Imm Thai Cuisine

Chill place, good food and great desserts!!! I love their green tea cream brûlée..

Annandale and Fairfax have never been lacking in good Korean fair, though good Thai has often been hard to come by. Fans of good Thai, rejoice! In fact, fans of good, quality, and, dare I say it, gourmet food, rejoice--Imm Thai is here to answer your prayers.

I went to Imm Thai on a whim with my mother on a Tuesday night. Though slightly hard to find (the easiest way to get there is through the back door in the 236 Giant parking lot), the restaurant is truly a gem. Walking through the unassuming back door, we were met with a pristine, modern dining room, a few other guests (busy for a Tuesday, at least), a fully stocked bar, and minimalist black tables. We were seated promptly by an extremely friendly waitress, and so we perused the menu.

The menu is immense, though not overpowering. It's impenetrable in a way that makes you think, "everything seems so delicious, I need to order something new this time," and subsequently leaves you scratching your head or asking the server for advice. Eventually we settled on the duck rolls, chicken and noodles in green curry, and a classic pad thai with tofu. The duck rolls were delicious, served in a thick scallion pancake atop a bed of crispy vermicelli and a caramel-tamarind sauce (I think). Though the thick-cut pancake was a bit heavy, the duck was just right: not too fatty, yet still flavorful. My mother ordered the curry chicken, and while I only tasted the curry broth itself, I can say that broth was definitely the best I've had in Virginia, and comes close to what I expect is equally good fair in Philadelphia's finest Thai restaurants.

My pad thai was phenomenal. In NoVa, one has to be careful ordering pad thai, as certain restaurants will just slap down some orange-colored cellophane noodles, wholly lacking in flavor and texture. Imm Thai is NOT one of those restaurants. The noodles were coated in the sweet, sticky tamarind sauce, and subsequently covered in very finely chopped peanuts. The sauce itself was sweet, but not too sweet, and a delight to the tongue. Unfortunately for me, the portions were huge (and well-priced, as well), so while I failed to clean my plate, I did enjoy every minute. Perhaps one thing to work on, my last piece of tofu was a little dry compared to the rest. You may want to consider adding chicken or shrimp, rather than tofu (though all things considered the fried tofu was still fantastic, it just suffered from being left as I ate slowly).

For dessert we split the green tea creme brulee, which was honestly the best creme brulee I've ever eaten. I'm not a huge fan of custard, and I'll usually just skim the sugar crust off the top. This time I devoured it. The custard is mild and semi-sweet, just like the best matcha-flavor you can find, and the sugar crust came out warm, obviously burned to order. Though we didn't order alcoholic drinks (happy hour is only from 4-7), both of us got a Thai iced coffee. Though similar to its Vietnamese counterpart, I feel like the whole drink was sweeter, and the coffee of a slightly finer blend; this could also be my imagination.

Our waitress was wonderful, cheery, and always prompt whenever it seemed we needed something. Truly she capped the amazing experience. Head out to Imm Thai Cuisine soon. Sooner than soon. Like, literally, you should be there now, why aren't you?

I didn't go 5 stars only because there wasn't much creativity, all the dishes that I had were the basic standards.

That said, it was all tremendous. It is so nice to have a good option for Thai food a little further out in the suburbs. I ordered just salads and appetizer to have with my Singha beers. It was like being in Bangkok, where getting lots of variety street food to have with beer is common. The mussels were amazing and Tom Kha was also good. I made the mistake of ordering the Som Tam papaya salad as only medium spicy, but it was still great and the grilled shrimp were perfect.

I love Korean food, but sometimes it just seems so heavy. My dinner at Imm was perfect and I will be back.