Robin Garr's LOUISVILLE Restaurant Reviews

(CLOSED: Reported out of business in October 2001.)

*** Bangkok Buffet
9114 Taylorsville Road
Stony Brook Shopping Center
(502) 499-2858
For many years, I flatly advised against partaking of all-you-can-eat buffets when the fare in the steam-table buckets is Asian. By their nature, I preached, Asian dishes are best when they come sizzling stir-fried from the wok, still crisp and fresh and carrying that delicious ginger/garlic/hot-oil scent that the Chinese call wok hai.

But either I'm mellowing with age or buffet technology is improving, as I've become willing to chow down with considerable satisfaction at several of the city's Far Eastern buffets, including the Indian feast at Shalimar and the massive Chinese spread at China Town Chinese. And now, joining Louisville's all-too-limited selection of Thai restaurants, comes Bangkok Buffet, a new entry that solves the buffet challenge with pleasing diversity and style.

Located within the maze of parking lots and strips of shops at suburban Stony Brook (southwestern corner of Hurstbourne Lane at Taylorsville Road), Bangkok Buffet occupies a large space, simply but tastefully decorated in dark red with repeating ornamental patterns of gold; heavy tables are comfortably spaced in a large room shared with four brick-based buffet tables; two smaller rooms house smokers and private parties.

Although you can order from an a la carte Thai menu with curries and other entrees in the $6.50-$10.95 range, it appears that just about everyone goes for the all-you-can-eat buffet, which is sensibly priced at $6.99 for lunch and $9.99 for dinner (reduced prices for children).

Three of the four buffets were in action during a recent lunch visit, with salad choices on one, and two dozen Thai dinner entrees displayed on two others.

We tried a little of just about everything and found it almost uniformly excellent, with only a couple of near misses.

The green salad was simple and fresh, crisp iceberg lettuce with American or Thai sweet peanut dressing; other salad choices included fresh watermelon and cantaloupe cubes; slightly tired cucumbers and tomatoes, and a delicious sweet Thai banana-coconut-milk salad that might have served as well as a meal-ending sweet as a salad course.

The dinner buffet offers two styles of fried rice - chicken and vegetarian - both well-made and grease-free; a large rice cooker off to one side offers a third all-you-can-eat rice option.

Quickly noted, other entrees included:

Vegetarian egg rolls, stuffed with cabbage and aromatic spice, are smaller than the Chinese variety, with a thin deep-fried pastry crust, brittle as glass; it would be easy to fill up on these.

Chicken wings, lightly breaded and crisply fried.

Pad se iew, wide rice noodles and broccoli florets tossed in a savory, mild fish sauce.

Pad Thai, the original Thai noodle dish, country fare that seems to be different in every restaurant's rendition. This one is straightforward and mild, thin rice noodles and chicken tossed with bean sprouts and lots of peanuts in an aromatic but not fiery sauce with a touch of nam pla, Thai fish sauce.

Barbecue chicken, sliced fingers of boneless breast meat coated with a medium-hot red-chile flavoring.

Red curry, a Thai tradition, one of my favorites: Tender boneless chicken slices and julienne strips of crisp bamboo shoot simmered in a red curry and coconut milk sauce. It's quite hot-and-spicy, which prompts a warning: Although a few of the dishes are specifically noted as "hot" or "spicy," many are not. If you're not comfortable with fiery fare, it's best to ask the friendly servers to point out the mild dishes, or you may find yourself leaving a lot of unwanted hot stuff on your plate.

Jungle curry, billed as "spicy," didn't seem any more so than red curry, but that was spicy enough by half, with more than enough heat to make the diner's brow sweat and his nose run. It was good, though, with chicken and sliced zucchini and carrots in a zippy stir-fry.

Kai Look Kuey, hard-boiled eggs sliced in half and marinated in a savory, mild flavoring.

Garlic sauce chicken, boneless chicken bits stir-fried with slices of onion and crisp cabbage; mild, aromatic and savory.

Chicken with basil, ground chicken meat with green peppers and basil leaves, quite hot with a long-simmering back-of-the-throat afterburn.

Ginger tofu, a vegetarian dish, featured crunchy cubes of deep-fried tofu (Asian bean curd) stir-fried with onion in a garlicky sauce.

Mee grob, another traditional Thai dish: Angel-hair thin rice noodles fried into a crisp nest and tossed into crunchy clouds with a sticky sweet-sour sauce.

Thai soups, often served as main courses in themselves, were represented by two entries: Tom yum kai is a thin soup with tender chicken bits in a spicy reddish broth laced with chile peppers, fish sauce and aromatic lemon grass. Tom Kha is chicken in a thin, white broth, redolent of ginger and garlic and a taste of fish sauce and coconut milk.

If you've got room after all those goodies, ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry scooped from self-serve drums) makes an excellent way to douse the fiery afterburn from hot Thai spices.

A large lunch for two, enough to leave me with little craving for dinner at the end of the day, was just $14.82, plus a $2 tip, appropriate even at a buffet for quick, friendly service in clearing plates and bringing drinks. $$