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