608 Eastgate, St. Louis, MO 63130 (map); 314-862-4429; patsthairestaurants.com Pizza Style: Thin crust Oven Type: Gas The Skinny: A noble but unsuccessful attempt to expand the pizza world Price: 9" pizzas are $8 each Notes: Closed Wednesdays
On a recent trip to St. Louis, I was wandering down Delmar in the Loop, when neon lights a few doors down a side street called out to me. I ran over to see if my eyes were telling the truth and was ecstatic to discover a restaurant called Thai Pizza Co. The restaurant is owned by Supatana "Pat" Prapaisilapa, who deserves credit for being one of the first and most successful people to bring Thai food to St. Louis. Thai Pizza Co. is one of six Thai restaurants run by Prapaisilapa in St. Louis. The company's website actually gives Prapaisilapa credit for introducing Thai food to St. Louis, a claim whose veracity I cannot confirm or disprove. As he built up his empire, he stayed focused in the same neighborhood, which sits on the border of St. Louis and University City, very close to Washington University.
Thai Pizza Co. started serving up pizza in 2004, when the space that formerly housed Thai Seafood, another Prapaisilapa venture. The concept is pretty straightforward—take Thai food and put it between a pizza crust and some cheese. Other than the sandwich, there may be no type of food more adaptable to different cultures than pizza. But after my experience eating Korean pizza at Cheogajip and now this one at Thai Pizza Co., I'm starting to question the universality of pizza because this one did not work for me at all.
There really isn't much worth reporting on the actual pizza. There are twelve different options for toppings and two different crusts, one thin and one thick. I opted for a thin crust with green curry, which included chicken, mushrooms, onions, green peas, fresh basil, coconut milk and bell pepper. The virtually flavorless factory made crust was neither remotely crisp nor pleasantly chewy. The cheese, listed on the menu as mozzarella but actually a combination of mozzarella and cheddar, was the best part of the pizza. That blend, which is standard at The Pizza Company, the biggest pizza chain in Thailand, could work, but here served to completely overwhelm a relatively bland and completely sauceless green curry chicken.
Part of the conflict between the cheese and the toppings was due to the sheer quantity of cheese, but I can't help but wonder if there are parts of the globe where people have a problem merging their cuisines with a good crust and appropriate cheese (I'm looking at you, East and Southeast Asia). I suppose it makes sense that people who do not ordinarily incorporate cheese into their cooking would have trouble merging the flavors they normally put out with cheese, but it still pained me to discover that the Thai Chicken Pizza at California Pizza Kitchen is leaps and bounds better than the pie I had at Thai Pizza Co.
Despite my experience at Thai Pizza Co. and Cheogajip, I'm holding out hope that either there is East or Southeast Asian pizza that will either shock me with their deliciousness or at least have a taste i can learn to love. Slice readers, I ask you: Have you ever had pizzas you really enjoyed that featured foods from places that don't normally use cheese in their cuisine?
I love weird food combos, so when I saw this place when I visited my friend at WashU we had to go. I got the chicken satay with peanut sauce when I went and it was outstanding.
never! i taught in Thailand and The Pizza Company was my only taste of home so often I would wander in and pretend my cheese pizza with shrimp and mayo and bacon and chilies was from Ohio. Very hard to do. I'm not so sure it has to do so much with the cheese not being in their daily meals but more so the fact that they also don't do a lot of bread-based foods either, considering that in my small town in Thailand it was rare to ever see a sandwich - and I think we can all agree that the crust is the determining factor of a delicious pie!
My 'asian pizza' experiences include peking duck sauce pizza (from some chain...I forget which) and thai green chicken curry pizza from Planet Pizza in Bristol (UK) - they were both wretched.
The more pizza I eat, the more conservative my tastes become. At least that's how it seems, although I still want to try a saag paneer pizza sometime.
i saw in an article on here the other day a shout out to Blue 13's lobster pizza in Chicago. Looked fantastic to me and I would love to try it as soon as I get a chance to!
I wonder if there might not be more success if someone who's really good at American pizza decided to incorporate Asian flavors into their food. I would think that would be more successful than trying to take someone who was good with Asian food and somehow incorporating pizza.
BTW, I had a delicious curried chicken and yam pizza at ZPizza.
Okay, lifelong U. City resident and former WU student here -- I can settle a few of the questions. For the "space that formerly ______" question, Thai Pizza Co. is in the space that formerly held another Prapaisilapa Thai restaurant, Thai Seafood Cafe.
