Blue Elephant has been on the border between Roger's Park and Edgewater for about a year (1235 W. Devon Ave). As of late Indie Cafe has been getting lots of props. They both blend Thai with other Asian foods.
I'll confess I am a Thai Pastry fan that has never been to Arun's. I will have to go back to confirm this but I found Blue Elephant's panang better than any I've had in a long time and I eat panang often. It was creamy but not too creamy, spicy but not too spicy, sweet but not too sweet... The ingredients were fresh and not overcooked.
The Flaming Shrimp and Scallop was also astonishingly good, sweet and hot. The scallops were sea scallops and not the smaller bay scallops that you sometimes get. The shrimp were much larger than I'm used to as well. All ingredients seemed very fresh and of good quality. There was nothing similar about the ingredients between dishes.
For an appetizer my wife ordered the crab rangoon and we both thought the sauce was fairly unique and sweet. The appetizer came with a small salad with a miso dressing that really was an original pairing and worked well. We also got a free order of gyoza (Japanese rice-noodle dumplings) that were very tasty as well and served in a somewhat standard and very tasty Japanese dumpling sauce.
The restaurant is small with an open kitchen and in the summer they open a patio that doubles the capacity. It's BYOB and a good Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc would do the trick. I always say "Why drink anything else when you could drink Champagne?" I'd recommend the Jean Vesselle Champagne (YES Champagne) or the Bernard Massard sparkling wine. They each run $13 (YES, Champagne for $13) from Sam's Wine and Spirits. Considering I was so happy with carry-out I will make a point to eat in next time and try some of the more unusual dishes like blackberry duck. They do have a kung pow noodle dish as well as a soba dish or two. I will have to go back to get a handle on how they treat non-thai fare but I am looking forward to it. Blue Elephant was a terrific surprise and will surely become a new regular spot.
I went to this based on your recommendation. The service was beautiful. The menu looks beautiful. We had the spinach pot stickers, spinach peanut pasta dish and flaming shrimp and scallop.
We did not go into Blue Elephant thinking that this was the best place of them all, but I thought it would be definitely above average.
The spinach in the pot stickers was dry. I tried to soak it in the pot sticker sauce.
The spinach peanut pasta was salty, saucy and overwhelmingly peanuty. It was too peanuty. You couldn't taste the other flavors, let alone the meat and vegetables that accompanied the dish.
The flaming shrimp and scallop was plated nicely. I agree that the ingredients were fresh, but there were too few shrimp and scallop to hold the one of the most expensive positions on the menu. Everything was drowning in sauce. The sauce's base was obviously ketchup.
I love thai food. I love the fact that Blue Elephant's service was excellent and their effort to expand people's perception of thai cuisine was commendable.
I only wish I enjoyed the food. I wish we shared the same experience. We won't be returning. We love Ruby of Siam.
Posted by: Kristina | June 08, 2005 at 08:47 PM
feel free to post a review of Ruby of Siam (follow the contribute link on the left)...
I was going to add a second review of Blue E... having been back to get their blackberry duck that they desperately need to seed... very pithy... and though it sounds like you had a bad time of it I haven't been disappointed in the same way.
I found Blue Elephant to be more of a fusion type of place... they seemd to draw in many Japanese flavors...
To each their own. It's why this is an open forum. You're more than welcome to post your own review of Blue Elephant as well...
Posted by: Josh | June 10, 2005 at 12:20 PM
Hi!
Thanks for the offer. :)
-Kristina
Posted by: Kristina | July 13, 2005 at 01:30 PM
Blue Elephant is such a great part of the neighborhood. My husband and I love dining in, especially in the summer. I was a bit apprehensive to eat on the patio b/c Devon can be a bit loud. The atmosphere was lovely and the food was very distracting to anything going on outside the border of the patio. We have even brought our new baby in and felt the restaurant was somewhat kid-friendly when not so busy. My new favorite is the Spicy Udon Noodle. It's so good, I have a hard time trying anything else! The new owner is very friendly and often delivers the food himself on busy nights. Kudos to that! I would definitely recommend The Blue Elephant to anyone who loves Thai food.
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