revisited/thai: i strongly recommend VERY THAI

VERY THAI 非常泰
No. 319 Fuxing N. Rd 台北市復興北路319號
(02) 2546-6745

MRT: ZhongShan Jr. High School

website: verythai.com.tw

hours: 11:30AM - 3PM; 5:30PM - 1:30AM

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs and kids dinnerware available

Visit reviewed: 3/9/2012
Past review: 11/5/2010 at Neo 19 branch

moon shrimp pancake

Last Friday, after watching the film A SIMPLE LIFE (which totally deserved the awards for best director, best actor (my mom's favorite, Andy Lau) and best actress. Go see it, it has subtitles!), a group of the 20 of us were trying to figure out where to go for a post movie dinner where we could all sit together. Late night and large group- where to go? After vetoing the mall restaurants at QSquare and brainstorming, someone reserved two tables for us at Very Thai and off we went.

The Fuxing location as modern and sleek as its Neo 19 location that I visited two years ago, and is open until 1:30AM for the late night diners. Quite a few of my friends ordered drinks and I heard their mojitos are also quite good. The appetizer menu has a lot of options for late night munchies, and when you order, be sure to let them know what your spiciness tolerance is or look for the chili peppers on the menu if they don't ask.

fried kon ching tsai greens with shrimp paste

Maybe it's dining with lots of friends and being able to taste a little bit of everything or maybe my friends knew what to order... but my experience this time was much more satisfying and I could see why voters chose it as their favorite Thai restaurant in this year's Readers' Choice Awards.

grilled pork with thai dipping sauce

The appetizers are great for sharing with good portions, and the slightly sweet grilled pork with Thai dipping sauce was one of my favorites. Tender slices of pork, enhanced by the dual sauces.

The Thai style sausage was also popular at the table, but not my thing. I prefer the sweeter Taiwanese sausage. It's funny how they give you plastic gloves to assemble the lettuce around the sausage. Be sure to take off the chili pepper if you don't want the extra kick.

Thai style sausage

make someone at the table put it all together

The squid fried rice also disappeared quickly. Maybe we were all starving. It was a good pairing with the spicy stir fried beef and the green curry and chicken curry. If some of the things on the menu taste familiar, it's because Very Thai and Thai Town have the same owners.

spicy fried rice with squid NT$250

spicy beef stir fry

The deep fried oysters  were served on the half shell and on the lettuce. I rarely see the larger oysters being served in Taipei, so I gobbled it up while it was hot.

deep fried oysters with thai spicy sauce

Very Thai's coconut ice cream was milky and rich and I enjoyed every bite. I didn't like coconut when I was a kid though my mom loved coconut ice cream and I remember when she'd get coconut pineapple ice cream from Thrifty's, which I refused to try until I was in my 20s. This version was more creamy (and probably fattening) and flavor reminded me of those milk candies I had as a kid, and I'd definitely get it again.

coconut ice cream

Otherwise you could opt for the more traditional momo chacha, which is chewy, crunchy, icy and sweet.

mo mo cha cha

Usually I don't go back to a place if I don't love it, or if I do give it another chance, it's more of the same, but I'm glad that I got a chance to revisit Very Thai and try more of their house specialties and have some great food with great friends.


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OTHER LOCATIONS

at Neo 19, No. 22 SongRen Rd, 2F,
台北市松壽路22號2樓
(02) 8789-6200

at Tianmu Sogo, No. 77, ZhongShan N Rd, Sec 6, 8F,
台北市中山北路6段77號8樓
(02) 2831-0188

at Megacity, No. 28, XinZhan Rd, 9F, Banqiao
新北市板橋區新站路28號9F
(02) 6637-0038;