As for introducing Thai food to St. Louis, as I look at the website, I think that it's the phrasing that's key here, since they don't explicitly say that they had the first Thai restaurant in St. Louis. I know for a fact that there was a good but short-lived Thai restaurant also in the U. City area called Thai Town on Olive Blvd. in the eighties. With the longevity of the Prapaisilapa restaurants though, it probably is fair to say that Thai Cafe and Thai Country Cafe have probably been more successful at introducing Thai food to St. Louis, as they were pretty much contemporary with the Loop's escalation in popularity. I would imagine that The King & I on South Grand has probably been around since the '80s (or maybe even '70s?) as well.
I've been to Thai Pizza numerous times since it opened, and my findings have pretty much been this: next to falafel wraps from Al-Tarboush, the pizzas from here were always one of the best food deals in the Loop (I think that the 9" pizzas used to be either $6 or $7, but pretty much every restaurant has raised their prices in the last 2 years). The thin crusts always seemed pretty filling, so to get the thick crust was basically total overkill (and yes, since their crusts are lacking for flavor a bit, it's usually best to stick to the thin).
I enjoy Thai curries quite a bit, but every time that I've tried a curry pizza from here, the curry flavor does get lost between the crust and the cheese combo. On the other hand, as a few people mention above, their chicken satay pizza has never let me down, always quite flavorful.
Incidentally, for all cultural fusion pizza superfans, I just had some really good gyro/tzatziki pizza in St. Louis from Anthonino's, a Greek/Italian restaurant on the Hill.
The best dishes at Thai Pizza Co are the noodle dishes - one of the few places in STL that can go crazy spicy and still have lots of flavor. For some real STL-style pizza goodness, the conversation begins and ends with Fortel's.
@bogusrogus: Good point regarding the bread. I still the cheese issue is relevant, but you're definitely right to point out that people not particularly concerned with making bread would have trouble producing a quality crust.
@foolishpoolish: I'm with you on saag paneer pizza 100%. In fact, it was thinking of that that stopped me from condemning all of Asia. And back to my cheese point and bogusrogus's bread point - neither of those apply to India, a country that does use cheese and puts out nan, a classic flatbread.
@finewinendine: Thanks for the editing help. I've fixed the text to reflect my original sentence. I must have messed up cutting and pasting in the editing process.
@Lyra Ngalia and esseelig: I feel bad writing a place off after one visit so I'll have to give the chicken satay pizza a try next time I'm in U City. Could be a while before that happens though.
Thanks for commenting! Your comment has been accepted and will appear in a moment.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it pleasant. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
Print
Part of the conflict between the cheese and the toppings was due to the sheer quantity of cheese, but I can't help but wonder if there are parts of the globe where people have a problem merging their cuisines with a good crust and appropriate cheese (I'm looking at you, East and Southeast Asia). I suppose it makes sense that people who do not ordinarily incorporate cheese into their cooking would have trouble merging the flavors they normally put out with cheese, but it still pained me to discover that the Thai Chicken Pizza at California Pizza Kitchen is leaps and bounds better than the pie I had at Thai Pizza Co.
12 Comments:
I love weird food combos, so when I saw this place when I visited my friend at WashU we had to go. I got the chicken satay with peanut sauce when I went and it was outstanding.
mcboomofdoom at 11:03AM on 10/21/09
never! i taught in Thailand and The Pizza Company was my only taste of home so often I would wander in and pretend my cheese pizza with shrimp and mayo and bacon and chilies was from Ohio. Very hard to do. I'm not so sure it has to do so much with the cheese not being in their daily meals but more so the fact that they also don't do a lot of bread-based foods either, considering that in my small town in Thailand it was rare to ever see a sandwich - and I think we can all agree that the crust is the determining factor of a delicious pie!
bogusrogus at 11:04AM on 10/21/09
My 'asian pizza' experiences include peking duck sauce pizza (from some chain...I forget which) and thai green chicken curry pizza from Planet Pizza in Bristol (UK) - they were both wretched.
The more pizza I eat, the more conservative my tastes become. At least that's how it seems, although I still want to try a saag paneer pizza sometime.
foolishpoolish at 11:31AM on 10/21/09
yay WU shout out! still, in four years I never actually went here.
serasyl at 11:54AM on 10/21/09
i saw in an article on here the other day a shout out to Blue 13's lobster pizza in Chicago. Looked fantastic to me and I would love to try it as soon as I get a chance to!
bakerman5185 at 11:59AM on 10/21/09
Yay, Thai Pizza and a WashU shout out!
