DateBook Diner: Curry, eggplant dishes are tops at King & I Thai

Interior of King & I Thai Cusine. (Credit: (BILL NEIBERGALL/DES MOINES REGISTER))

Last time I reviewed King & I Thai Cuisine (in 2001), the food, while admirable, arrived on disposable plates and it took forever (or at least a drive west of the Interstate) to get there. The restaurant long ago moved to its current 22nd Street location. Gone are the disposable plates, and the kitchen now serves sushi in addition to its Thai offerings. Clearly, it was a high time for another look.

Ambiance: Color and cheer percolate in the handsomely decorated strip-mall spot, with comfy booth seating and woven-straw-backed chairs. On the downside, on one visit, the help chatted so loudly, both to each other and to customers, that it was hard not to be distracted from our own conversations.

Menu: It offers about 75 items, including appetizers, curries, soups, salads, rice/noodle dishes and sushi.

Best bites: We were especially impressed with the Green Curry here; the intense, full-flavored sweet-hot-nutty sauce brought tender chicken and dazzlingly fresh veggies, including a bonus of Asian eggplant.

Equally worth returning for was the Spicy Eggplant dish, with the meaty vegetable soaked in a heady, deeply flavored black bean sauce sparked with chile and basil.

The sushi story: The sushi here is more of a sideshow than a main event. There's no sitting at a sushi bar to watch masters perform their craft; rather, a chef simply comes out from the kitchen and prepares the sushi from a refrigerator case as needed. As such, the experience lacks the showmanship of, say, Miyabi 9. While servicable, the California Roll and the Yellowtail Nigiri lacked sparkle and verve.

Other bites: A special one night, slow-roasted tender lamb, in a yellow curry sauce with potatoes, vegetables and pineapple, sounded promising. Yet while the sauce was as complex and intriguing as I'd hoped for, the cubed lamb itself arrived dry and less than tender.

One might wonder why I ordered Mongolian Beef - a standard Chinese dish - at a Thai restaurant, but in my experience, Thai and Laotian kitchens can do wonderful things with this classic. Alas, I wasn't so lucky this time. The beef itself was tender and tasty, but the shiny, soupy and overabundant sauce lacked the deep, spicy-sweet intensity of the best versions.

Bottom line: An uneven experience, as a disappointing second foray followed a promising first trip.

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