Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Junsuree Thai

You may recall that I recently found a great Thai place. Well, Fort Worth has another great Thai place (that makes three when you add in Thai Tina). Junsuree was recommended by many of you folks through emails, comments, threatening bricks thrown through the official HITW hideout, etc. But finally, some "locals" who are somehow related to Sarah Palin (I believe they are Bristol's kids), peer pressured me into going.

[Please reserve all comments regarding Sarah Palin or politics for a blog that cares about that sort of discussion]

Junsuree is on Magnolia and has been there for awhile. It sits at the corner of Henderson and Magnolia with a very unassuming front entrance. The building appears to be old, but the inside resembles a 1980's esque small town community center, complete with a bandstand. There is black and white tile on the floor, red trim on the columns and walls, lanterns carefully hung from the ceiling and pictures on the wall that evoke a sense of Thai-ity. So maybe a small town Thai community center.

At lunch you will find a special for under $8 which includes soup, two small egg rolls, a lunch entree and dessert. That means lunch is only $10 with a water and tip.

On both of my trips I took advantage of the lunch special. The first time I tried the massaman curry and the second time I went with the pad thai. The massaman curry comes with carrots, potatoes, peanuts, and chicken in the curry sauce with a large serving of rice to mix in. The flavor was terrific and because it wasn't covered by an intense spice the flavor was easy to enjoy. My second meal involved the pad thai. It was also delicious but with a bit more spice. It would have been nice with a little cilantro, but the flavor was very full and appeasing.

One of the "Palins" had pineapple shrimp fried rice which involves half of a pineapple being emptied out and then filled with shrimp fried rice and pineapple. It makes an excellent presentation. I didn't get to try it but it looked really delicious.

Before the main course comes out, you're treated to a bowl of coconut soup which includes mushrooms, cabbage and carrots. It's very good but I don't like mushrooms so I can't fully condone the soup. It would be fair to say that it insists upon itself. Ponder that for awhile. The egg rolls, however, are terrific. They give you a lilliputian sized serving of sauce to dip the eggrolls into, but it always ends up being enough. I don't know if they have a larger eggroll serving, but it would probably be worth ordering if they do.

The Palins recommend the green curry over almost everything else, even though they didn't order it when I ate there with them. Suspicious you say? You are correct - they are suspicious folk.

Along with the meal you get a dessert. "Oh Boy! I love sopapillas" you say. Well, stop being an idiot. Sopapillas are italian. Here you get tapioca in a coconut milk. Using the power of the internet, I learned that tapioca is Thai for shrimp eyeballs. The shrimp eyeballs are served in a small cup of the sugary coconut milk and taste nothing like shrimp eyeballs. In fact, they taste like little green gelatin balls might taste. Delicious.

All in all, this should be a go-to place for anybody nearby. The wait staff takes good care of the customers and the food is made with care.

Let me know what you've had and whether you like tapioca.

Junsuree Thai House is located at 1109 West Magnolia.

Junsuree gets a 3 Hole rating because it's got some legitimacy with the unassuming location, but it doesn't feel scary on the inside and the staff is very friendly.

Junsuree Thai on Urbanspoon

12 comments:

bourgon said...

Couple other suggestions to "Thai one on"....
Sweet Basil (possibly the best in town). Behind Northeast Mall.

Thai Tina. Downtown, and while the food is good the service has been (to put it kindly) spotty. Spent over an hour and a half last week waiting for food at lunchtime.



I used to go to Junsuree, back when they had a buffet. Sweet Basil is better.

Anonymous said...

I refuse to eat at Thai Tina's again. Out of the first 4 times I went there they screwed up my order 3 times. One time they gave me the wrong meat on my meal and blamed it on me. The next time they brought the wrong dish completely and blamed it on me. The last time we were in a large group and they completely forgot to cook my order. They then tried to play it off, saying its almost done. Once everyone else had finished their food and I still hadn't gotten mine I canceled the order. They tried to charge me for that meal and I just walked out. I don't know anyone else who has had as bad of an experience there as I have, but I despise the place. Junsuree is my Thai spot.

Anonymous said...

Did you run out of holes in the wall or is this blog a quarterly now?

RJG said...

I'm with Michael - Sweet Basil is waaaay better. The last time we went to Junsaree, and it was the 3rd time too many, they insisted that rice should indeed be MUSHY! (this, after we complained of course)

We encourage everyone to actually avoid this place. Much better to go to Sweet Basil (Hurst), Bangkok Cuisine (Haltom City) or Sea Siam (Keller).

Sorry FWHITW... I'm being rude here, and it's not aimed at you (in the slightest - we're big fans of your blog). But Junsaree Thai went out of their way to upset us.

- RJG

Anonymous said...

is junsuree byob? it says so on the web site but I hadn't heard it before so was wondering if this is a new development...

Anonymous said...

Why dont you make this blog a co-op? You obviously don't have enough time to keep it going...let others help you out. You reached your potential about this time last year, you can keep your baby going and actually make it a popular site instead of nothing more than a middle aged mans personal journal.

Heather Lynn said...

We will be trying this place tomorrow for the first time. Good review.

They have wheat gluten there! Which only vegetarians will be thrilled about haha

FortWorthHoleInTheWall said...

Anonymous 3, lets be fair - the potential was reached day 1, and the blog has been in a steady decline since then.

Pia said...

Tu Hai is a great little hole in the wall on Belknap (next door to Ace). They have been there for over 15 years that I know of. The spring rolls are addicting. Cash only.

Jessica Hanchey said...

Nothing special. Got the lunch special. The veggie spring rolls were okay, kinda mushy on the inside, and the lack of meat doesn't impress me. The Tom Kha soup was pretty bland, especially for Thai food. Again, I'm a meat fan, so veggie soup isn't my thing. The Pad Kee-Mow wasn't very spicy, the chicken was sliced super thin ( to the point of me wondering if it was actually chicken ), and there were only a few slivers of bell peppers and onions. The noodles were pad-thai style flat noodles, and broken up into small pieces - I guess they make a batch then add them to whatever random dishes customers order? Anyways, not impressed, might give it one more shot, but not any time soon... I went at 1 pm, there were 2 other tables of 1-2 customers in the entire restaurant.

Anonymous said...

Thai Belknap on Beach and Belknap is even better. I get the Pad Kee Mao and Spicy Basil Fried Rice with pineapple. Junsuree is actually very sub-par.

FortWorthHoleInTheWall said...

I've been meaning to check it out for awhile. Next time I'm over there, I'll give it a shot. Any recommendations on something to try there?