Mali Thai Cafe — Restaurant in Woodland

I’d driven all the way up to Woodland to do one of those semi clandestine Craigslist meetings where two ugly old guys in big pickup trucks meet in some remote town parking lot and do a quick exchange for some piece of arcane equipment. And then, there you are, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do. I mean, it’s Woodland, not exactly near the the center of the known universe. So I think to myself, self, let’s look for good soup and that leads me to Mali Thai! The place ain’t gonna win no ambiance awards. It’s clean but boring, kinda stark. Don’t feel a lot of warmth in the atmosphere. Not the kind of place I’d want to take a date… although at my age and with my ugly mug, that ain’t exactly likely. But the proof of the puddin is in the eatin, so they say. The wonton’s are perfect. Delicate and crunchy! Things are off to a better than expected start! The Tom Ka arrives in one of those steel hot pots with a little fire going underneath so the the soup is still simmering slightly, a great touch! Galangal, chunks of lemongrass, kafir lime leaf, sour coconut, all the right notes. Honestly, it tasted better than it looked. It looked kind of pale, like a ghost of of Tom yum, but it was great! Hot and tangy, little bursts of brightness from the cherry tomatoes, overall an absolute success. The service was welcoming and personal, price was within reason. They need to take down their grand opening sign. I gather they have changed management and maybe still searching for a new identity, but the food I had was excellent and I will definitely put them at the top of the list for future adventures...

I'm baffled by some of the reviews left. I'm leaving this review a few weeks after dining here. We live 30 minutes away, because living in the sticks everything is 30 minutes away, but based on the positive reviews we came out. The pot stickers were pretty standard, hard to mess those up and the chili sauce it came with was pretty good. I had pho and my wife had Pad Thai. The pho was a very clear broth (looked like water, not even as dark as chicken broth) with some table pepper sprinkled on top. I love pho, but this was one of the saddest bowls I've seen. The steak was thicker and tougher than most pho places and the meatballs were kind of rubbery. The broth really didn't have much flavor at all and it looked nothing like the image in the review photos. I had to add lots of chili, lime, jalapeño just to give it some flavor. My wife's pad Thai had a strong orange color to it and and the flavor was off. It tasted like some kind of store brand generic pad thai sauce was used and coated over everything. She ended up not finishing it and we took the leftovers because we felt bad how little she ate. Maybe we caught them on a bad night, but we won't be coming back. I don't like leaving bad reviews, and I'm trying to be considerate of this place being the only Asian offering in a rural town, but the meal was a...

We really wanted to like this restaurant....new management and so many positive recent reviews. Unfortunately, we were so disappointed. This might be the worst Thai food we've had in many, many years. Salad rolls with shrimp were 95% lettuce, a tiny bit of carrot and shrimp. No basil, cilantro, mint, cucumber, spring onions. Peanut sauce was watery and flavorless. Thai Bite. Four tiny packets of filling that, again, lacked flavor. Tiny bit of good sauce. Yam Near. Literally, so salty, it was inedible. Had this not been take out, we would have sent it back. Som Tum Thai. Papay salad, a classic. Swimming in fish sauce. Hard to eat. Pad Thai with Chicken. Another classic. Essentially, a hot dish of noodles with little flavor and bits of chicken.

Again, we had hoped this would be a new go to restaurant, as we love Thai food and also want to support local business. So...