Each week in 'Knockers' we order from a different delivery restaurant, assessing their efficiency and keeping a running score.
Mango Thai Cuisine
4448 Lovers Lane
214-265-9996
Promised delivery time: about 45 minutes
Actual delivery time: 48 minutes
Friendliness of the guy on the phone: 11
Ease of personalizing an entree: 25
Reading back my order to ensure accuracy: 9
Delivery dude's BMW: -5
Fact that the BMW unleashed heavenly aroma of Thai food I could smell at my door as soon as he opened his: 15
Crispiness of appetizers: 7
Super drippy, sticky to-go sodas: -6
Sodas being fountain, not bottled: 10
Number of bites I took of my entree: 4
Number of months we've been in this house (3.5) times number of times we've ordered Mango Thai (1) plus times we'll order again in the next month before we have to get out (4): 7.5
Total Score: 77.5
Top Ten
New Big Wong 92
Lover's Pizza and Pasta 91
Philly Connection 90
Piggie Pies Pizzas & Pasta 90
See complete 2009 standings here
We moved to the Lovers and Inwood area at the beginning of May. We've fallen in love with Lovers Pizza (as you can see above in the standings), but aside from Yumi To Go, hadn't found any Asian cuisine we were really digging on.
My boy and I both love Thai food, so a friend suggested Mango Thai just a few doors down from Kathleen's Sky Diner and Holy Ravioli on Lovers. Not feeling up to a date night, as we'd just found out we'd be needing to find another residence as our landlords were moving back unexpectedly for jobs here in Dallas, we decided to look for delivery instead. As luck would have it, they would bring our favorites right to our door.
I had a lovely back-and-forth with the Mango man on the other end of
the line. He was so polite, upbeat and totally open to changing a
couple of things on Jake's pineapple curry. He even made a little noise
of approval when I asked that my pad see iew come with beef instead of
chicken. (This totally excited me as I once mentioned that I have previously experienced "Thai server approval" issues.)
We'd
both been working in the back of the house and the back yard, so I
started getting paranoid I'd miss the knock of the delivery. I get
paranoid about a lot of things, but missing out on a hot meal is at the
top of the list. Also, angering someone who could prevent future
deliveries of said hot meals. As such, I moved to the front of the
house and positioned myself to see out the window about 40 minutes from
the time of my call. Eight minutes later a black Beemer zoomed up and
out jumped a little man.
I opened the door and immediately
smelled wafts of Thai food. He opened his trunk and more of the
tempting aroma poured out. He bounded up the walk and complimented me
on the ease of finding the house. Sometimes it takes him 20 minutes
just to find a house, he said. I thanked him, paid the enormous bill
and he bounced off like he had Jolt Cola coursing through his veins.
We
set up our boxes and spooned out curry, popped the tops off sauces and
cut into corn patties. The patties were as hot and crisp as in the restaurant.
And the spicy-sweet sauce was cool to the touch. Perfect. The crab
avocado spring rolls were fried. We didn't expect that, but saw later
that the menu clearly stated "crispy." It was our oversight. They were
a little strange what with the hot avocado, but they held up well to
delivery and the cilantro-basil dipping sauce was sweet and unusual
with its thick green carpeting effect.
Jake's curry had a
moderate heat. Exactly middle-of-the-road, so it should hit a good
spice when it's reheated tonight. The chicken was tender and pieces
were large, matching the large portion given him. I liked the veggies
most. Plus, I'm a sauce person, so I was excited that there was more
than enough to spoon over extra rice after the big pieces had been
taken care of.
My flat rice noodles with beef, egg, brocolli and
sprouts were of the perfect temperature. They weren't all watery from
condensation and the flavor was slightly tangy but mild. The beef was
bite-sized and tender, with a nice sear. I just wasn't feeling it--my
nervous nelly belly had me calling it quits to look for houses on
Craigslist after just a few bites. I'm thinking a revisit/reheat today
will serve me better.
Overall, Mango Thai is a little too pricey
to just randomly order several apps, entrees and drinks...but we were
ordering emotionally, people. Next time, I'll just go with an app and
entree to split and we'll prolly fair a little bit more affordably than
$56 after tip. Yeah. You read that right.
