Mekong River Thai Cuisine - Burnsville

[Melba's Jammin']

On Andy Wang's recommendation I suggested Mekong River Thai when Rob
came home from class and offered to take me out for lunch. (He'll do
that when he doesn't feel like fixing his lunch. "0) We got there at
about 1:00 and the place was deserted. In fact, we approached the front
counter and did some shouting to gain the attention of the folks we
could hear in the kitchen. I was just about to pull out my cell phone
and call the restaurant and tell them there were a couple hungry folks
waiting. :-)

It's just come to me what that space used to be -- a Lotus Vietnamese
Restaurant long time ago. It was Lotus for a long time and a number of
other names for not so long times. I don't know what remodeling has
gone on, but I like the interior of this place. The wood is light
colored and there's an area that is separated from the larger space by
glass from about three feet up. There's also what appears to be a very
tiny performance area, but I didn't see any sort of schedule of
performances. Dunno about all that.

Another guy came in for takeout and was raving to the waiter about the
swell food he had there last night. I asked him if he had any
recommendations and he said the Laab (seasoned meat slices on top of
lettuce and cucumber slices - $6) was very good. When I asked the
waiter for a rec, he suggested the Pad Thai. I didn't want Pad Thai. I
considered the curry but was drawn to a noodle dish and the Pad Kee Mao
sounded good. It was great - as the pics on my webpage testify. "-)

I'm not a real fan of Thai food in general, but was willing to give it a
go. I ordered #22, Pad Kee Mao (Spicey <sic> Noodles). Waffling
between the eight protein choices to be featured in it, our waiter
suggested the chicken and discouraged the pork because "it's little
pieces." Chicken it was, along with rice noodles, onion pieces, lots of
yummy Thai basil, and a little bit of tomato. Trying to decide a level
of heat, I settled on two chili peppers: Mild-medium. It was just
right. A definite bite and surely to wussy for some but just right for
me.

Rob was all set to order the Sukiyaki Stir Fry until I reminded him of
the Perkins Rule: You don't order a hamburger at a pancake place. I
don't associate Sukiyaki with Thai food, but then I don't think of red
bean sauce as being typically Japanese, either. When it came time to
order, he claims I shamed him out of the sukiyaki and he ordered #30,
Sweet and Sour (with chicken, just like the waiter suggested). He loved
it - pineapple chunks (I don't think fresh, but canned), red bell
pepper, onion, and green onion in lots of red sweet-sour sauce. Served
with rice packed into a small cup for easy unmolding onto his plate. He
loved his rice swimming in the sauce. Better him than me.

Both dishes were $8 each - we got out for about $20.

I'll be willing to go again and am curious about the Laab, about the
fried rice cooked with Thai basil, about the three curry dishes offered.

The waiter saw me taking pictures of our food and I said the place had
been recommended to me and I like to take pictures of the food I order
out. We heard him telling the woman behind the scenes that "she's
taking pictures and going to put them on her website." Kinda cute.

They need customers, though -- big time. Their signage is 6 weeks
behind delivery time and right now, it's a real destination location
because of it. You have to want to find it.

You should go. Town & Country Shopping Center, Cty 11/West River Hills
Drive & Highway 13; between the Car Quest Auto Parts store and Shooters
Billiards, phone number is 952-808-8159.

How'd I do, Andy? I see that you had the same noodle dish as I had.

[Hollis]

On the recomendation of the threads here, hubby and I stopped by Mekong
River Thai tonight on the way home from picking up taxes (refund, thank
some diety!). When we arrived at just after 6 pm there were two other
couples just finishing up their meals. We were there from 6 ish to 6:45
or so and no one else came in. Which is a shame, cause the food (and
service!) were excellent! I'm not really THAT adventerous an eater and
Thai food is one of those "out-there" cuisines to this overly
Norweigianized palate, but I was the one who suggested it to hubby and
was neither of us were disappointed.

We had:

Shrimp spring rolls. We make our own spring rolls and these gave us all
sorts of new ideas. (Spices in the rolls? What a concept!) The sauce
was excellent. A oil with chili paste and some other ingredients as far
as we could tell. Just enough spice yet not greasy/oily.

Hubby had:
Shrimp Pad Thai. He LOVES Pad Thai and I can see why. I had a few
tastes of his meal -- okay I practically ate half of it -- and it was
spicy/sweet, but not overly sweet (like the Pad Thai at Noodles & Co)
Hubby ate all the shrimp, but the noodles since the noodle themselves
are delicious I'm guessing any of the choices would work. Except maybe
for squid.

