Thai Tara

Keeping the flame under a new owner

By Dale Rice
American-Statesman Restaurant Critic
March 4, 2004

It's often risky when a restaurant changes hands. Even slight changes by a new owner can alter the dining experience -- positively or negatively.

Yupa Rushing, who three months ago became the owner of Thai Tara, has judiciously refrained from changing the good things about the restaurant at Sixth and Nueces streets.

Instead, she seems to be concentrating on giving it a welcoming ambience, while making incremental additions, such as lunch and dinner specials.

While I enjoyed the food for the most part a year ago, I liked it even better this time around.

The "Thai tribute" appetizer platter ($7.95), with three types of rolls and yam patties, was an appealing way to begin lunch.

The yams were mixed with corn and lightly fried, sort of a vegetarian version of a crisp crab cake. The summer rolls enfolded shrimp and vermicelli in rice wrappers, while the fried cheese rolls were filled with cream cheese, mushrooms and chives and the Siamese rolls were stuffed with minced vegetables.

The kee mao ($6.95) featured broad, flat noodles in a zesty brown sauce with broccoli, mushrooms and sliced beef. Unlike a similar dish a year earlier, this one came with tender meat, a sauce that was not overly salty and noodles cooked to perfection.

In the udon tom yum ($6.75), a soup with a sharply sour edge and high level of spice, chicken was piled high over thick Japanese noodles.

Although both were good, it was the pad krapao ($6.50) that excelled (as it did last year). So spicy my mouth still tingled 15 minutes after the meal, the dish was visually appealing as well.

The chicken had been stir-fried with thin slices of red and green bell peppers, mushrooms, fresh basil leaves and Thai chili in a sauce that had the consistency and color of beef broth.

That shows how wise Rushing is. She is smoothing out the rough edges while preserving all that is worth saving. Thai Tara is in good hands.