Friday Night Dinner

New Thai joint: Manola.

Service: slow slow slow. The waiter offered me a free dessert of coconut ice cream. I politely declined.

Springrolls--bland. Cabbage & bean-thread noodles. Not much else. Served with an over-sweet plum sauce and a peanut sauce that lacked depth. Peanuts, yes, coconut milk, yes, but I was unable to detect the richness that comes from roasted chiles, fish sauce and tamarind, among other things.

Grapefruit Salad--Really a chicken/cabbage salad with sections of not grapefruit, but mandarin orange. Tasty, but not particularly Thai-tasting. It's as if they've made a conscious effort to omit all the "funky" ingredients that separate Thai food from other Asian cuisines and pseudo-cuisines. I believe Manola has invented a particularly pretty but bland brand of pseudo-Thai, eschewing such things as fish sauce, chiles, and so forth.

Grade: C

I'll go back. The restaurant had only been open for 3 days. I was disappointed, but full.