Thai Tamarind Review – Large Portions and Some Twists

Published by Angie. Last Updated on August 12, 2020.

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Thai Tamarind is a cute and cozy little Thai restaurant in Bellevue offering classic Thai noodle dishes and curries, plus a few signature dishes that are unique and equally delicious. 

Although we haven't dined in at Thai Tamarind, the space is quite adorable and feels like you're in someone's home – it would be a great date night spot. We recently ordered takeout, though, and judging from the number of people picking up orders, the restaurant seems equally popular for takeout.

Classic Thai With Some Unique Twists

Takeaway spread from Thai Tamarind

The menu here features pretty much any classic Thai dish you could ever want: appetizers like chicken satay and summer rolls, tom yum soup, papaya salad, Thai fried rice, pad Thai, and all manner of curries.

But delve a little deeper into the extensive menu and you'll find a few intriguing things like the Thai Tamarind noodles (pad Thai topped with a special peanut sauce). Other unique dishes include duck curry with lychee and pineapple, mango curry, hurricane scallops, duck tamarind, lobster pad Thai, and even tempura soft shell crab. If you're hungry just reading this list, you're not alone.

Wings at Thai Tamarind in Bellevue, PA

We ordered mostly typical dishes with a special one thrown in, the mango curry. For appetizers we tried the Thai spring rolls filled with glass noodles, carrots, and mushrooms. The rolls were of the cute and tiny variety, and they were fried to crisp perfection. We also tried the wings and although they had a good sweet Thai chili sauce smothering them, they were a bit chewy.

Pad Kee Mao

For our noodle fix we ordered the pad kee mao with chicken which was wide rice noodles stir fried with basil, bamboo, bell pepper, and chili paste. We ordered it a 3 out of 5 on the spice scale and thought we could have done at least a 4 to really get a good kick. The flavors in this dish were pretty straightforward and simple, but we liked the huge portion size and the decent amount of veggies mixed in.

Mango red curry with seafood

Our favorite dish was the mango curry which we ordered with mixed seafood.

This dish had a red curry base with hunks of sweet mango, veggies, shrimp, squid, scallops, and mussels. We chose a 4 out of 5 on the spice level, and this was perfect for our spice-loving palates. Although we would have loved even more seafood, the flavors in this dish were phenomenal. I was worried it would be too sweet with the mango but the heat of the curry paste balanced the sweetness well. It didn't seem very heavy on the coconut milk either, which also helped keep the sweetness in check.

We would gladly return to Thai Tamarind, especially to order more of their extensive house specialties since this seems to be where they excel.

Thai Tamarind is located at 172 Lincoln Avenue in Bellevue.

For more restaurants with cuisine from southeast Asia, check out Noodlehead, Kiin Lao, Royal Myanmar, or Ineffable Ca Phe.

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