Thai Fusion in Barboursville offers "delicious, authentic Asian cuisine created by master chefs and served with a smile."



The menu is wide and varied, so I picked a few of my favorite dishes listed across the various categories: appetizer, entree & sushi.



Crab Rangoon (5) - Crispy wonton wrappers filled with cream cheese and crab mixture, served with sweet and sour sauce. These were a great version - a lighter fry, which saved the roof of my mouth and the integrity of the mixture inside.



Sweet and Sour Chicken - Stir fry with bell pepper, onion, pineapple and carrot. The Thai version of this dish has a thin sweet-and-sour sauce and usually a sort of shredded chicken. It is so craveable.



Lobster Tail Roll - tempura, avocado, cream cheese, eel sauce. this was quite the presentation. It was built with lobster tails, but the flavor profile was a familiar favorite. Creamy, a little sweet, crunchy. All fresh.



Grade: A

Most times when I travel, I plot out the very best restaurants I can find along the way. Sometimes, though, the best finds are the unexpected ones. That happens to be the case with Yummy Thai in Merced, California, which I stumbled upon while searching out a quick lunch spot.



Yummy Thai serves up Thai and Laotian food - from larb and pho to tom yum and curry.



I started with a slushy watermelon boba tea, which was great. And then paired with their crab rangoons, which have crab meat, carrot, onion, celery and cream cheese wrapped in crispy wonton. When the inside of the wontons is impossibly creamy and a hint sweet, it's just one of the most delicious foods in the world.



This pad thai was also maybe one of the best I've ever had: pan-fried thin rice noodles with egg, bean sprouts, green onions, tofu and crushed peanuts. So silky and flavorful and crave-able.



Grade: A

There is no shortage of great restaurants in the Phoenix area, where my best friend Kaitee lives. Even when you don't feel like going out to eat, you can bring the delicious food to you. Perusing a delivery app, I found Royyim Thai Cuisine, which specializes in homestyle Thai food.

The restaurant offers a variety of dishes, such as curries, noodles, soups, salads, and stir-fries. I ordered the Pad Thai - The most famous of Thai dishes. Rice noodles stir-fried with choice of meat, egg, bean sprout cooked with traditional pad thai sauce made from coconut sugar and tamarind juices. Comes with green onion on top and grounded peanut on the side.

The flavors weren't quite as bold as I'm used to, but the subtlety that was there was nice. A little sweet, a little sour. Still craveable.

Grade: B

"Thai Street’s recipes have been tweaked to perfection over multiple generations of Chef/Owner Kesorn Imsin’s family. Using traditional techniques and ingredients we create dishes that allow you to experience authentic Thai street food and regional specialties. Inspiration for our food has been sourced from the streets of Phetchabun (Kesorn’s hometown) to some of the finest restaurants in Bangkok. We’ll take you on a journey to Pratu Phi with our signature Pad Thai then to Charoen Krung Road with our melt-in-your-mouth Kao Ka Moo! We like to keep you guessing “what’s next?” and are always exploring new recipes, ingredients, and techniques in our rotating specials," reads the website.



Located in Broadway Market, the restaurant offers many classic Thai dishes like pad thai, pad see ew, khao soi and more.



I ordered the Chive Cake - pan fried, crispy garlic, rice flour, chive, homemade sweet soy sauce. I wanted the exterior to be a bit more crispy, but I enjoyed this squidgy bite. I also had the pumpkin custard sticky rice, which was so comforting. I love rice desserts.



Grade: B

I am always happy to travel to Shepherdstown whenever I can because I know that good food will be in store.



Kome Thai & Sushi Bistro serves up both Thai cuisine, and Japanese cuisine, with a variety of entrées for each.



"The chef/owner, Kenny, personally selects and designs the very unique and special menu items and specialties. We use only the freshest ingredients including authentic spices from Thailand giving each dish its unique qualities. We work closely with distributors to make sure our seafood and sushi are freshly imported."



I ordered a few small plates so that I could sample a few things. I went with the crab puffs, which came with a yellow curry and cucumber relish. I liked that this was some thing a little bit different, but I do wish the entire was a bit more moist. Plus, I went with an always reliable California roll with some spicy sauce on top. Fresh, comforting, and expected.



My last app of thr trio was fun, simpler a veggies, which were all tasty. Overall, a tasty lunch, and I look forward to trying other items there.



Grade: A

One of my newest favorite restaurants in West Virginia isn't a restaurant at all. It's a food truck. Country Thai on Wheels is the modern reincarnation of the previous Country Thai restaurant in the area. Pornsawan Jumpated posts on her Facebook where her food truck is going to be each day, and she usually sells at lunch time until she's sold out for the day.



She usually offeres a handful of items each day, but you can never go wrong with anything that's on the menu. Here are just a few of the items she has offered recently:

Chicken curry with potatoes (Masaman curry)
Spring rolls
Dumplings
Pad Thai
Chicken Panang
Jalapeño Rice balls
Chicken Satay
Sweet & Sour Ribs



On the day I visited, I got a combo of pad thai, chicken curry and a spring roll. It was the perfect combination of home-cooked comfort food with fun, new interesting flavors. I also love that you get to try a little bit of everything as part of a whole meal. Don't sleep on this delicious food.



