For the "last meal" on one of my Utah visits I wanted to have a truly memorable Asian meal, and I ended up at Bangkok Thai Restaurant. Being a Saturday night I arrived early, around 6:00 p.m., before the large crowd arrived. Even though it was a very large restaurant, it ended up being full before too long.

This was one of the more nicely furnished Thai restaurants I have visited, with authentic looking décor. The large menu and upscale furnishings made me fear that it would be more Americanized than Thai, and that it was more of a "date" restaurant than one where authentic Thai food was served. One visit did not provide a definitive answer, but I did get the impression that this was one of the city's more upscale restaurants.

I ordered Pad King, a tofu dish with a ginger flavor. I appreciated that fact that Bangkok serves vegetarian dishes, something that is not usually the case in smaller Thai restaurants. I thought the flavor was good, although perhaps not quite as vibrant as I would find in some restaurants. Perhaps the fact that Bangkok serves truly vegetarian dishes (I think without fish sauce or other ingredients made with animal products) made it taste like it was lacking something that is normally included in this dish. The quality of the ingredients was good, though. I have since learned to order fish sauce with vegetarian dishes but I did not make this request when I went to Bangkok Restaurant.

Pad king is not one of Thailand's spiciest dishes, and the one I ordered here was about average in its heat level. I do not know how spicy certain dishes could be made if requested by the customer, but the "default" seems to be something with which the majority of Americans would be comfortable. I did not mind that the dish was not too spicy--I was mainly interested in the flavors.

A couple of things happened that made my meal not go quite as planned. I wanted chopsticks but the restaurant did not have any. Apparently the owner instructed all the staff that they did not give out chopsticks because "we don't use chopsticks in Thailand." I think the truth is that Thais use chopsticks mainly for noodle soup and other noodle dishes, but nevertheless this was quite amusing.

The restaurant had also run out of jasmine tea and I was not as amused about this, desiring to have tea with a good Thai meal. I have since learned that Bangkok Restaurant now serves several types of jasmine tea, so I would say they are not likely to run out of it in the future.

The service was good, and the waiter was doing his best to make me happy considering these "major" disappointments (or at least they seemed major at the time). Prices were quite high for a Thai restaurant, but I did feel that customers at least got the type service that should come with paying more.

There is enough on the menu to experiment with different dishes, so I would definitely say it is possible to break out of the mold of the more commonly known Thai dishes.