Sunday, August 26, 2007

Thai Temple

Restaurant: Not a Restaurant, but a Thai Temple, Wat Mongkolranataram
Location: Berkeley, CA
Open: Sun 9am-1pm
Date of Lunch: August 26, 2007
Cost of Dinner: $20, or a maximum of $7 per plate
Recommendation: Would Definitely Try Again, but be less gluttonous




Why haven't I heard about the Thai Temple before? Or better yet, why haven't I heard about the Sunday brunch at the Wat Mongkolranataram before? On Russell Avenue in Berkeley, a short walk from the Berkeley Ashby BART station, is a Thai Buddhist temple, the Wat Mongkolratanaram, that serves a Thai brunch every Sunday. But there is nothing that resembles breakfast at all in the menu. This is strictly good, home-made, hard-to-find-anywhere-else-outside-of-Thailand, Thai food.

The place works on a token system. First, you buy silver tokens at $1 each from the cashier. These are then used to purchased the food that is strictly self-serve. There is a line for the soup, a line for desserts, a line for vegetarian dishes, a line for meat dishes, and a slow extra-long line for khanom krok.

One of the first thoughts that came to mind was: I wonder if Anthony Bourdain has been here.

I know now that the next time I eat here again, I wouldn't be so excited that I would order everything I see in front of me, which is what I did. We practically had to roll ourselves out of there. So what did we order?
  • 3 orders of Pad Thai
  • 1 order of Panang Beef
  • 1 order of Yellow Curry Chicken
  • 5 orders of Spicy Chicken Drumsticks
  • 1 order of Fried Chicken
  • 2 orders of Pork with Egg and Tofu
  • 4 orders of Beef Noodle Soup
  • 8 orders of Khanom Krok
  • 4 orders of Mangoes with Sticky Rice and Coconut Custard
  • 1 order of Khanom Chun
  • 1 order of Med Khanun
  • 1 order of Thua Pap
  • 1 order of Foi Thong
But please understand that all of the above were shared by 8 people, so it really wasn't too gluttonous. And we took home a lot of the desserts.

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