Restaurant Review

Friday, June 1, 2001

Marvelous Mon's
Artistry meets flavor at new Lamar Park restaurant

The shrimp Pad Thai is offered at Mon's Thai Cuisine, a new restuarant located in the Lamar Park Shopping Center.

Good news
   There can be no better news than the arrival of a 100 percent genuine Thai restaurant in Corpus Christi, offering a vast array of Thai dishes in elegant surroundings.
   The restaurant mirrors its owner, Mon Shirley, an elegant and graceful woman born in Thailand and recently arrived from Houston with husband Gerry Shirley, a Corpus Christi native.
   Bad news

At a glance 3812 S. Alameda Phone: 855-4448 Entrees: $7.25 to $16.95 Credit cards: yes Checks: no Hours: Mon.-Fri.: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Sat. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., closed Sunday Wheelchair access: yes Food: 3 stars Service: 2 ½ stars Atmosphere: 3 stars

   Choosing from among Mon's many dishes can be an arduous undertaking, although lunch is simpler. Mon's offers a limited lunch menu of appetizers, soups and lunch specials ($7.25), and a dinner menu seven pages long.
   At dinner, you'll have to choose from appetizers, soups, salads, stir-fry, specialties, seafood, grill, curry, noodles, fried rice and desserts. All things in life should be this tough.
   Food for thought
   My companion and I arrived at Mon's at 8 p.m. on a weekday evening to find a small number of diners seated in what used to be Marco's Restaurant in the Lamar Park Shopping Center. Hardwood floors and arched windows in the dining room, half the size of Marco's, gleamed as though bathed in candlelight
   The wall that divides the former Marco's space is painted with a colorful Thai-themed mural by French artist Michel Serviev, adding a welcome splash of color.
   My companion and I began with two appetizers - Thai butterflies and shrimp in a basket. The Thai butterflies, Thai-spiced cream cheese wrapped in wonton skins and then deep-fried, combined an enjoyable creamy, light-tasting cream cheese with a crunchy, heavier-tasting fried wonton skins.
   The shrimp in a basket provided a surprise, to me at least. This tasty dish features a peeled, marinated shrimp deep-fried in a spring roll shell, producing a tender shrimp wrapped in a crunchy jacket.
   For my entrée I chose gang massaman, chicken cooked in massaman curry, coconut milk, crushed peanuts, onions, potatoes, red peppers and garnished with sliced avocado. My companion opted for something a little more conventional, Silom (named for a street in Bangkok) fried rice cooked with chicken, eggs, yellow and green onions, tomatoes and green peas.
   I ordered the gang massaman with mild spiciness rather than the standard medium listed on the menu. I appreciated the thinly sliced chicken and the array of vegetables cooked to just the right tenderness. The spiciness of the massaman curry and the sweetness of the coconut milk combined for a satisfying truce between opposing flavors.
   Subtle and balanced are words that often come to mind when describing the food at Mon's. Mon, whose recipes originate either with her mother or her own creative efforts, strives for an authentic Thai taste rather than what she calls "American Thai," heavily spiced, reheated food.
   Our desserts provided some nice surprises. I ordered black rice pudding topped with whipped cream and a cherry. The black rice - no food coloring needed here - is boiled and mixed with coconut milk and sugar.
   At first taste I thought I'd made a mistake. It wasn't as sweet as American desserts and the rice had a thick, chewy consistency that caught me off guard. But the taste and texture quickly grew on me, and I mourned when my pudding ran out before my appetite did.
   My companion chose a mandarin orange cheesecake not found on the menu. The homemade cheesecake is an American/Thai recipe featuring a common Thai food - mandarin oranges - in a common American dessert.
   The filling, light and creamy with a taste of mandarin orange, sat atop a homemade piecrust and topped with mandarin orange slices, providing a colorful addition to our already delightful meal.
   Service
   Our waiter greeted us with a smile and obligingly assisted us in narrowing down our dining choices.
   The one service faux pas of the evening came when our desserts were delivered to the wrong table, whose occupants seemed surprised by their sudden appearance. Don't blame the waiter for this one: Mon, herself, made the mistake.
   Just goes to show that no one - not even Mon - is perfect.
  
  

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Restaurant reviews are written by a team of freelance writers. The Caller-Times pays for the meals. From time-to-time the writers visit previously reviewed restaurants to update the information.

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