San Diego, CA (The Joy of Food) — Those who frequent Thai eateries in Linda Vista have their picks: Thai Papaya for Isaan-style cooking and innards galore; Sab-E-Lee for more Americanized but still traditional eats; and now J&T Thai for fast-casual Thai street food.
J&T has pretty much everything you could ask for of a low-key neighborhood Thai eatery, which is to say, tasty appetizers and soups, decent to above-average rice dishes, noodles and curries, and enough beers and teas to keep everyone happy.
The Spicy Basil Chicken, for a price of eight bucks, is a generous serving of ground chicken mixed with spices, crunchy bell pepper and onion, and a garden of basil to give this dish its signature aromatic taste. The juices that spill out from this are intense and savory and serve you well as a bath for the accompanying mounds of white rice.
The Pad Prik King Pork is another favorite from the ‘J&T Homestyle’ menu, though the chunks of pork can be stir-fried with twice their weight in green bean and the texture a bit too reminiscent of wood. But when it’s good, it’s really good. If the pork is juicy and moist, it reaches superb levels of meatiness.
The noodle dishes are the least interesting since they’re low on flavor and coated in grease, unless you count an overwhelming oily egg taste from the noodles as your preferred high in these types of things. I’ve fared badly with the Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles) as well as the Pad See Eu, both ordered with chicken normally, and also while my blood alcohol level was low, perhaps my biggest issue. “What was I thinking?” is something I ask myself. Every time.
The chicken satay comes served as four grilled pieces of white chicken de-skewered on a bed of cucumbers with a coconut curry dipping sauce on the side, adding a sweet note to something that probably doesn’t need it, but it works for the most part. The chicken wings are also tasty, if a little gloppy, but I’ve been impressed with how searingly hot they’ve been brought out every time.
Ask for anything here on the spicy side and you’ll end up with viscous liquid fire in your mouth. Love. If that’s still not enough heat for you, there’s a garnish table in the middle of the room to amp things up even more.
J&T Thai is by no means Thai Papaya, or even Sab-E-Lee, both of which are excellent choices for Thai cuisine of varying levels of authenticity. However, you don’t always have time for a table-service meal or the lines out the door that those places can incur, so in those instances, I’d recommend J&T Thai.
Written by Joy
Thanks for reading. The Joy of Food blog celebrates eating well, traveling often, and living la dolce vita. San Diego, California is home base, but thoughts are from all over. Reviews and photos help to highlight wonderful (or not) food experiences from around the world.
Leave a comment below or get in touch with me via my About page.