Volume 04, Number 05

Dining

A Table for Thai in Tokyo Mai-Thai
by Poppy Jackson-Jones

While the waiter informed me when I made a telephone reservation, that there wasn't a no-smoking area at Mai-Thai, he didn't tell me that the smoking Thai restaurant was actually a chain-smoking restaurant with apparently no ventilation and windows that appear to be glued shut.

Unfortunately instead of the aroma of their fantastic food (and it truly is fantastic), you are greeted by the overpowering stench and fog of smoke. If you can deal with it for the sake of experiencing the culinary delights ahead of you, or you yourself are a chain-smoker and want to be able to indulge without annoying people like me squirming, then Mai-Thai's got to be your first choice for Thai food.

And what a massive range of food they have! If you want to sample a variety of Thai dishes then I would recommend one of their set menus. We chose a 6-course set, at the very reasonable ¥3,150 per person, excluding drinks. We started with yam wun sen, a vermicelli salad with red onions that was not too spicy and a kind of refreshing start to a meal. Next came a selection of 3 different kinds of appetizers with 2 delicious sauces—again, not too spicy—and followed by kai lukuary (garlic fried eggs). The garlic wasn't overpowering and the eggs appear to be boiled not fried, but were delicious all the same.

Thai green curry was next, which was very creamy, not too spicy, and really tasty. The chicken doesn't seem to be of the best quality but the sauce itself was great. While eating the curry, my favorite Thai dish, tom yum kun, was placed in a bowl on a burner to bubble away. With the huge red chili peppers ominously poking out the top, I wondered if this dish was what they saved all the spice for. Not so. The soup was excellent, and to me, ‘excellent' includes retaining the use of your taste buds after a meal. For dessert we had papaya ice cream, which was the only dish that disappointed—too much ice and not enough cream. Apart from the ice cream, all the dishes we had were wonderful.

Mai-Thai is a no-frills restaurant—you don't go there for the décor or to be pampered—you go there for great Thai food. There are old Thai tourism posters roughly sellotaped to the walls throughout the place, and a unisex toilet so small that a gaijin's knees touch the back of the door when seated. We were the only foreigners in the restaurant, which probably seats about thirty, but it is very foreigner-friendly. The menu is all in English, and the staff is easy to communicate with. It has a very bohemian feel, with lots of creative-looking young Japanese customers, and not a salaryman in sight. Highly recommended but only if you can deal with the smoke.

Subaru Building 1F, 1-18-16 Ebisu, Open 5.30–10pm daily. Tel. 03-3280-1155