Grade: A

I had the pleasure of dining at Thai Kitchen in Lewisburg recently, and if you'd like to, too, you better stop in this week before they are closed for good.



The restaurant offers a variety of dishes including dumplings, soups, noodle dishes, fried rice dishes and curry. They have a small dining area. Minimal decor. But big flavor.



I ordered one of my all-time favs: pad thai. It's a sweet and sour dish of rice noodles, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, peanuts, a scrambled egg and bean sprouts. Everything was fresh and flavorful. I could use fewer bean sprouts, but I did like the texture it added. A tasty meal that won't be around much longer.



Grade: A

There's a brand new Thai restaurant in South Charleston named "Elephant Thai." I always get excited about new restaurants, but apparently a lot of folks were too about this this, as they've been pretty busy since they opened.



Thai is one of my favorite cuisines. I really fell in love with it through Chaang Thai and Ta-Khrai in Morgantown. I've discovered a love of noodles and curry through dishes at both of these places.



After convincing my friend Sara I think she'd like Thai food, we made our way to The Mound area and waited our turn for a table. 


  
Elephant Thai has a lunch menu, which is available every day they're open (they are closed on Sundays). 



That gave me even more options to try. In my dream, I could have like one bite of everything on the menu. Since that's not realistic in one visit, I came as close as I could by ordering a half-dozen dishes. 



So, I started with a "Thai Pink Milk" drink, which I didn't know what it was, but that was part of the excitement. I was hoping it was strawberry flavored, but I got more of a bubblegum flavor. For bubblegum, that's fine. But for a drink, that's not my favorite. 



Moving on to a few apps: Thai Eggrolls are first. These are smaller than, say, a Chinese eggroll. Served with a sweet plum sauce, these eggrolls have glass noodles which gives them some extra oomph. These were a bit too on the greasy side for me.



Next up were the chicken cakes. These were fried patties of ground chicken with red curry and kaffir lime leaf. It was served with cucumber sauce. I really enjoyed these because it was like a different twist on something so familiar - a chicken patty with some fresh seasonings fried and crisped up. The sauce was really thin but sweet with some tang.



Next is crab cheese rangoons. These were a decent rendition. They were pretty crisped up, but there was a nice pocket of smooth cream cheese. 



Finally - on to our entrees. I went with a pad thai - this is my standard benchmark measure for any Thai restaurant because I know it's going to be one of their most popular items. And, of course, it's one of my favorite dishes. I moved the bean sprouts to the side - not my fav - but the noodles were delicious. This dish had the sweet and sour flavor that I love - not too saccharine but with some depth. There's texture from the peanuts and some acid from the lime. This is my favorite rendition I've tried outside of Morgantown.



Sara went for the drunken noodles, which is another favorite of mine. It's less sweet, but has more of a soy base. It has more crunchy veggies, though, and I love the wide noodles. Overall, both of our entrees were delicious, and I will definitely be back to try some other options. 

Grade: A

Sabaidee Thai, located in Clarksburg, is a new addition to the dining scene, and while in the area, I wanted to check it out. They had a really simple online ordering process, so I placed my order via phone and walked inside to pick it up.



The interior was a bit dated, but decorated with some Asian-inspired art. They were a bit flustered when I walked in - not sure why - but after waiting a few minutes, they turned their attention toward me. My order was ready and waiting on me, so I received that and went on my way.



I ordered a few appetizers to snack on. First up were these "crab blankets," which were crab rangoons. They were standard - not a ton of flavor, aside from the oils from the wrapper. 



Then, I tried the pork dumplings, which I thought would come with more flavors of sauce. These kinda ended up being a little gummy - but the flavor was okay. 



Finally, I had a spring roll, and it was decent. Overall, I think I have super high standards for Thai food, because it's one of my favorites. This was average.

Grade: C

DakZen is an authentic Thai restaurant in Somerville that has made a name for itself with its street noodles and tasty dishes.



"DAKZEN IS AN AUTHENTIC THAI STREET FOOD & NOODLES RIGHT NEAR DAVIS SQUARE, SOMERVILLE. AT DAKZEN, WE ARE BRINGING BACK THE AUTHENTIC THAI TASTES, AND THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS IN EVERY DISH. WE SERVE A LOT FEWER MENUS THAN THE OTHER THAI RESTAURANTS SINCE "THE REAL GOOD THAI FOOD TAKES TIME TO PREPARE""


The menu has so many tasty items that I wish I could've ordered them all. But I was curious about an authentic take on Pad Thai (since I order this every chance I get). I got it with shrimp.


My pad thai arrived a little while later, looking pretty familiar to what I've become accustomed to. It did have the addition fo some shredded egg and crispy onion throughout. But I really love this combination of flavors.


A sweetness in the sauce, a nutty flavor, the freshness of the green onion and crisp of bean sprouts. Really a delish dish.