Observer Online | Three Thai Sushi Specializes in ‘Asian Fusion'

Edition of March 28, 2008

Three Thai Sushi Specializes in ‘Asian Fusion'

By Joanna Lewis

Restaurant Critic

Three Thai Sushi is an Asian fusion restaurant in Herndon that offers reasonably priced meals and several commendable dishes. The Pad See Yew is good, even though the restaurant uses American broccoli instead of Chinese broccoli, and the dumplings, which are served fried or steamed, are small but delicious.

The restaurant, which is located in the former Thai Palms site in the Kmart Shopping Center, opened in October, selling only Thai food. Three weeks later, the restaurant closed for remodeling, and the owners decided to add sushi to the menu. Three Thai Sushi reopened in December 2007, and the family-owned restaurant now defines their food as a "fusion of Thai and Japanese cuisine."

The results of the remodeling are quite beautiful, and the restaurant is a much warmer, more beautiful facility. A padded bench lines one wall of the restaurant, and the bar and sushi work station are located on the opposite wall. There are tables in the front and middle of the restaurant, and low wooden panel walls separate the tables in the middle of the restaurant, making for private and cozy seating.

Monday through Friday the lunch menu offers special combinations, which include spring roll or wonton and hot tea, for $7. There are 15 entrée choices on the regular menu, and except for the noodle dishes, most come with rice. The restaurant serves two types of Pad Thai and Pad See Yew, as well as curries, fried rice and lo mein with various meats. There is something here for every taste. Sushi menus are on the table for customers to select the items they wish to be served.

The Tom Yum soup is a lovely broth containing shrimp (or another meat if you choose), parasol mushrooms and chili sauce (to taste). Scallions and cilantro perfume the dish and the air. The taste is exquisite---a sort of hot and sour clear broth. This is a soup that is not to be missed, unless you don't like heat at all in your dishes.

A bento box is always a good choice for lunch or dinner. Three Thai Sushi offers two versions of their bento box, priced at $13 and $17 (lunch) and $15 and $19 (dinner). The meals contain the same elements, but the more expensive box offers more meat choices. With both options, the restaurant first serves a tasty miso soup and a green salad with a nice peanut dressing.

The bento box, which is served after soup and salad, contains shrimp and vegetable tempura, an entrée, three fried dumplings, rice, a sushi roll, pickled ginger and Japanese mustard, and dessert. Dessert in the bento box I ordered was sticky rice with custard, but that may vary.

There are many appetizers offered, and judging by the bento box, the fried dumplings and shrimp and vegetable tempuras are good choices. Three Thai Sushi also serves noodle and rice dishes as entrees, and a number of Japanese and Thai dishes are offered in vegetable, meat or seafood versions, the last being the most expensive.

The restaurant also offers children's meals of noodle and rice dishes, and those items are $5.25 each for children younger than 8 years old.

Wines by the glass or bottle are served, as well as beers, Japanese sake and plum wine. Beers start at $3.25 and are priced up to $5 per bottle. There are 11 cocktails offered, all with Asian mixers and names.

Until March 31 when customers buy a dinner entrée, they will get a second at half price. From 5 to 7 p.m., the restaurant offers $1 sushi (chef's choice) for dine-in guests only. Senior citizens and carryout orders qualify for 10 percent off the price of the order.