Chiang Mai Noodle 815 E. Westfield Blvd.

One thing about Broad Ripple,vacant buildings don’t stay vacant for long. I would consider Chiang Mai’s new home prime real estate. Of course I know nothing about real estate I just think that this is a great location. It is a free-standing building with parking, across from the canal. It also has a nice new outdoor patio. Alas no water view. But they do have sake.

I like Thai food and I especially like noodles. This joint is the closest Thai place to me so I expect more trips. Since it is so new there hasn’t been very many reviews. The ones I have seen have all been complimentary. The only one half way negative was the fellow lamenting the lack of a lunch menu. Even he liked the food he just didn’t like the dinner portion or price at lunch time. That has since been changed. They offer $7.95 lunch specials,like so many Asian restaurants offer. Soup, salad and spring roll in addition to the main meal. Once again I ask, rhetorically, how can they do this? However they handle it I am glad they do.

The soup was a very mild broth with,as you can see a few tiny bits of veg. It was okay but nothing really spectacular. As I have mentioned before I love Asian style noodles; especially rice noodles. So I fell back to my default Pad Thai. All of the specials offer choice of chicken,pork, beef, tofu or veggies. For a $2 up charge you can get shrimp. Feeling luxurious I opted for the shrimp.

I think you can see from the picture one way they are able to sell a 8 buck lunch and be profitable. The salad is a small 4 ounce portion and the spring roll was on the small side and didn’t really taste house made. Not a complaint,just an observation. Both the salad and the roll provided a nice textural element to the dish. As far as the Pad Thai goes it was very nice. An abundance of noodles with a bit of veggies and peanuts and that ubiquitous Thai sauce. It was a delicious dish well worth going back for.

I think what Pat was referring to about the pricing was the dinner entre pricing. However I didn’t think they were that outrageous. The dinner prices were predominately $10.95 and up to 12 to 14 dollars. I really don’t think that is too outrageous for a dinner. As a matter of fact the next time I go I am doing dinner. I figure that a $10.95 Pad Thai would have more of the stuff that makes me liked it in the beginning. I am glad that the old Mid Town Grill has a new tenant and I hope that their stay there is long and pleasurable for everyone.