Uneasy Rhetoric

Downtown Déjeuner:

Amarin Thai Restaurant **

900 12th St. Based on two visits.

Approx. $7-9 with tip.

Thai restaurants dot the landscape in the Pacific Northwest like thousands of medium order of magnitude stars. There are only slightly fewer in Sacramento.

Amarin has a large dining room, adequate wait staff, and a very fast turn over, making it a perfect location for a fast, sit-down lunch. I suspect they will do take-out but I hadn’t noticed anyone getting any during my two visits.

Unfortunately, Amarin’s food is average. During my first visit I had the Praram (spinach in peanut sauce) with beef. The serving was small and mostly sauce and I think I counted a total of two spinach leaves in my dish. A generous serving of rice helped me to sop up all of the peanut sauce. During my second visit I ordered broccoli beef in oyster sauce, which was even more disappointing. The meat was tender and the broccoli wasn’t overcooked, but the sauce was so light and runny that I found myself mixing the egg roll dipping sauce in with the oyster sauce and my rice just to give it a little extra flavor.

Fast service is Amarin’s saving grace, except that, during my first visit, I never got my soup. This was a shame because during my second visit I was served a pungent, earthy, mushroom and vegetable soup that was superior to most Thai soups I’ve tried.

Two stars for average food but fast service.