NVM Review

By Warren Rojas

The barbecue sausage-and-cucumber salad ($6.75) deposits barbecue sausage slices amongst assorted aromatics and julienned cucumbers, carrots and red onions, all doused with an arousing chili-lime dressing. The herb parade marches on with a plate of roasted cod ($15.95) reclining in a spicy, homemade gravy punctuated by asparagus and fresh basil leaves.

By Warren Rojas

Located just around the corner from iconic parent, Duangrat’s, Rabieng is now all grown up and appears to be completely self aware.

The modest Thai restaurant lacks some of the pizzazz and certainly the seating capacity of the somewhat tonier Duangrat’s, but its regional specialty dishes often dwarf its supposedly upscale counterparts.

Most country-style appetizers cost less than $7, while the majority of the entrées appear to be under $13. Rabieng also features daily soup specials for $7, as well as rotating “wok-and-roll” combo deals which package together wok-fried specialty items, a vegetable spring roll and a drink for $8.50 each day.

An order of country beef jerky ($6.95) yields mounds of ginger beef (a little tough but still delectable) served with a side of Sriracha hot sauce. The barbecue sausage and cucumber salad ($6.75) melds crisp cucumber slices with snips of smoked summer sausage, all lain against a field of mixed greens, shredded carrots and red and spring onions. Meanwhile, a plate of shrimp fried garlic ($12.95) brings plump shrimp speckled with fresh garlic slivers, all tossed with steamed broccoli (a strong garlic taste lingers with you for a while after this one, but it is well worth it).