the middle. I prefer my potatoes cooked thoroughly, but that's just me. This could be a particular cooking style of the one that prepared the curry. It wasn't enough to turn me - or my boyfriend, for that matter - off from eating their curry. Again, the vegetables in the dish were fresh. It was something I noticed in both my boyfriend's curry and my Pad Thai, and it made the food delicious and all the more enjoyable.
Well, this was my first Flagstaff Feature. Hopefully everyone enjoyed it! And if you're in Flagstaff, and like Thai food - check out Pato Thai!
0 comments