Review from What's Up Annapolis Magazine :

Viet-Thai Paradise
2625 Riva Road, Suite A & B,
Annapolis 21401
(410) 266-8222
j.s. houck

Welcoming, warm, vibrant, and sunny best describe the atmosphere you'll enjoy when you step through the doors of Viet-Thai Paradise-an invigorating ambiance that allows you to forget you're in a cookie-cutter shopping complex. The bright yellow walls are complemented by floral arrangements, stylish lighting, and a centerpiece, faux-stone fountain that murmurs gentle aquatic distraction. The layout of the tables and booths is diner friendly, offering casual comfort amid elegance. Once seated by the staff, you'll have a moment for pause to soak in this inviting establishment before diving into a robust menu that features lunch specials in addition to its atypical dinner selections.

Viet-Thai Paradise is the area's best new ethnic offering, not only in style but also in taste, presenting East Asian specialties that sit quite well when you've finished your meal. The draw here: rich, flavorful dishes plentiful in portion yet fresh and healthy. From Hanoi to Bangkok, Viet-Thai Paradise draws widely for its selection and offers authentic cuisine abundantly. The menu features the standard and exotic fare of the two countries and is divided neatly into appropriate sections: appetizers, soups, salads, poultry, pork, beef, seafood, noodles & fried rice, and vegetarian selections-it's all here. And yes, dessert is served-the specialty is flan.

Appetizing starters include a variety of fresh or crispy rolls (spring, summer, veggie) depending on your preference, pillow-like pot stickers, skewered satays, and an assortment of brothy soups. Try the Tom Kha Kai soup (a Thai favorite) or the Ha Noi Pho (a Vietnamese standard) to launch your meal with delicious satisfaction.

True to Vietnamese and Thai cuisine, the entrée recipes favor vegetables, rice, and noodles, giving second nod to meat as almost a condiment. But don't let this generalization fool you. Meat is incorporated into most all of the dishes, just not as heavily as in American cuisine. Take pad thai for example-a dish most have heard of, if not eaten. Viet-Thai Paradise's recipe strays little from the successful formula of rice noodles, shredded egg, sprouts, and crushed peanuts. But its presentation and inclusion of not only chicken but also shrimp (four jumbo shrimp at that) make for rewarding comfort food that isn't too heavy on spicy heat. If, however, you want to "take it up a notch," try the Bangkok Ka Prow, a zesty dish that combines sliced, tender pork, slivers of red onion and bamboo shoot, and fresh basil, brought together with a jalapeno-heated sauce. For soothing relief from the heat, a mellowing Thai iced tea with milk does the trick.

Lucky for all, you won't have to rely on instincts alone to guess the spicy heat of your order. Chef and owner Henry Pham eliminated the guesswork by indicating the degree of spice in each dish by use of small chili symbols. Take it from me: at one chili, you're having fun, but at two, you're having quite a party in your mouth. More often than not, though, you won't have to worry about too much of a good 'n' spicy thing. Most of the dishes on the menu offer subtle heat. The joy of such dishes, whether, caramelized pork, Viet-Thai steak, or crispy whole red snapper, lies not only in their exotic yet mild taste but also in their presentation, which favors original artistic touches, such as vegetables sculpted into flowers and various ornaments. The lasting impression of Viet-Thai Paradise is that this restaurant offers a tempting marriage of aesthetics and quality recipes that will have you coming back time and again.

I can't believe I'm saying this. No, really, I can't believe it. I went directly from a day spa to dinner at the Viet-Thai Paradise and received more pampering from the latter than I did from the former.

Every facet of the service, from the ice water with lemon that arrived just as we were seated to the soft, steaming washcloths presented at the conclusion of the meal, was flawless. When you factor in the excellent food and stylish decor as well, this is a restaurant that is sure to attract more and more attention as word spreads.

Open since late September of 2005, Viet-Thai Paradise already has built quite a following, especially considering that they arrived on the scene with very little fanfare.

