I found Lotus of Siam while doing research about Las Vegas restaurants. It was named \"the best Thai restaurant in United States\" by couple publications. I've been to Las Vegas a few time and have never ventured out of the strip. So for this trip, we decided to do a little exploration and dine outside of the strip on all meals (well, except the buffets). Thanks to my navigation system, we found Lotus of Siam in no time. The restaurant is located in a big Asian strip mall. I was surprised to see so many Korean restaurants there.\n\nWe had reservation at 8pm. The restaurant was still 3/4 full. We were seated quickly. They have a big menu. I like how they clearly explained every dish in English. Everything looked so good and it was just hard to decide. They also had a huge wine list. We were really surprised that a tiny hole in the wall Thai restaurant could have such a good wine list. The waiter was very helpful on recommending dishes and wines for us.\n\nTheir walls were covered with celebrities pictures. So many famous people were here. I saw my favorite favorite favorite Drew Berrymore's picture. I had to ask them if I can take a picture of their \"Drew Berrymore was here\" picture. Right on top of Drew Berrymore's picture is Mario Batali's picture. Wow! Mario Batali was here, too!\n\nBF ordered the German Riesling Flight to go with the spicy Thai food. It came in three 2 oz pour of dry, medium and sweet Riesling. They were: Robert Weil Estate Dry, Rheingau 2006; Carl Loewen Leiwener Klostergarten, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer 2005; and Basserman-Jordan Forster Jesuitengarten, Pfalz 2005. He loved the Robert Weil Estate Dry and ordered a glass of it. I like the sweet Basserman-Jordan one.\n\nI read about their Thai sour sausage and asked the waiter about it. The waiter told us they have 3 dishes with sausage. This appetizer dish the most popular and the best one. It's minced sour sausage mixed with green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, crispy rice and lime juice. When I first tasted it, I thought it was.... very different. It wasn't like anything I had before. It was sour, spicy, salty, and crunchy. The flavor was very strong and it took me a while to get used to it. After a few more bite, it grew on me. It was unique and indeed quite good. The sour taste of the sausage and lime juice lingered on my tongue a bit. I like the crunchy texture of the crispy rice pop pop pop in my mouth.\n\nThis classic dish from Thailand consist of green papaya, chili, dry shrimp, tomato, crushed peanut mixed with lime juice, fish sauce and sugar. We ordered it medium spicy, but MY GOD this dish was super spicy! When I first put the papaya salad in my mouth, I thought it tasted sweet and sour. But the spicy hit me after I swallow the salad. It made my tongue numb. Being half Korean, BF definitely can handle spicy. But even he was beat by this dish. Man now my tongue feels a little numb right now just thinking about how spicy the papaya salad was. We told the waiter the salad was too spicy, he just smiled and pointed to the small pieces of green chili peppers in the dish, \"yeah... you need to stay away from the pepper.\" Even though this dish was way too spicy, we still think it's good and like it. Hard to believe, but we actually finished the whole plate.... with lots of ice water and rice of course.\n\nSauteed deep fried thin catfish slice with bone in fresh and dried chili and Thai basil leaves. Funny how this dish is called \"spicy\" catfish but it's really not spicy at all. Or maybe after that papaya salad nothing is spicy anymore? This dish was really good to eat with rice. The sauteed sauce was so yummy. We poured the sauce over our white rice and each had two bowls. The fish was fried then sauteed. Really tasty!\n\nWe like Lotus of Siam. But we only tried three dishes, so can't really say if it's the best Thai restaurant in the US or not. The three dishes that we tried all tasted very authentic, maybe even more authentic than LA authentic Thai restaurant. They also serve a lunch buffet for about $8. I would like to try that on our next Vegas trip.\n\nIf you're visiting Las Vegas and want to try something different, I would recommend Lotus of Siam. It's authentic and cheap. Service was good, too. The only thing is you probably need a car or take a taxi to get there from the strip.
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