On our recent visit to Clement Street in San Francisco, we found out this restaurant. There was a huge banner outside said Thai & Burmese Lunch Buffet $9.99. Damn it! We just had our lunch. We so wanted to try it so we made time to go back there last weekend. Ever since Aroy-Dee on Saratoga Ave, San Jose closed down a couple of years ago we missed our Thai buffet. I don't know why there is no other Thai restaurant want to go that way. I guess it doesn't make as much money as selling it ala carte. But think about it, how much rice can a patron actually eat ? And a lot of Thai dishes have to be eaten with rice. While for dishes, just put more veggies to make the curry instead of meat.
Anyhow, so we got there around 12:30. The place looked new, I guess it was just opened. Supposedly there's another location down on Clement with the same name but that location only serves Burmese food. We were seated towards the back of the restaurant, almost next to the buffet line. Perfect ! I noticed the tom yum soup behind me so I went for that one first. The weather was extra cold that day so an idea of a cup of hot soup was just very appealing. While enjoying my soup, hubby went to the beginning of the line. The tom yum had nice flavor. Not too spicy but tasty even though it's mostly soup with a few pieces of tomatoes and some cilantro.
Hubby came back with a plate of tea salad, fried tofu, squash and onion fritters. The onion fritters were actually good, though a bit oily. Later on I took a few more freshly made ones and they tasted wonderful and sweet. Beside those, there were also tea salad, egg curry, beef curry and chicken curry on one side. On the other side were spicy eggplant, papaya salad and pad thai. The egg, beef and chicken curry were very mild. Not at all spicy and more Burmese than Thai influenced. The spicy eggplant was good though not spicy at all for us. Papaya salad was the highlight of our lunch. It was sweet, tangy and spicy enough. Though later on I realized it was spicy not from chillies but more from garlic. One thing missing though, there was no traced of dried shrimp on the papaya salad.
Pagan
Anyhow, so we got there around 12:30. The place looked new, I guess it was just opened. Supposedly there's another location down on Clement with the same name but that location only serves Burmese food. We were seated towards the back of the restaurant, almost next to the buffet line. Perfect ! I noticed the tom yum soup behind me so I went for that one first. The weather was extra cold that day so an idea of a cup of hot soup was just very appealing. While enjoying my soup, hubby went to the beginning of the line. The tom yum had nice flavor. Not too spicy but tasty even though it's mostly soup with a few pieces of tomatoes and some cilantro.
Hubby came back with a plate of tea salad, fried tofu, squash and onion fritters. The onion fritters were actually good, though a bit oily. Later on I took a few more freshly made ones and they tasted wonderful and sweet. Beside those, there were also tea salad, egg curry, beef curry and chicken curry on one side. On the other side were spicy eggplant, papaya salad and pad thai. The egg, beef and chicken curry were very mild. Not at all spicy and more Burmese than Thai influenced. The spicy eggplant was good though not spicy at all for us. Papaya salad was the highlight of our lunch. It was sweet, tangy and spicy enough. Though later on I realized it was spicy not from chillies but more from garlic. One thing missing though, there was no traced of dried shrimp on the papaya salad.
All in all it was a good lunch. Most of the food were mild and delicious. I think being originally Burmese restaurant, Pagan was more comfortable doing Burmese food than Thai. I guess most patrons enjoy the mild Thai food as well. We were quite satisfied even though we were expecting more authentic Thai food.
Pagan
3199 Clement St(at 33rd Ave) San Francisco, CA 94121(415) 751-2598
www.pagansf.com
www.pagansf.com
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