5 Thai Bistro in Portsmouth N.H. (40 Pleasant Street) became an instant favorite after one bite of one of our appetizers! Don’t get me wrong we really enjoyed our entire lunch but there is something special about their chicken dumplings ($7.95) these dumplings are filled with steamed ground chicken and covered in a creamy coconut milk. I don’t typically like dumplings but I could have eaten that entire plate. Hands down the best dumpling I have ever had! Jim loved them as much as I did and I think if we were not in public we would have been fighting over who was going to lick that plate clean! I kid you not! Funny thing is, we also ordered their fried chicken wings as I knew I would not be eating the dumplings, little did we know! We did enjoy the chicken wings ($6.95)…in fact they were the crispest wings I have ever had. I also liked that they served the sauce on the side, so the chicken does not get soggy as it sits in the sauce. I would order these wings again any day.
In my rush to tell you about those amazing chicken dumplings, I almost forgot to tell you we went for Jim’s birthday and before we were served our appetizers we were given a complimentary salad that was light, fresh and came with a crispy won ton. That was a great start and because we had never been there, we did not expect the salad.
For our main course (we went for a late lunch, both the lunch and dinner items are the same just bigger portion sizes). Jim had the Pad Thai Deluxe ($ 9.95 lunch portion). This Pad Thai has so much going on, it smelled amazing and was filled with rice noodles, stir fry chicken, shrimp, tofu, egg, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, scallions in a Pad Thai sauce and a sprinkle of chili flakes for a little heat. I had a taste and really liked it, but Jim cleaned his plate and absolutely loved it. I had one of the specials they had that day. It was the mango chicken and shrimp curry. ($19.95). This had snap peas, onion, carrots, mango, chicken and shrimp. Of course in a yellow curry sauce served with white rice.
I loved my dish but as you can see it’s a big portion especially after eating everything we had already had, but no worries they have take out boxes, so I was able to enjoy this dish a little later in the day.
To our surprise the wait staff all brought over a dessert for us to celebrate Jim’s birthday and sang Happy Birthday to him. What a fantastic way to end our lunch. I have to tell you this dessert was not anything like I have had before. It was a banana wrapped in an Asian wrapper and deep fried then topped with strawberries, chocolate and cream ($7.95). This was a special they had that day. I don’t know how we could have possibly eaten it all…but we did! It was light, crispy, creamy and delicious. It’s also something I would order again!
As you can see our lunch was spectacular. I can’t begin to tell you how hard it is to finish this post and not get in the car to go there! We had a nice variety from the menu but they still have so much more. They also have a number of vegetarian and gluten free choices as well as a full bar. Jim had a beer and I had a Mai Thai. Lots of great appetizer choices. I know the next time we go we will of course have those chicken dumplings. I really like fried calamari, so I will be trying their version that is served with a spicy mayo as well as a sweet and sour sauce. They have lots of soup and salad options too.
I’m going to jump to the main course as they have such a great variety. Both of the curry dishes as well as the noodle and fried rice dishes come with several of the same options that you can add to your dish. You can add any of the following to your main course, tofu or vegetables, chicken or pork, chicken and shrimp, beef, shrimp, squid, or scallop. Crispy duck, seafood combination with shrimp, squid and scallops. So as you can see the curry dishes and the noodle or fried rice dishes have lots of delicious options. I can honestly say the chicken and shrimp in my dish were cooked beautifully and that’s not always easy as we know how easy it is for shrimp to be overcooked. With all of that being said they also have a number of chef’s special dishes; things like spicy crispy duck, BBQ pork and drunken chicken to just name a few.
And let’s not forget dessert. If you see the dessert we had it was really tasty but they have rice pudding, mango sticky rice and Thai tea Creme Brûlée to name a few. Check out their website for hours, location information and of course the full menu.
Enjoy!
