Silver Spoon

Just when I thought I was done with lab group lunches, they dragged me out for another one. I'd been done working for 2 weeks when She Yan had her last day and wanted to grab a bite. We'd basically exhausted all of my ideas, but She Yan took us to Rush and Superior to try out one of her favorites. Right next door to the Thai Consulate (where I'd like to assume they go for lunch), is Silver Spoon offering up one of the better lunch deals in River North.

Logistics
Silver Spoon is in a garden apartment style room that seats about 40 at the most. We got there around 12:30 and it wasn't necessarily that crowded, but we had to wait for 15 minutes or so because they had trouble fitting a group of 5 among all the 2 tops. We eventually got sat at a table at street end of the restaurant.

The service was going well. They took our order quickly and kept our drinks nice and full. The only problem was that they forgot my food. After 5 minutes of everyone else being served, I called over the waitress to ask for my meal. She hustled back to the kitchen and promptly brought out my food.

The deal is excellent. $6.95 for an entree and an appetizer is a large amount of food for your money. They have a relatively limited menu to pick from for the deal, but the standards are there.

The Food
Since it was included in the lunch special, we all got an appetizer. I had the Fried Tofu, Kristy ordered the Spring Rolls, and everyone else got the Crab Rangoon (except She Yan who expressed her disappointment that Americans think that Crab Rangoon is a standard Asian appetizer). The Tofu was pretty good, but like most tofu it didn't have too much taste. Luckily, it came with a really tasty peanut sauce for dipping. The Spring roll was on par with most that I'd had, but they were very liberal with the sauce. I didn't have the Rangoon, but the serving size was pretty small, and there seemed to be a poor ratio of filling to fried dough.

 The Fried Tofu and Peanut Sauce

The Spring Roll

The Crab Rangoon

There were about 10 entrees to pick from for the special, and we covered the highlights pretty well. Kristy and Amanda ordered the Pad Thai, Pedro got the Cashew Chicken, Austin got the Chicken and Vegetables, She Yan got the Thai Noodle Bowl, and I got the Pad See Ew. The Pad Thai was delicious, well sauced, and had a nice amount of peanuts providing a textural balance. The Thai Beef Noodle Bowl was just so so. The beef may have been cooked for too long, and it's texture was grainy, but the broth was very tasty. The Pad See Ew was very tasty with it's wide noodles and sweet sauce. The chicken in it was a little overdone, and the noodles were stuck together a bunch, but I still enjoyed it.

 The Chicken Pad Thai

The Thai Beef Noodle Soup

The Chicken and Vegetables

The Cashew Chicken

The Pad See Ew

Overall
I feel like Thai places are somewhat a dime a dozen in this city. I had high hopes for this one based on it's close proximity to the consulate. The lunch deal is pretty good, but between the service and the food, I'd have to say it's only a little above average. I'm giving Silver Spoon 3 out of 5 Pearls.