The restaurant had previously been located in St. Charles, but it closed a couple of years ago.  Owner Jon With and his wife however, must have found it difficult to resist the temptation to get back in the business when a opportunity arose to take over the digs occupied by recently shuttered Geneva Family Restaurant on West State Street (Route 38) in Geneva.  They reopened Bistro Thai there and oh, what nice changes have taken place!

I have gotten a bit of grief lately for not reviewing any restaurants with ethnic menus other than Italian.  After trying unsuccessfully to evade questions like: “have you been to…”, I decided that it was best to simply expand my horizons a bit.  I had heard good things about a relative newcomer to Geneva’s restaurant collection, so Bistro Thai became the destination of choice for dinner the other evening.

The venue is smallish – perhaps 20 tables or so – but feels comfortable and uncrowded.  The ambience is warm and friendly and the décor is simple and almost austere; tabletops are adorned with two appetizer plates, two water glasses, and a stylish knife and fork neatly wrapped in a golden cloth napkin.  Hanging over the tables and casting gentle, warm light were amber-colored, globe-like lamps.  The walls held few but tastefully-selected decorations; a sort of wave-like screen was suspended from the ceiling, above which were small lights.  One indeed could feel a sense of the Bistro; I was interested to see how the Thai would fit in…

There was a small, fairly well-stocked bar (they did offer Grey Goose!) against the back wall and a wine list was presented that held a nice selection of both red and white wines.  The Grey Goose and white wine were both $7 and the portion sizes were generous.  BTW, once I got a look at the menu, the Thai portion of the restaurant’s name was quite obvious... and fit like a glove.  Appetizers included Satay, Thai Egg Rolls, Vietnamese Spring Rolls and a Bistro Thai Sampler.  We selected the Shu Mai (Steamed dumplings filled with a blend of crabmeat and shrimp and served with a soy vinegar sauce).  There were seven little dumplings arranged nicely on a warmed triangular plate, garnished with shaved raw carrot and shaved red cabbage.  They were tender, extremely tasty and melted in my mouth!  The sauce was light and incredibly good.

A fresh cucumber salad was available, along with a simple house salad.  But the choices that got my attention were the ones with the pepper symbol next to them: Naem Sod, Larb Kai and Som Tum.  Two had peanuts and all had hot peppers as ingredients.  Although we did not order a salad, I do plan to return to try the Larb Kai - traditional Thai minced chicken salad with green onion, hot pepper, red onion, rice powder, cilantro and lime juice.

There were ten different noodle dishes – among them Pad Thai and Pad See Eiw – and four fried rice dishes.  Both noodle and rice dishes were customizable with your choice of chicken, beef, pork or tofu; shrimp, scallops, calamari or seafood combinations were available for a slight additional charge.  More than a dozen entrée items were available – about a third of them marked with the pepper symbol – and there were numerous curry dishes available as well, the Bistro Thai Curry (made with shrimp, mussels, scallops and calamari with eggplant, basil and bamboo shoots in a red curry) sounding the most interesting to me.

Needless to say, the choice for an entrée was a difficult one.  Lauren decided to get the Shrimp Delight (Shrimp, green beans, baby corn, mushrooms, bok choy, bamboo shoots and peapods in a light garlic sauce) and I decided to try the Super Duck (Sliced roast duck, peapods, bell peppers, pineapple, mushrooms and cashews in a brown sauce).  Lauren’s plate was filled with numerous large shrimp, bright green pea pods, beans and bok choy and other ingredients bathed in a light sauce.  Mine had an abundance of tender, sliced duck.  The green and red peppers were bright and crispy, cooked to perfection, and the pineapple added just the right hint of sweetness.  It was clear that our dinners were made to order; the sauces and other flavors were savory and separate, complimenting each other rather then blending to a solitary taste.

I have only good things to say about Bistro Thai.  And I will admit to having tried Thai food several times before… the results always having been less than satisfactory.  Here is a restaurant with all the markings of a place that will soon have patrons lining up out the door.  The plating and presentation are both very nice, the food is incredibly good – and from what I understand, dishes can be individually adjusted to arrive at the “heat” level desired by the diner – and the prices are quite reasonable.  The service is the only detail that needs a bit of adjustment.  We were there on a night where the number of diners that came in for dinner seemed to exceed the capabilities of the wait-staff present (there were only two).  Our server was a bit language-challenged and had some difficulty understanding our order.  However, I will not complain about the few “mistakes” she made.  She smiled and she tried.  More importantly, the owners were there and worked as hard as if they were themselves only servers.

Ralph Pancetta
reviews@ralphpancetta.com