Thai Room vs. Sticky Rice

Before Sticky Rice opened, my wife and I got frequent delivery from Thai Room, located just 2 doors north on Western Ave. I always thought it was decent, but couldn't hold a candle to Sticky Rice in terms of price, quality, or variety. For old times' sake, we decided to give it another try a couple of nights ago.

We ordered a Larb salad, Eggplant Kha-pow, and Pad See Ew with tofu.

At Sticky Rice, the larb always has fresh and zippy thai basil, whereas this latest Thai Room version had no basil, only very minute helpings of cilantro. I like cilantro, but it was barely discernable in this dish.

Sticky Rice's Eggplant kha-pow is great because the eggplant is cooked long enough to absorb the delicious ginger, soy, basil and other flavors from the sauce. Thai Room's eggplant was crunchy, and tasted like it had been added last minute as a greasy afterthought, possibly precooked so it absorbed nothing but oil. Quite a disappointment.

The Pad See Ew at Sticky Rice is rich, deeply flavored, and complex. The bitter bite and mild crunch of chinese broccoli adds a nice counterpoint to the rich flavor and smooth texture of the noodles, and I find it to be a near perfect balance of flavors. The Thai Room version last week was, well, yucky. It was overly sweet, so that almost no flavor other than sugar came through. I couldn't discern any egg, which is what I think gives Sticky Rice's version it's delicious richness. Though chinese broccoli is advertised on the Thai Room menu, this version came with the standard American florets - not even close to the same zip.

The items we ordered at Thai Room are all available at Sticky Rice for 1-2 dollars less. This is a combination that bodes poorly for the old neighbor to the north. One positive thing I will say is that the order and delivery process at Thai Room is friendly and efficient. That's also quite true at Sticky Rice.

Kenny

Thai Room
4022 N. Western Ave.
773-539-6150

Sticky Rice
4018 N. Western Ave.
773-588-0120

Thirteen-year bump alert!

We tried Sticky Rice many years ago, shortly after this topic was created. We weren't impressed, and haven't been back.

Our go-to Thai restaurant for all these years had been Thai Sookdee in Evanston, until they closed in late 2016. Since then, we've been sitting shiva for their tom kha gai, an absolutely superb rendition of the popular Thai soup, the best we've ever had. We've been meaning to try Thai Room, since it is reportedly own and run by the same family as Thai Sookdee. It took a while, since it's not terribly convenient to us, but tonight, we finally got around to it. And we're SOOOO glad we did! Their tom kha gai was just like the version at Thai Sookdee - the perfect balance of moist chicken, hot spice, slightly sweet coconut flavor, mushrooms, lemongrass, and galanga root. Just like at Thai Sookdee, we didn't specify a level of hot/spicy and they nailed it. Awesome! The chicken satay and shrimp pad thai were very good, and the thai iced tea was excellent. At Thai Sookdee, the panang chicken wasn't consistently the same, and it's quite possible the same is true at Thai Room; tonight's was strong on flavorings from basil, curry, and hot peppers, not so much on coconut, and the sauce was a bit on the thin side - acceptable, but not as good as Thai Sookdee's on a good night. All in all, we were quite happy with our meal, went home with a bunch of tom kha gai to put in our freezer, and look forward to returning to Thai Room again.

Oh, and what would an LTH post be without photos?

Exterior

Thai iced tea and jasmine tea

Chicken satay

Oh, that tom kha gai!!!

Shrimp pad thai

Panang chicken