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Find enticing Thai dishes at Thanh Thao restaurant

Thanh Thao II, a family-run Thai-Vietnamese restaurant, offers a variety of affordable dishes and a relaxed, casual atmosphere. Thanh Thao combines fast service and colorful, nutritious dishes.

Lunch entrees include soups, noodle and rice dishes and 36 combination specials featuring chicken, beef, pork or tofu. Thai tea and hot-and-sour soup accompany all lunches. Fried or steamed rice, half an egg roll and fried wontons accompany the combination plates. Most lunch costs $4.95.

The curry chicken sauteed with vegetables combines small pieces of chicken with sliced broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts and bell peppers in a thick, moderately spicy sauce. The sticky steamed rice soaks up the curry sauce while some of the vegetables add a crunch to the dish.

The mock chicken sauteed with lemongrass, a vegetarian lunch, is made with strips of tofu drenched in sweet sauce. The mock chicken had a thick, spongy texture.

The wontons were crunchy, but a little soft in the middle.

The sweet-and-sour chicken entree has large chunks of chicken, vegetables and pineapple and is easily eaten with chopsticks.

The barbecued chicken noodle entree fills a 10-inch bowl. Thin rice noodles lie coiled on a bed of lettuce topped by a generous portion of barbecued chicken, shredded carrots, sprouts, finely ground peanuts and chopped green onion.

A bowl of thin, salmon-colored fish sauce punctuated with peppery flakes accompanies the noodles. Diners pour the sauce over the noodles for added flavor -- mildly sweet with a vinegar-like tang. Overall, the dish was tasty and filling, but the meat was dry.

Thanh Thao's barbecue noodle entrees also come in pork, beef and shrimp variations.

Dinners are served family style and cost $4.95--$8.95 per entree. The menu is filled with more than 165 chicken, pork, beef, seafood, vegetarian Thai and Vietnamese selections.

Three large painted cocktail fans and embellish the ceiling. A painting inlaid with abalone-like shells hangs from the wall. Three paper fans, painted gold, are clustered in a corner of the room. Paper lanterns decorate the windows and exotic wooden stringed instruments hang in various places. Two wooden engraved panels, placed on separate walls, divide the seating.

The glass-topped tables were clean, but the floor needed vacuuming.

What Thanh Thao II lacks in ambiance and decor, it makes up for in the food. The food, served quickly and humbly, receives much less fanfare than it deserves. The prices are reasonable, and the customary fortune cookies come at the end, with the bill.