Erawan Cafe: Old Standard, New Look

We recently returned to the Erawan Cafe, a self-billed home-style Thai and Chinese restaurant, for the first time in years even though we can walk to it. It's not that our first experience was bad, that we didn't like the food, or even that it was too expensive. In fact, when we went three years ago, we had a great meal that was both tasty and reasonably priced. I think the only problem was that there are just too many places to try!

The Cafe recently underwent a renovation that gave us a good excuse to go back and check it out. We walked down to the restaurant on Saturday night and it turned out that we were the restaurant's only patrons while we dined. (This seems to be an oddly common theme for us, though it's not like we eat at 4 AM or anything like that.)

We sat down and checked out the new look. The restaurant now has a very clean, cute look. The ceiling gives the optical illusion that you are sitting in a sea-side hut with a dark night sky overhead. The white lotus flower lights suspended from the center of the ceiling add a nice touch. We liked the renovations.

Looking over the menu, it appeared as we remembered it. We quickly decided to start with an order of crab-cheese wontons and a small bowl of hot-and-sour soup. I remembered that there was something particular to the soup that I had liked the last visit.

For dinner, I tried a spicy chicken and vegetables dish (Kra-pao-gai, I think) while Jeanette tried Fish Panang. We both asked for the dishes to be hot. One thing I like about Erawan is that you can choose to have the dishes as spicy or mild as you like, in most cases.

The crab wontons arrived quickly and we had more than enough to share. The chef, who is probably the owner, fries the wontons well, something I prefer. The wontons taste like crab and like the creamy, light cheese that is mixed with the crab. The wontons come served with a small bowl that is a combination of a sweet (duck?) sauce and spicy mustard. The sauce doesn't last long with us.

Soon after the wontons, our waitress served our 'small' bowl of hot-and-sour soup. The bowl was big enough for us to share and we both immediately remembered what we liked about the soup. It's spicy and it has a similar consistency to similar soups, but in this variety, you can actually taste fresh vegetables. The Erawan Cafe is possibly the only place I've ever been where you could say that about hot-and-sour Chinese-style soup.

Dinner was served. Jeanette's dish was served as a plate of rice with a bowl of fish stewing in a spicy coconut-milk sauce on the side. I had a single plate with the melange of chicken and vegetables and a healthy amount of rice. Both dishes were just spicy enough to make us sweat, even in the AC. The sweetness of the coconut milk in the Fish Panang went well with the added spice. The chicken had a good, well cooked texture that went well with the sauteed peppers and other veggies that accompanied it. We enjoyed both dishes.

In the end, we had enough leftover to take home and no room for dessert. The waitress and chef both seemed a little concerned that perhaps the food was too spicy, but we assured them that it was not and that we were simply full!

The total bill was around $31 plus tip. That's not bad for a Saturday night meal for two in Denver.

We'll certainly be returning to the Erawan Cafe. Not only is it in easy reach, but there are a range of Thai curries and traditional Chinese dishes on the menu that beg tasting!