{"id":1512,"date":"2014-06-17T04:35:09","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T20:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2014-06-17T04:35:09","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T20:35:09","slug":"jasmine-thai-cuisine-restaurant-review-winnetka-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/2014\/06\/jasmine-thai-cuisine-restaurant-review-winnetka-ca\/","title":{"rendered":"Jasmine Thai Cuisine – Restaurant Review – Winnetka, CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is it with LA Thai restaurants? Why is it that seemingly every\u00a0 strip-mall hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant serves spectacular cuisine, while many Thai restaurants in the Bay Area struggle to rise above mediocrity?\u00a0 Whatever it is in the southern California area that inspires Thai cooks, it’s alive and kicking at Jasmine Thai Cuisine<\/strong>.\u00a0 We went there for dinner last Saturday night (June 2014), and had a simply delicious meal.<\/p>\n

Jasmine Thai is a 2-restaurant chain in the west San Fernando Valley.\u00a0 We visited the Winnetka branch because it got better slightly better Yelp reviews.\u00a0 The restaurant is cute and well decorated, but it can’t quite escape its strip-mall architecture.\u00a0 Fortunately, the prices match the casual surroundings with most entrees priced at a downright cheap (at least by Bay Area standards) $8.<\/p>\n

\"jasminesatay\"<\/p>\n

We started by sharing an order of beef satay<\/strong> ($8).\u00a0 The order came with six sticks, which was great as there were three of us.\u00a0 The beef was very nicely marinated, and had a very strong flavor.\u00a0 The peanut sauce was standard, which is nothing to complain about.\u00a0 The dish was beautifully presented in a plate that came with a small iron heater of some kind with a pretty significant flame. I’m not sure if it was there just for decoration, but we did enjoy putting our meat in the flame.\u00a0 I hadn’t seen this before, and enjoyed it. I know my girls would have loved it.<\/p>\n

\"Cashew

Cashew Nut Chicken<\/p><\/div>\n

We followed this with the cashew nut chicken ($8), panang curry with beef ($8) and curry duck ($11).\u00a0 The cashew nut chicken<\/strong> was fine, though perhaps not as interesting as one might have liked.\u00a0 Kathy did like the sauce quite a bit, though.\u00a0 The two curries, however, were outstanding.\u00a0 the panang<\/strong> was perfect, flavorful, deep, complex, and yet very much a panang curry. The sliced beef had probably been sauteed separately and then added to it, so it wasn’t the star of the dish, but it was good enough. It was the sauce, however, what really shined.<\/p>\n

\"Panang

Panang Beef<\/p><\/div>\n

The duck curry<\/strong> was similar, albeit a bit fruitier and sweeter, probably from the pineapple chunks it came with.\u00a0 It was also delicious.\u00a0 The duck, a hard meat to get right, was well cooked, not too fatty (but it’s duck), and went very well with the sauce.\u00a0\u00a0 Both curries are noted in the menu as being spicy.\u00a0 We asked for them as mild as possible, and our tongues still burned a little bit.<\/p>\n

\"Duck

Duck Curry<\/p><\/div>\n

The portions were all quite generous. We had leftover of both curries to bring home (which my husband got to enjoy fully).\u00a0 Where they did skimp was in the rice ($1.50 per person).\u00a0 We probably could have used more at the table and had none to take home. Next time, I’ll order an extra portion.<\/p>\n

Both my dad and I had strawberry smoothies<\/strong> ($3.25) with our dinner, and they were OK. They basically tasted like strawberry daiquiris without the rum. I don’t think I’d order them again.<\/p>\n

Despite how good the food was, there are a few minuses to Jasmine.\u00a0 First, the menu doesn’t include some Thai favorites like pra ram chicken and massaman beef.\u00a0 Second, they don’t serve alcohol – not even beers to wash down the spice.\u00a0 Finally, the service could have been more attentive.\u00a0 We were done for a while before anyone noticed we needed the bill.\u00a0 The dinner for three came to close to $60 after tax and tip.<\/p>\n

Jasmine Thai Cuisine<\/strong>
\n20156 Roscoe Blvd.
\nWinnetka, CA
\n(818) 718-7000
\nhttp:\/\/www.jasminethaicuisinegroup.com\/<\/a>
\nM-Su 11am – 10:30pm<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Restaurant Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is it with LA Thai restaurants? Why is it that seemingly every\u00a0 strip-mall hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant serves spectacular cuisine, while many Thai restaurants in the Bay Area struggle to rise above mediocrity?\u00a0 Whatever it is in the southern California area that inspires Thai cooks, it’s alive and kicking at Jasmine Thai Cuisine.\u00a0 We went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[155,338,110],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-restaurants","tag-los-angeles","tag-san-fernando-valley","tag-thai","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}