Midtown Lunch

Fairly recently, Bangkok Thai 9 replaced Thai Chef and Noodle Fusion on Chestnut Street. I had always liked dinners at Chef and Noodle, but had never made it over for lunch. The Grand Opening awning brought me in for what seems to be the good old standard Thai 3 course lunch special, so common around Philly (see, Erawan, Sawatdee).

Upon entering I was happy to see the seascape murals remained. If your lunch conversation ever turns boring, you can stare at the walls and imagine yourself as a mermaid.

Their Thai Iced tea was perfect and the lunch special randomly takes off 50 cents off your drink order, so there is no excuse not to order one.

If you are doing the 3 courser, the wonton soup (2nd picture) is a far better option for the soup course than  the cucumber soup (1st picture), which was just a weak broth.  And the larb salad, ground chicken all limed up and spicy,  is probably a better choice over the  moon dumplings (2nd picture), which although tasty, only come with 2.

There are 3 prices for the 3 courser, if your entree is pork/beef/veggie/or tofu the whole shebang costs $8.95, for shrimp its $9.95 and seafood is $10.95.  The drunken noodles tasted exactly like the typical drunken noodles I have had before, perfectly adequate but nothing to write home about.  My shrimp curry entree had pluses and minuses; the shrimp I was served  were very fresh and the curry sauce tasted good, but it could have been thicker and the potatoes were a little undercooked.

Bangkok Thai 9 is not quite worth going out of your way for, but if you are hungry for  Thai food in the area, you should check out the lunch specials and pick your favorite 3 courses.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• Great wonton soup and shrimp curry
• $10 or less  for 3 courses

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• Weak cucumber soup
• Small portions of dumplings with the lunch special

Bangkok Thai 9, 2028 Chestnut St (@ 20th St), 215-613-1187