Thai Boat Noodle — Restaurant in Sun Prairie

Was so excited that there was actually a genuine Thai restaurant in Sun Prairie! We’ve had it all here, but for whatever reason, Thai food has eluded this city. So, we tried the Thai Boat Noodle for lunch about a week after they opened.

Now, before discussing the food, we need to talk about the ambiance and service. They have a smaller than average menu (for a typical Thai place) and the style seemed to be floating somewhere between a sit-down-server restaurant and a quick-grab, street-food place. That’s okay. If the food is good, who cares?

So, how we rate the food. We try Thai places all over the country and rate each one based on two specific dishes: Pad See Ew and Squash (or red) Curry. We’re looking at flavor authenticity and portion value. Everything is based on 10-point scale. So, here we go:

Pad See Ew (chicken; little spice) @ $14.95. Flavor authenticity: It was fairly spot-on, with good ratios of broccolini, noodle and egg (7.5 of 10) Portion value: This portion was rather small for the cost. I’d consider this a $7-$10 lunch portion. Really needs to be 10-20% larger to charge $15. (6.5 of 10)

Squash Curry (chicken; little spice) @ $14.95. Flavor authenticity: The flavor was great, although it needed a pinch more salt. I thought the squash could have been cut smaller, but the red peppers and depth of flavor was fantastic! If I could recommend anything, I'd consider adding one other contrasting vegetable (like zucchini). But, all in all, flavor was so fantastic that we took the remaining home. (9 of 10) Portion value: In contrast to the Pad See Ew, this one was huge (hence the boat). (Easily a 10 of 10)

In short, Thai Boat Noodle is a great Thai place in Sun Prairie, and I'd certainly recommend it. I’m...

The food can be quite good — but it’s inconsistent in preparation, amount, and spice. I’ve gotten very wet drunken noodles that had great flavor with spice that knocked my socks off, and another time the same item in a to-go container was a paltry amount and I could barely feel it. Dipping sauce for rangoons that was a thin as water, and another time better. Barely warm rangoon, but with good flavor. Table service is almost non-existent after you do order, and food came out at an odd rate — appetizers after entrees, beverages took a long time. And the soda choices are a bit strange. I hope they iron out their kinks, bring back the full menu they had at launch (so many items missing now, various curries, only pork egg rolls instead also having vegetable or chicken, etc.), and have great success long term. This is a great addition to the area (and in fact the whole east side, as Thai is sorely lacking around here) but they do need to improve some things to stick around. I think they...

We went a couple days after their soft opening. I was excited to try this place out because it is so close to home. The waiters/waitresses doesn't listen well because they constantly ask our table what we ordered. They bring us food that we didn't order either. We waited about 20-25 minutes for our food and they didn't bring us the pho stuff, so I had to ask them to bring them out. Services was slow (as expected since they just opened), but overall service was bad. I could tell the young workers struggled and has no experiences, so maybe having someone with experiences could help with their service. Pho was salty, garlicky, and the noodles were still a bit hard and the broth went cold really quickly. The boat noodles was ok, the crab rangoons were really good though and the drunken noodles were very salty. Would I go back? I'll give them a few more months to work on service, but maybe I'll do take out for other...