Lanna Thai - San Jose

I worked pretty close to this restaurant. It just never occured to me to eat there until a few days ago when we had to entertain a guest out of town.

It was early in the evening around 6 something. There were surprisingly quite a few tables occupied. The decor was pretty simple with some Thai style fabric wall decor. We were brought ice water as soon as we sat down. It took us a while to figure out what to order. We finally decided on Lanna Thai appetizer sampler,   lamb panang curry, eggplant stir fry, and chicken laab.

The appetizer sampler was a good choice to try with a group of people since it featured most of their appetizer. The sampler was served on a long platter with the dipping sauces/condiment on a separate three compartment tray. The dipping sauces was some sweet salty sauce with black sesame seeds; peanut sauce; and pickled cubed cucumber. The samplers consisted of chicken satay, fish cake (tod mun), crispy roll (egg roll), asian ivory (mini egg roll), golden bag, corn fritter and deep fried tofu. Nothing really stood out as excellent even though we were hungry.

The lamb in the curry was thinly sliced and seemed like it was thrown in after the curry was cooked so it didn't absorb most the flavor. The panang curry sauce itself was thick and fragrant. I think it would have been better cooked with chicken.

The chicken laab was minced white chicken meat served on top of greens. It's chicken salad with sliced red onions, cilantro and sweet and tangy dressing. We asked for it to be hot so it was pretty satisfying.

The stir fry eggplant came in a big gourmet deep dish that made the whole dish seemed tiny. I was surprised to see that there wasn't too many pieces of eggplant. Yes, it's stir fry with prawn but eggplant wasn't that expensive. They could have thrown in a few more pieces. I don't think they even used one eggplant at all.

It was a decent dinner. But I don't think we'll be going back for a long time. I don't think the restaurant gave good value for the money. And their dishes didn't really stand out as outstanding either.


Lanna Thai
2043 Camden Ave, San Jose, CA 95124  (408) 626-7718
http://www.lannathaisanjose.com/cuisine.html