Oakland Oddessy: Banana Blossom

While San Francisco is full of amazing eateries, we kept going back to Oakland every night so a lot of our dinners took place there. The best may very well have been at Banana Blossom, a cute Thai restaurant with impeccable service and gorgeous presentation in all their dishes. We showed up right around closing time but it was impossible to tell, the place was still fully operational and we where treated as valued guests even though we might be forcing them to stay a little bit latter than they would normally want to. I was thankful for their kindness, it had been a long day and we where exhausted, I would have hated to be turned away and be forced to go looking for another spot. My companion was well educated on their menu; it’s a few blocks from her apartment so she’s had a chance to try them before.

 

We started out with a special they had that night, some delicious Salmon rolls that seemed like a take on sushi with a nice Thai twist. The rolls where deep fried with a tart cream cheese dollop on top and garnished with shreds of toasted coconut. Still the delicate fish inside was remained raw and extremely palatable. And the fact that they serve 5 of these tasty plump maki doppelgangers gives you a chance to impress your date by charitably giving up the last one, which is not easy to do. I of course did not, greedily wolfing it down.

 

We shared 3 entrees. The spicy duck arrived in a little bit of lemongrass broth with large chunks of fresh vegetables, tomatoes and pineapple. This dish was the mildest and the duck was tender and juicy, apparently having benefited from both roasting and a stewing.

The “Kee Mao” noodles where plentiful and full of fresh squash, asparagus, mushrooms and tomatoes sown in between noodles. Unfortunately the noodles where just a little bit too spicy, which would have not been a problem had the “bed of lettuce” it comes on been more plentiful.

Lastly we ordered a chili fried rice, it was tasty and benefited from the same vegetable medley that the Kee Mao noodles did but when it comes to fresh spring produce there is no such thing as too much of a good thing. Having packed up the leftovers for a spicy and stimulating breakfast, we looked around one more time to take in the sights. Undeniably the place to go if you just spent 10 hours sight seeing and need to relax over a good drink and spicy food.

Connoisseur Javier deems this restaurant good enough to link: www.bananablossomthai.com