Cambridge: Getting Thai at The Similans

In between seminars for Boston Cocktail Summit and parties for the event, we ducked out to grab dinner near the Royal Sonesta. We had eaten lunch at ArtBar earlier that day and wanted something different. We debated Afghan food at the Helman or Thai at The Similans both of which seemed to have favorable reviews. Although I do like Afghan food sometimes I encounter a spice that doesn’t agree with me and I didn’t want to chance it. One of these days I’m going to figure out what that spice is as I sometimes I find it in Nepalese/Himalayan and occasionally Indian food.

So, we went to The Similans. The restaurant was busy, a good sign. Eventually we got a table near the front corner and perused the extensive menu. It would seem seafood should be ordered as nearly every page had tons of fishy options.

To start, we got mussels. I had to override TreasureMA who isn’t fond of mussels. I was imagining that rich broth from Jitlada from back  home in LA. Sadly, these mussels barely came with broth and the mussels weren’t flavorful.

The mussels were however better in the Fisherman’s Delight (not its actual name). I renamed this dish to Fisherman’s delight (it’s actually called Choo Chee Fisherman) because of the massive amount of seafood in it. And all of it was fresh. I could have used a bit more cooking on the scallops but otherwise, we ate this up with brown rice and our noodles.

I had asked the server which noodles to get since we didn’t really want spicy noodles. Our Fisherman dish was spicy enough. She recommended a flat rice noodle dish and shockingly enough, it came with more seafood. Pescatarians would love this place.  Our noodles were great. Sometimes I worry over flat rice noodles clumping but these had been individually separated.

Although we only had an appetizer, a main and a side noodles dish, I felt we ordered too much food. We left very full but we were going to need it to conquer our evening. Back to the party!

I always prefer independently-owned restaurants over chains. I’m glad we didn’t have to resort to the chains across the street at the mall.

The Similans

145 1st St., Cambridge, MA 02142 — (617) 491-6999

© The Minty  2012