Circles

When I walked up to Circles, I wondered why I was eating at a dumpy to-go joint. But surprise!, they have a pretty nice dining room just across the street. The food is still cooked at the original spot, and then covered with a plastic tray and carried across the street.

I was out with my friend Cambria, and we both ordered apps and entrees, which was more food than either of us could eat. The prices for all of that food were quite reasonable. Her app, the summer rolls, had a light and crispy skin and was much higher quality than normal spring rolls I've had elsewhere. I ordered the corn and tofu fritters with lump crab dipping sauce, and these were awesome. It sounds like a weird app, but the somewhat bland fritters provide the perfect accompaniment to the crab sauce.

The place is veg friendly, but neither of us explored these options for dinner. All of the choices are available in four spice levels; medium, mild, hot, and Thai hot. I went with hot, and it was manageable and good (which means I wasn't sweating). Maybe next time I'll bump it to the top level.

For my main, I opted for the Chicken Pumpkin curry, and it was awesome. Just the right blend of spices, the pumpkin flavor was subtle, and the dish was enough food for two days. Cambria ordered a simple pad thai and really enjoyed that choice as well.

Even though the dining room is quite new, it doesn't have too much atmosphere. The service was okay during dinner. Nothing much going on in either of these departments.

Bottom Line: It's a bit far for me to be a regular, but the food here is good. Circles is a solid BYO, Thai place and has great prices.

It's at 15th and Tasker.

Tamarind

I can't recall the last time I had Thai food. And I love a good Thai meal. And good BYO, and a decently priced restaurant. Enter Tamarind.

Quinn lives around the corner for this spot and had never tried it out. It was a perfect spot for us to hit before catching a movie. Before dinner, I did some research and found that a riesling is probably the best wine pairing for Asian food. I picked one up that wasn't too fruity, yet had enough flavor to compliment the relatively big tastes served up by Tamarind.

We only had a short wait on a Friday night. Once inside, we were seated quickly and the impeccable service began immediately. Before we have even settled down at our table they took our bottle of win and brought it back in a wine chiller. The atmosphere is nothing special, but enjoyable enough. It's a good place to grab food, but you're not going to impress anyone here either.

The menu offers a lot of different choices, and I could be happy eating here a few times without repeating anything. We split appetizers of the chicken spring roll and steamed dumplings to start out. Both of these offered a lot of different flavors, and they were excellent renditions of standard dishes. Neither did anything new or exciting, they were just good. And I like that.

Shortly after we finished our first course, the mains showed up. The first was a Tamarind Spicy Noodle dish with pork. I liked this a lot; with the pork stir-fried with red pepper and large noodles. It was the heavier of the two dishes we ordered. It was good, but the real star of the meal was Pad Wonsoon. it's a rendition of a standard Pad Thai dish, with chicken and shrimp. Overall, it's very tasty, with the dish complimented by glass noodles.

Bottom Line: Tamarind is not breaking new ground, but they understand their food and craft well. There's so much to like about Tamarind. It's not going to change your life, but they provide great Thai dishes at reasonable prices and a BYOB to boot.

Essentials:

117 South St (at Front)

215-925-2764

Hours: Daily for dinner, lunch also on Fri, Sat, Sun

Avg Ent:10-15

Cash Only: No

Reservations: Accepted

BYOB: Yes