I liked their chicken satay pizza on thick crust, though I think the actual Thai food there is better than the pizza.
Lyra Ngalia at 1:02PM on 10/21/09
I've only there once and I have to say I wasn't really impressed by the food.
Speaking of Asian pizza, Domino's in Japan made really weird "regional specialty" pizza.
pics here:
http://news.walkerplus.com/2009/0831/4/photo00.html
1) Kobe beef tendon & scallion pizza inspired by negiyaki (a kind of Okonomiyaki from Kansai area)
2) Hokkaido autumn salmon & corn & broccoli
3) Nagoya "Kohchin" chicken (an heirloom chicken) & eggplant & miso pizza
4) Hakata heirloom chicken & yuzukosho pizza
so weird. but I'm willing to try all.
hmw0029 at 1:41PM on 10/21/09
I wonder if there might not be more success if someone who's really good at American pizza decided to incorporate Asian flavors into their food. I would think that would be more successful than trying to take someone who was good with Asian food and somehow incorporating pizza.
BTW, I had a delicious curried chicken and yam pizza at ZPizza.
apizzagirl at 2:09PM on 10/21/09
Commentary on the pizza aside, the 1st sentence in the 2nd paragraph is missing information:
Thai Pizza Co. started serving up pizza in 2004, when the space that formerly .
Sorry, just part of my job...
finewinendine at 2:44PM on 10/21/09
Okay, lifelong U. City resident and former WU student here -- I can settle a few of the questions. For the "space that formerly ______" question, Thai Pizza Co. is in the space that formerly held another Prapaisilapa Thai restaurant, Thai Seafood Cafe.
As for introducing Thai food to St. Louis, as I look at the website, I think that it's the phrasing that's key here, since they don't explicitly say that they had the first Thai restaurant in St. Louis. I know for a fact that there was a good but short-lived Thai restaurant also in the U. City area called Thai Town on Olive Blvd. in the eighties. With the longevity of the Prapaisilapa restaurants though, it probably is fair to say that Thai Cafe and Thai Country Cafe have probably been more successful at introducing Thai food to St. Louis, as they were pretty much contemporary with the Loop's escalation in popularity. I would imagine that The King & I on South Grand has probably been around since the '80s (or maybe even '70s?) as well.
I've been to Thai Pizza numerous times since it opened, and my findings have pretty much been this: next to falafel wraps from Al-Tarboush, the pizzas from here were always one of the best food deals in the Loop (I think that the 9" pizzas used to be either $6 or $7, but pretty much every restaurant has raised their prices in the last 2 years). The thin crusts always seemed pretty filling, so to get the thick crust was basically total overkill (and yes, since their crusts are lacking for flavor a bit, it's usually best to stick to the thin).
I enjoy Thai curries quite a bit, but every time that I've tried a curry pizza from here, the curry flavor does get lost between the crust and the cheese combo. On the other hand, as a few people mention above, their chicken satay pizza has never let me down, always quite flavorful.
Incidentally, for all cultural fusion pizza superfans, I just had some really good gyro/tzatziki pizza in St. Louis from Anthonino's, a Greek/Italian restaurant on the Hill.
esseelig at 10:06PM on 10/21/09
The best dishes at Thai Pizza Co are the noodle dishes - one of the few places in STL that can go crazy spicy and still have lots of flavor. For some real STL-style pizza goodness, the conversation begins and ends with Fortel's.
jraphs at 11:55PM on 10/21/09
@bogusrogus: Good point regarding the bread. I still the cheese issue is relevant, but you're definitely right to point out that people not particularly concerned with making bread would have trouble producing a quality crust.
@foolishpoolish: I'm with you on saag paneer pizza 100%. In fact, it was thinking of that that stopped me from condemning all of Asia. And back to my cheese point and bogusrogus's bread point - neither of those apply to India, a country that does use cheese and puts out nan, a classic flatbread.
@finewinendine: Thanks for the editing help. I've fixed the text to reflect my original sentence. I must have messed up cutting and pasting in the editing process.
@Lyra Ngalia and esseelig: I feel bad writing a place off after one visit so I'll have to give the chicken satay pizza a try next time I'm in U City. Could be a while before that happens though.
Daniel Zemans at 8:32PM on 10/22/09