"All Pleasure, No Guilt"

After a one hour long flight from San Jose and a slow but successful drive through the infamous LA traffic (it really wasn't that bad), my mom and I arrived at the apartment that I would be living in this summer in Burbank. The apartment was beautiful but that couldn't stop the sharp pangs coming from my stomach. My mom, apartment mate and I relied on the ever so great Yelp to direct us to something nearby to satisfy our hunger. It seemed like Burbank boasts a large number of Thai restaurants, sushi, Mediterranean and Mexican restaurants. We decided to try Gindi Thai. Its website refers to their food as "All Pleasure, No Guilt." Yelp gave it four stars and two dollar signs.

When we first arrived, I was surprised that it also served sushi and had a bar. I had thought it was a family owned Thai restaurant. The decor was very classy, with all white tables, chairs, walls. Accompanied by black, brown and earth green pillows, the decor was modern and simple. This place does a good job of attracting families, couples and young professionals. The bar is a great place for socializing and it is at a corner of the restaurant, lending plenty of space that can be used for quiet, serene dining for couples on dates or family dinners.

Typical at any Thai restaurant, the menu offered Pad Thai and "Pad See-U" as they like to call it. For the rest, they separate everything into different categories such as appetizer, salad, curry, wok, grill, seafood, just to name a few. The selection is large and there are some creative sounding dishes like "Rib-Eye Steak a la Panang." Given their selections and some dishes that combine Eastern and Western style food, I'd definitely say this place is Asian Fusion, not Thai.

We ordered Roti with Green Curry as an appetizer, Tangy Thai Cashew, Drunken Noodles and Talay Pad Thai.

Top left: Drunken Noodles, Top right: Tangy Thai Cashew, Bottom: Talay Pad Thai

The food was tasty, but overpriced. We definitely paid for the milieu and service, not the quality or quantity of food. The waiters were prompt and friendly... a little too friendly for my taste. We were asked "How's everything going?" about five times in the hour we were there. The entrees were definitely big enough for one person, but again, could have been cheaper.

The Drunken Noodles lacked in taste. Spicy was all there was. However, the noodles were soft, but still stretchy in texture. The Tangy Thai Cashew was indeed tangy. The only downside to this dish was the very small portion of rice that accompanied it. Towards the end of the meal, I wanted to eat more of this dish but we ran out of rice. The Talay Pad Thai was a little disappointing. This dish comes with breaded seafood (shrimp, calamari, scallop, fish) but when I got the dish, the breading was soggy already. The texture became mushy. The Pad Thai itself was delicious. Just the right amount of sweet and sour.

I would come back here if I wanted to take friends or family out to eat at a nice place. Alone, I would not come back because of the prices. It's a nice place to enjoy with good company (which is exactly what I did), not a restaurant known for its culinary skills.

Overall: 3 stars