RESTAURANT REVIEW:

Leery is the feeling I get when I see a Thai restaurant that offers more Chinese dishes than Thai ones.

What usually happens is neither cuisine is very good as the restaurant is faking its way through Thai food and serving up marginal Chinese fare. The initial test on a restaurant’s Thai authenticity is when I walk in the door and await for an employee to greet me. When I walked into Thai Princess the waitress who seated us said hello, instead of the Thai equivalent Sawadee kah.

That didn’t quell my fears and when I opened the menu and saw many Chinese dishes I got very apprehensive.

My guest and I pushed on, however, looking for Thai dishes. We started with an appetizer. I wanted the fish cake, which is deep fried fish mixed with curry paste and served with cucumber salad, but was disappointed when the server told me they were out of it.

Other choices included chicken or pork satay or the increasingly popular angel wings, but I went unconventional and selected the nam koa tod.

This dish is minced, sour pork sausage that is mixed with green onion, ginger roasted peanuts, crispy rice, red onions, cilantro, mint and lime juice.

It is a strong mix of flavors and the lime juice is a little overpowering, but the cilantro and mint give it a nice balance. The dish, like most of the spicy dishes, comes in mild, medium or hot. Medium is good enough for me and the dish was plenty spicy.

My guest was swayed by the dinner special for her main entrée and despite my gentle prodding I could not talk her out of it. The dinner special is a deal at $6.95, but the selections for the entrée did nothing for me.

They were mostly Chinese dishes, kung pao chicken and chicken chow mein, though there was a beef panang. She chose the garlic chicken and it was decent, but the soup that came before the meal was an egg noodle and chicken that sans the bits of garlic you got near the bottom of the cup was bland.

Strangely the lunch special selections have more items to choose from, both Chinese and Thai. There are two curry dishes, a basil chicken, pad prik king chicken or pork and a mixed vegetables dish. All the dishes are $5.95 and, like the dinner special, come with soup, salad, fried wontons and steamed rice.

My dishes were more traditional Thai, and I ordered the pad Thai and panang curry.

The pad Thai was well done, slightly sweet and the noodles were cooked al dente.

I had the panang with chicken instead of pork and ordered it medium; like the appetizer, it had plenty of spiciness. The curry is one of seven and this one doesn’t have potatoes in it. The traditionalists of Thai curry are going to balk at this, but I love potato-less curry. I feel the spuds only encumber the dish.

I was quite happy with the panang. It had a decent amount of chicken, and red and green bell peppers in it. The taste of basil was evident and the sweetness of the coconut cream helped balance out the spice of the dish.

One of the areas of the menu I would like to explore on my next visit would be the specials. There are six of them, and the crispy chicken and larb were two that jumped out at me. I also would like to try the love boat. That is a combination of seafood with roasted chili and baby corn.

My fears of seeing Chinese items on the menu were definitely cast aside here. The menu runs about 70% Thai food and with such a plentiful selection, Chinese food could be avoided all together.

There are still better places to go for Thai food, such as Silk Thai, but this place shouldn’t be ignored either.

THAI PRINCESS

ADDRESS: 16338 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach

PHONE: (714) 841-7935

CUISINE: Thai

SPECIALTY DISH: Any of the six Princess specials

ALCOHOL SERVED: beer and wine

ENTRÉE PRICE RANGE: $6.95 to $17.95

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: Visa and MasterCard, minimum $15

RATING: ** 1/2 out of 4

JOHN REGER reviews restaurants for the Independent.