Bangkok Joe's, as you might imagine from the name, is a Thai restaurant. They are a little more than that, though, with a lot of Asian fusion menu items and a big dumpling bar. They have a long, narrow space in the northernmost building of the harbor's festival marketplace, and they've chosen to decorate it with a vibrant, contemporary Thai theme. All the way down the center of the dining room is a long, low dividing wall that serves as the banquette back to a series of two-top tables; a striking, long light fixture runs above the banquettes made up of art glass globes shaped like calla lillies.
We were seated in a comfortable raised booth along the window wall of the dining room. Our table was decorated with a large black vase filled with bright red chopsticks. Tall, thin, aluminum, abstract sculptures were on the end of the dividers between the booths, and I'm not sure if those were intended as coat hooks or they were merely decorative art.
Leo decided to do the R.W. dinner menu, and started off with a glass of Hugel Pinot Blanc, a pleasant, though very light, wine. For his first course, he chose the grilled scallops with Thai salsa and sweet potatoes, which was prettily arranged on what I'm beginning to think are ubiquitous long rectangular plates.
For his main course, he had the lemon grass crusted salmon with red curry sauce and a mound of black sticky rice garnished with fried wonton strips, presented artfully on a large square plate and garnished with long chives. Leo, who usually is quite critical of Asian restaurants, was quite impressed with the red curry sauce and enjoyed both his large piece of salmon and the sticky rice quite a bit. I tasted the sauce (it was good and not overly hot) and the rice and thought the rice had a nice nutty flavor and a tooth to it that reminded me of brown rice. Leo says the black color comes from spices.
I wasn't hungry enough for a three course meal, so I opted to have a simple entree salad, in this case the Yum Seafood Salad. I got a nice bowl of greens and vegetables with a spicy red pepper and lime dressing, topped with a very ample quantity of seafood, including warm scallops and squid, mussels, clams, and chilled boiled shrimp, all in a very pretty presentation. I thought all the seafood was nicely done, especially the squid, which is so very easy to overcook at less attentive restaurants.
Leo's dessert was a plate of "Sorbet 4-Ways," an interesting mix of tomato-basil, lemon-ginger, mango, and lychee sorbets, each of which were quite good and had a very intense fruit flavor. I tasted all of them and I was particularly intrigued by the tomato-basil sorbet.
We're planning to go back to Bangkok Joe's to try their other menu items, as well as to partake of their dumpling bar.
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