RESTAURANT REVIEW:Find a bit of everything at the Thai Tasty Corner

Kultida Woods probably didn’t realize it at the time, but she was doing me a huge favor in teaching me two phrases to say in her native Thai.

The mother of the world’s most famous golfer was holding court one day in the media center at the tournament her son, Tiger, hosts every December in Thousand Oaks.

She taught me how to say hello and thank you in Thai, and it was invaluable when I went there for vacation.

The masculine for hello is Sa-wat-dee krup, sa-wat-dee ka is the feminine, and kop-koon-krup is thank you.

So when I went to what I thought was a Thai restaurant by my house, I said sa-wat-dee krup and the hostess looked at me like I was from Mars.

At first I thought I had mispronounced the greeting, but then I realized when I looked at the menu that while there were some Thai dishes on the menu, it was primarily Chinese food.

That is the danger when you run into small Thai restaurants. There might be a glut of Chinese restaurants in the area, so a place bills itself as Thai and then goes back to what it knows, throwing a few cursory Thai dishes on the menu and usually cooking them poorly.

I thought I had stumbled across such a place when I entered the Thai Tasty Corner.

I said hello in Thai, and they knew the word and answered back in Thai, but when I saw the menu I saw several Chinese dishes.

They don’t need to be there. The Thai dishes I had were very good and authentic, and the other entrees just cluttered up the menu.

If you go into this restaurant for nothing else, order the crispy squid. The bite-sized chunks of filleted squid are ever-so-lightly deep-fried. It comes with a sweet and sour sauce, but the squid is good enough to eat without it.

The appetizer menu is a mishmash of cultures.

There are Chinese egg rolls, Japanese shrimp tempura and the culturally ambiguous beef or pork jerky.

The soups are equally confusing. There are the Thai-specific tom yum kai and tom yum koong but also a wonton soup and tofu soup.

For the entrees, I selected the prig khing, which is a choice of chicken, pork, beef or shrimp sautéed with green beans and a brown curry sauce. I love curry and wished it was stronger in this dish, but I like to be overpowered by the curry I eat.

The chicken pad Thai was good and flavorful, with ample amounts of chicken, egg, peanuts and bean sprouts.

I could ignore the Chinese items on the menu and there is more than enough Thai dishes to choose from. But know when you go here that, much like Tiger Woods, this place is a mix of Thai and other cultures.

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JOHN REGER is the Pilot’s restaurant critic. His reviews run Thursdays.

Thai Tasty Corner

Address: 562 19th St., Costa Mesa

Phone: (949) 722-7437

Cuisine: Asian

Specialty dish: Any of the pompano fish dishes

Alcohol served: No

Dress: Casual

Family friendly: Yes, if children like Oriental food

Credit cards accepted: MasterCard, Visa

Rating: ** 1/2