With a lunch buffet Pailin seemed as if it would be a great bargain and would provide a place near the University where you could eat quickly without having to wait for your food to be prepared. It fulfilled part of the expectation by having the food already prepared so I could begin the serious business of digging in to the Thai food. However, they were slow in refilling some of the items that had disappeared, so this may not be such a good place if you are in a hurry (I was more picky about the dishes since I was eating vegetarian dishes, otherwise I would have just taken whatever was available).

The bigger disappointment, though, was in the flavor of the food. It just did not have the strong Thai spices that I like. It was especially disappointing because there is a much better restaurant, Thai Dusit, on the opposite end of campus that to me seemed so much more worthwhile.

Pailin was not bad, in fact it was pretty good, as is almost all Thai food. Pailin is very prominent as you approach UW from I-5 along 45th Street, and looks upscale, so it was one of the restaurants in Seattle I really wanted to try and write a review. The food, though, is more in line with the numerous Asian restaurants along "The Ave" whose food fades into mediocrity and whose names I did not even think worthy of taking note.