Thai.
Uptown: 4938 Prytania. 504-899-8886 . Map.
Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday.
Casual
AE DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
La Thai reversed a trick that hip New Orleans-style restaurants played for years. It incorporated Asian ingredients and techniques into local dishes. Here the base menu is Thai, and the fusion elements are Cajun. While those looking for the Thai standards will find them, the unique and most interesting parts of the menu are the hybrids.
WHY IT'S GOOD
The cooking here has always been marked not only by no-borders creativity, but by first-class ingredients and polished preparations. Particularly in the dishes involving local seafood--oysters, crawfish, and soft-shell crabs--the combination of flavors and the look of the plate are tremendously appealing. The oysters encrusted with pecans, set on a nest of artichokes and leeks, zoomed up with a Thai chili sauce is the perfect example of what they do well here.
BACKSTORY
La Thai is owned by the family that opened the first New Orleans Thai restaurant, back in the early 1980s. Punnee "Mama" Semiesuke--the matriarch and genius of the family--went on to operate a number of traditional Thai restaurants around town, most notably Bangkok Cuisine. The more recent ones also involved her children Merlin and Diana Chauvin, who are literally Thai Cajuns. The first iteration of La Thai Cuisine was on Metairie Road. It moved to its present Uptown location in early 2008.
DINING ROOM
This long-time restaurant space (I can recall over a dozen eateries who came and went at this address) was most recently Felix's, which left a long, wide dining room behind. La Thai performed a substantial renovation, but like its Metairie Road original location, this one is sleek and modern rather than frankly Asian. A little on the loud side when it's full, but otherwise an elegant spot.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Vegetable spring rolls
Summer rolls (shrimp and noodles in rice paper, served cool)
Shu-mai (chicken and shrimp dumplings)
Skewerless chicken sate
Crispy coconut shrimp or calamari
Fried oysters with pecan crust, artichokes and leeks
Stuffed chicken wings (shrimp and pork)
Mussels with green curry broth and pommes frites
Hot and sour soup
Tom yum goong soup (shrimp and mushrooms, spicy)
Tom kar gai soup (chicken and coconut milk)
Asian chicken salad
Pecan-crusted oyster salad
Tuna tataki salad
Thai-Coon (shrimp, crawfish, spicy garlic basil sauce)
Crispy soft shell crab (with lump crabmeat, lemon basil garlic butter)
Duck delight
Jumbo lump crab cake (with soft shell crab or crabmeat, or both)
Sea scallops with shrimp and asparagus
Seafood curry
Fried soft shell crab with green curry
Filet mignon Diana
*--Available with choice of chicken, pork, shrimp, beef, or vegetarian
*Pad thai
*Paht woon sen (like pad thai, with glass noodles)
*Drunken noodles
*Mee grob (fried noodles)
*Thai fried rice
*Red, green, panang, or musaman curry
*Red hot chili pepper curry with green beans
Fried banana fritters
Sweet sticky coconut rice with mango
FOR BEST RESULTS
The best food here is made with seafood. What they do with soft-shell crabs and crabmeat in the warm months is fantastic. Split an appetizer. The entrees are too large to permit preliminaries heavier than a soup. The restaurant gets busier as the night goes on, with a younger crowd.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
They ought to get rid of the Chilean sea bass in favor of a local fish.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment +1
- Consistency +2
- Service +1
- Value +1
- Attitude +2
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness +2
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Sidewalk tables
- Romantic
- Many private rooms
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Unusually large servings
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
- Reservations accepted
This review was updated with new information on 7/20/2010.
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