text: Lotus of Siam gets a lot of attention for being rated the #1 Thai restaurant in the U.S. But every time I try to go there, there's either a line out the door, or it's closed -- as happened yesterday. I remembered hearing about Le Thai, so I went there as a Plan B. Now, it's my new Plan A!\n\nI'm not really a Thai food snob (I usually just order pad Thai)...and as anyone who's read my other reviews knows, I rate restaurants more based on their atmo than the food quality, anyway. You can get good food at the f*cking grocery store! If you're PAYING to eat out, you want a cool atmo, to make it worth your while. RIGHT?!\n\nLe Thai has a very cool atmo. It's cute and teeny-tiny -- so cute and teeny-tiny you almost expect it to start shooting ping pong balls out its....well, you know! About 1/2 is in the front room, and the other 2/3 is in this really cool sort of beer-garden-ish courtyard-type room. VERY cool!\n\nThe windows in the front room look out onto Fremont St. East, so depending on the time of day you can either watch winos and crackheads shuffling down the sidewalk, or drunk-ass college girls stumbling out of Insert Coins across the street. (I recommend the early show... the late show is old news. Although one of my fave things about this joint is that it's open til LATE -- midnight during the week, and 2am on weekends.)\n\nI went here for lunch, and had a bowl of tofu pad thai, a 4 on the spiciness scale of 1-5. It was GREAT! Pretty spicy, but tolerable, and I think it was around $8. Good deal!\n\nI am in the process of moving downtown...so I will most definitely be comign here again!