Shortly after my guest and I had been seated, a friend spotted us and stopped by the table for a few minutes. She was meeting her husband there and mentioned that they have been to Viet-Thai Paradise several times and have enjoyed everything they've had. We discussed the restaurant's beautiful interior, a space that's graced with gentle lemon yellow walls, pink cloth napkins and fresh fuchsia spider lilies on each table. These accents are stunning against a backdrop of wood, lacquer and a muted harlequin pattern in the fabric that covers the chair seats and booths.

No matter how pretty a dining room may be and how thoughtful the service, one still expects food and beverages that will rise to the occasion. Viet-Thai Paradise doesn't let you down in that respect either.

Their drink menu is rife with pizzazzy cocktails ranging from the Bangkok Sunset to the Blue Paradise, as well as sake and a selection of wines and beers.

Even if you have a cocktail before dinner and accompany your meal with beer or wine, try to squeeze in one of their specialty non-alcoholic beverages. Especially recommended would be the Thai iced tea ($3.50) or the Vietnamese coffee ($3.50), which is equally mouth-watering whether served hot or iced.

As we wanted to take our time studying the menu (there are 28 items on the lunch menu and 50 items on the dinner menu), we decided to share an appetizer while we perused. The Viet-Thai Combination ($11) got the nod and we enjoyed every piece that was included: crispy spring rolls, Thai chicken satay, grilled lemongrass beef, coconut butterfly shrimp and house salad.

Three delicious sauces accompanied the appetizer array (chili sauce, fish sauce, and a peanut satay sauce) and our server gave the tutorial on which sauces were best with which appetizers. Just another example of the thoughtful service. One is made to feel that absolutely nothing is more important to Viet-Thai Paradise than the diner's complete enjoyment of every aspect of their dining experience.

The spring rolls were crisp, delectably light, and filled with a savory mixture of pork, shrimp and vegetables. The shrimp were fresh and bursting with flavor, enhanced rather than diminished by their coconut exterior and by skillful deep-frying. The chicken and the beef, served on skewers, were tender and moist, redolent with subtle seasoning.

Viet-Thai Paradise, aware that Western tastes do not always accommodate some of the more incendiary dishes that are at home on Asian menus, give you a warning at the bottom of the menu: a yellow chili pepper means somewhat spicy, a red chili pepper means spicy and two red chili peppers means prepare to dunk your head in a pail of cold water.

Being intrepid souls, we went straight for the two-chili-pepper Lemongrass Chicken ($10) as one of our entrees (we planned to share so that we could try more offerings). The other choice, based on the server's recommendation, was the Crispy Red Snapper (market priced that night at $23).

The chicken, marinated and sauteed in a rich caramel sauce, was punctuated with fresh lemongrass, fresh basil, onions and a bounty of hot peppers. (Our server came back to the table two times just to make sure that we understood we were getting a five-alarm dish.) It was delicious, both the dinner and the leftover lunch for the next day.

The red snapper was spectacular, beautifully prepared and presented. The whole fish arrived, arranged as though it were swimming through the water (it was so fresh that it actually had been swimming in the water not too long before) and was served atop a restrained peanut sauce studded with shreds of carrot and fresh ginger. Again, there was more than enough for dinner and for lunch the next day. Expertly steamed rice accompanies each entree.

This was another one of those occasions when we just weren't in the mood for dessert, but Viet-Thai Paradise offers a short list of sweets in the guise of flan ($4) and ice cream ($3). The exotic ice cream flavors include ginger, coconut, mango and lychee. Even though we weren't up for dessert, we definitely were up for the complementary quartered orange that arrived ceremoniously arranged on a beautiful plate.

Could it get any better? Yes, it could. That's when the hot, steaming, jasmine-scented cloths arrived. We washed our hands and then held the smooth cloths to our faces for a moment, appreciating yet another of the wonderful touches on which Viet-Thai Paradise prides itself.

My advice would be as follows: one of those days (you know the kind I mean) when you feel like you've just been down nine miles of bad road, go to Viet-Thai Paradise and let them pamper you too.

Terra Walters is a free-lance writer and editor based in Annapolis.