For a number of years now, a friend of mine has engaged in the arduous annual exercise of organizing her own birthday party: a dinner with thirty-five friends at a restaurant. Her criteria are vast - She wants a Bring your Own Wine. Prices must be reasonable. Location must be in close proximity to the after party. Vegetarian options must be available. And the restaurant must be able accommodate roughly thirty somewhat boisterous diners out to celebrate on a Saturday night.\n\nThis is how we ended up at Bouddha Bouddha, which did in fact meet each one of these requirements. Possibly a feat in itself. The atmosphere is simple, d\u00e9cor is sparse and wooden, with a few Asian artifacts dispersed across the room. The back of the eatery hosts an open kitchen where you can a see bustling crowd of chefs cooking up a storm.\n\nThe menu is mostly Thai, but includes other Asian dishes. I'm not one for menus with pictures, and this is particularly true when the majority of the pictures are blurry and somewhat indecipherable, as was the case here. The layout of the menu itself was considerably confusing. It was difficult to discern what was a sauce, what was a main dish, what came with what, and what the possible choices were.\n\nWe sampled three appetizers: chicken satay sticks served with a chunky peanut sauce, imperial rolls, and the vegetable gyozas. The chicken was was up to to par, but I'm a sucker for anything with peanut sauce. The gyozas were spiced well, and had an unusual dark green colour.\n\nTo my biggest surprise, all thirty meals arrived within moments of each other, a very unusual occurrence at this annual event. The pad thai was decently loaded with chicken, eggs and vegetables, however the noodles themselves were sub-par. The beef red curry was tasty: thinly sliced beef and classic vegetables in an excessively spicy curry.\n\nThe food is not outstanding. Nor is it particularly unsatisfactory. Dinner with thirty may not be an adequate experience to judge. Prices are inexpensive.
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