Ladda’s Thai Cuisine

Perhaps "Ladda" is Thai for "Patel"[1]. 555!

(No official website)

1225 La Playa[2] Street (at Lincoln Way)

Phonicular contact: (415) 665-0185

 

(Most people think this catchy summer ditty is just a nice little beach song. "Hey! Let's go to the beach." However, it's actually about a nuclear holocaust. It's basically saying, "We're all screwed, anyway; so we might as well just head to the beach." We all need more fluorescent water, right?)


This is the first time in all the years that I have lived in San Francisco that I have ever eaten at Ladda's Thai Cuisine/Sea View Restaurant/Great Highway Inn Coffee Shop. I list it as such as they have had many incarnations (I thought that was a Hindu thing, not Buddhist thing) over the years and have maintained all of the old signage for some reason. I think it is actually just Ladda's Thai Cuisine now, but who knows? I have driven by the place many, many times, and finally got around to eating there for breakfast this morning.

LTC/SVR/GHICS (it's just easier this way) is located across the street (well, across the Great Highway) from Ocean Beach and across from the southwestern corner of Golden Gate Park (near Murphy Windmill, which was not operating this morning). They have their own parking lot, which is nice, but for some reason it is usually empty. I actually parked around the corner on 48th Avenue myself as it was easier than going around the block to use the La Playa Street driveway. One of their names may call this a "coffee shop", but it's actually a regular full-service restaurant; it's the house restaurant that is attached to Great Highway Inn.

LTC/SVR/GHICS offers a standard 'merican breakfast fare: eggs, omelettes, pancakes, and French toast; but they serve Thai food in the evenings (I am not sure what a typical Thai breakfast would consist of). There was a Buddhist display/offering at the front door that had a bowl of oranges, cups of tea, and some toast… I suppose I could have stolen some of that and just eaten for free this morning. (Karma is a Hindu thing, not Buddhist, right?) I ended up ordering the Vegetarian Omelet ~ mushroom, bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes; served with toast (just not Buddha's, I hope) and hash brown (sic[3]; noted as two words ~ which is okay with the Gates Spell-Check Nazis, but singular). I also had a cuppa decent enough coffee.

This was a good enough omelette, but nothing really extraordinary. It was pretty large and fluffy, and made with lots of fresh vegetables (and fungus, too, I suppose). This might have been a bit better if the vegetables (and fungus) had been sautéed first before adding them to the egg mixture. I went with an English muffin as my choice of toast, Siddhārtha Gautama.

LTC/SVR/GHICS just has for condimentary supplementation: Tabasco® (the standard red), which was expected, so I used some of my own YOUK'S HOT SAUCE (Thanks, Brian!) on the omelette and a little (too much) BIG PAPI EN FUEGO HOT SAUCE GRAND SLAM XXXTRA HOT (Thanks, Kerry!) on the hashbrowns (I used just four drops and it was still pretty darn en fuego). Technically, this really can't be considered an homage to the Boston Red Sox, as Kevin Youkilis is no longer with the correct Sox team, but I had bought the bottle when he was still with Boston. This is okay, as I am actually a little homage-phobic and really don't see what all of the to-do is with eating at ChicKKK-fil-A[4].


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:  Vegetarian Omelet ~ 6.0


[1] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, part the first:
 
The term "patel" means "village headman" in Indian. The surname "Patel" is a very common name among hoteliers (moteliers?) in 'merica now-a-days. According to Wikipedia: "As many as 60% of mid-sized motels and hotel properties, all over the U.S., are owned by the people of Indian origin. Of this, nearly one-third have the surname Patel."
 
[2] Stupid, useless cunning linguist punto del día, número dos:
 
"La Playa" simply means "the beach" in Spanish. 
 
[3] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numero tres:
 
"sic" is Latin for "so/thus". Many people incorrectly think it is the abbreviation for "said in context".
 
[4] Alternatively (life-styled) known as Chick-fil-A-holes.
 
(Thanks go to my nephew Cam for that one.)