I had:
Something boring and unoriginal. The BBB. Broccoli, Beef and Peppers.
(Now that I think about it that isn't 3 B's ... hmmm). With rice in the
cup and plenty of oyster sauce. Nummy!

We both had the medium spice - and were glad we didn't go higher on the
scale. You got used to the spice after a few bites, but every once in a
while you'd get a little that would slide down to the back of your
throat and just sit there and burn!

They do have some pricey entrees on the menu. Two involve whole walleye
and run about $25. But the rest of the entrees are reasonable prices --
and you could probably get by feasting on the appetizers and soups. We
too got out of there for about $20. I would recomend it for anyone in
the area. We don't get down to Burnsville that often but are already
planning on making it an annual trip (at tax time) if they're still
there in the future. I hope they are!

I need to have more of that Pad Thai....

[Andy Wang]

Woo hoo. Glad you enjoyed it. Spread the word :).
The Sarong is a good appetizer too. It's very interesting. Basically
it's spiced (spiced as in flavor spiced, not hot spiced) pork wrapped in
crispy noodles. Sorta like a wonton but with noodles as a "skin".

Pad thai at noodles and company just isn't right. I think they're
missing the fish sauce that's usually used in pad thai.

Next time we go, I'm planning on trying the walleye. That sounds really
good. I also want to try their pad thai. I imagine it's very similar
to the pad kee mao I had. The flavor of the pad kee mao was definitely
pad thai-ish but with some different ingredients.

There's nothing boring about the BBB. Especially since you went medium
spice. That's actually pretty impressive for a norweigianized palate :)

I'm a huge hot fan. Their medium-hot wasn't hot enough, so next time
I'm going hot.

[Melba's Jammin']

Post by Hollis
On the recomendation of the threads here, hubby and I stopped by Mekong
River Thai tonight on the way home from picking up taxes (refund, thank
Norweigianized palate, but I was the one who suggested it to hubby and
was neither of us were disappointed.

Good.

Post by Hollis
Something boring and unoriginal. The BBB. Broccoli, Beef and Peppers.
(Now that I think about it that isn't 3 B's ... hmmm).

The takeout menu lists it as Bell pepper, Broccoli, Beef. :-)

Post by Hollis
too got out of there for about $20. I would recomend it for anyone in
the area. We don't get down to Burnsville that often but are already
planning on making it an annual trip (at tax time) if they're still
there in the future. I hope they are!
I need to have more of that Pad Thai....

I have no idea where you live but if you enjoyed the meal I hope you'll
try to get there more than once a year - it'll be tough for them to
survive on your patronage at that rate.

Thanks for the comment about the spring rolls. I'll give them a try.

They really need to advertise and build a customer base.

[Andy Wang]

Post by Melba's Jammin'
How'd I do, Andy? I see that you had the same noodle dish as I had.

That was perfect. Much more articulate than me :).
I did have the same thing you did. I ordered it with pork and I didn't
think the meat was in that small of pieces.

Next time I go in there I'm going to try one of the curry dishes. The
basil fried rice was what my wife ordered when were there and I thought
it was very well done.

Laab is very good, but usually the meat is pre-made and pre-seasoned,
which means it's got one level of hot, and it's usually very spicy. If
you're a mild-medium person, ask before you order laab. You never know
just how hot it can be.

I'm glad you liked it. I'm definitely trying to get more people to go
because it'd be nice if a restaurant like this does well but I know very
few people who lives near the burnsville area.

[a***@gmail.com]

Ok, since the suggestion herewas to give the new Thai place south of
the river some business, we wanted to go. Closed Sunday, so last
weekend it did not happen.

Friday night, about 7:30 we got there. There was just one other family
(2 or 3 small kids!) dining there. The owner(?)/waiter was very
welcoming and polite. We ordered springrolls (good, fresh, large
shrimp, fragrant pork), pad thai for my wife and panang beef for me.
Pad thai was pretty good though low on bean sprouts. Generous amounts
of shrimp, a little sweet-sour. Good stuff.

I was disappointed with the beef curry. The carrots were severely
undercooked, and while the curry sauce was excellent - spicy not hot -
the flavour did not transfer to the meet.

Overall, I would give it a B-. I will definitely go there again and try
something else, maybe another curry, drunken noodles, pho, or laab (or
all of the above!). No beer, unfortunately - a Singha or even a
Heineken would have went well with the curry.

Total bill was $25 for 2including a thai iced tea and springrolls.