New Thai restaurant serves great food at reasonable prices

I love going to new restaurants because you never really know what to expect. Because of this, I found myself at Esan Thai, a new Thai restaurant next to Shanti on Lincoln Street. \nWhen I walked inside Esan Thai, my first thought was that the owners try to make the best out of a very small space. Because of the lack of space, you are practically sitting on top of the people next to you. This really does not bother me; however, Esan is not the place to go if you want to have a quiet conversation or a cozy dinner. The close quarters give the room a nice cafe feeling.\nThe ambiance of the room is further enhanced by Thai-themed art and music. This gives the restaurant an authentic feel. In all honesty, the only thing I do not like about this restaurant is the chairs. Because they had an orange back, they just did not fit the decor of the room.\nI cannot say enough good things about the service. For a new restaurant, everything seemed surprisingly organized. For instance, instead of having to ask for more tea, the waitress was already at your table with a pot of tea in hand. \nSpeaking of tea, I highly recommend trying a cup of their green tea. Made with a little rice to add a deeper smoky flavor, the green tea ($1.50) really hit the spot on a cold, wet day.\nTo begin our meal, my companion and I split an order of chicken satay ($5.50). I partially buy into an old adage that you can judge the quality of a Thai restaurant by the quality of its satay. In this case, this old saying holds true: both Esan Thai and its chicken satay are wonderful.\nIn case you are not familiar with satay, it is skewered meat -- usually chicken or pork -- grilled slowly in an array of spices. In this case, the chicken seemed to be spiced with yellow curry, a very mild curry, which added slightly to the smoky taste of the chicken. Overall, the chicken itself was delicious. It had a nice texture and it came right off the skewer.\nSatay is usually served with peanut sauce. Traditionally, peanuts are roasted and blended with a little coconut milk to make this incredible sauce. Esan's sauce was delicate, allowing the natural tastes of peanuts to stand out. Perhaps the best thing about the sauce was that it complemented the chicken nicely, allowing the taste of the chicken to come through while still adding additional dimensions. \nIn addition to this, Esan served the chicken satay with light vinegar sauce, with cut cucumbers and red onion floating in it. While this sauce is in no way as good as the traditional peanut sauce, it also complemented the chicken well and served as a nice alternative for anybody who is not a fan of peanuts. \nFor dinner, my companion opted for Pad Thai ($7.95) while I chose a large order of Yum Nua ($8.95). One of the good things about Esan Thai is that the spiciness of every dish can be customized, so even if you are afraid of chili peppers and lemongrass, you can still enjoy some wonderful Thai food. \nPad Thai is made with partially boiled, thin rice noodles stir-fried in soy sauce. Good Pad Thai should always look somewhat dry, which indicates that it absorbed all the sauce and thus was cooked for the proper amount of time. Luckily, the chefs at Esan seemed to master this art -- the Pad Thai was cooked to perfection. The rice noodles were tender. As for the seasoning, the Pad Thai was filled with the pleasant tastes of tamarind and other traditional Thai spices and then garnished with ground peanuts.\nYum Nua is thin slices of grilled beef tossed with onions, shallots, cilantro, tomatoes, chilis, and lime juice in a light brown sauce. What surprised me about this dish was the amount of cilantro. It was as if somebody had mowed through an herb garden and placed all the cuttings in this dish. In my opinion, this was wonderful; however, if you don't like cilantro, stay away from this dish.\nThe quality of the meat was good. Because of the strong tastes of shallots and lime, the meat really provided texture more so than flavor.\nThe sauce itself was amazing. The lime juice provided a nice acidic base that was paired nicely with the onions and shallots. The dried chili peppers added a nice kick that did not overpower the food and further added depth to the sauce.\nThe non-noodle dishes were served with sticky rice. In this case, the rice itself was well-cooked, clumping together so it was easy to eat with the skinny Thai chopsticks. However, the most impressive thing about the rice was not the type or the flavor, but how it was presented. The rice was served in an elegant hanging steamer basket. It made something simple like rice seem truly regal.\nEsan Thai is without a doubt some of the best Thai food I have had. In addition, it is important to note that Thai food is usually much more expensive than this. Esan Thai serves up great food at a reasonable price, and I highly recommend trying some.