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Ate: December 29, 2005 Published: January 1, 2006 $$ My lovely wife and I decided that we wanted to end the year with a little adventure and exotic flavor, and we had a specific place in mind. We headed into the heart of Myrtle Beach, literally on Main Street. Located just a few blocks north of King's Highway and the Pavilion, this section of Myrtle Beach has a hip, happening feel to it and Loyal Thai fits right in. This is another small restaurant. There are only around eight tables up front and a few more in the bar in back. The kitchen is open and right up front, generating all sorts of wonderful smells and sounds as the food is being cooked. The whole place is decorated in a very eclectic, artistic style that gives the place almost a beatnick atmosphere. Each of the tables is an individual work of art, made up of a window frame with the panes of glass removed and replaced with stained glass patterns. There is an art gallery just down the street from Loyal Thai and they had several paintings on display in the restaurant. According to the waitress, they swap out the paintings on a regular basis. This evening, all of the paintings were the product of a local artist named Buddy Locklear. Buddy is a surfer from way back who has surfed the world. His art reflects a lot of that, with Polynesian and South Pacific influences as well. On their menu, Loyal Thai calls themselves "A gallery of visual & culinary flavors." The two of us would have to say that they're pretty accurate. We had wanted a little adventure, and the appetizer menu was one more step in that direction. There were plenty of choices that looked interesting, and we selected Shrimp in the Net. The name alone was intriguing enough that we couldn't resist. The shrimp were marinated and the net was made of wonton noodles. The whole thing was then fried until the noodles were crispy and golden brown. They were served up with a sweet and sour dipping sauce that clung thickly to the noodles. With the shrimp inside the net still juicy and firm, this appetizer hit the spot for us. Both of us like our food spicy, but the stories we've heard about Thai food made us treat it with respect. When offered the chance to go all-out, we both demurred. They offer four different levels of heat: mild, medium, hot and authentic Thai hot. After about three bites, the two of us were very glad that we had just gone for just hot instead of authentic Thai. The hot level provided enough of an endorphin rush to last us for the evening. My wife had ordered the combination fried rice, where "combination" means beef, chicken, pork and shrimp along with chunks of peppers, onions carrots and peas. The menu had said "mixed vegetables," and if my wife had known that it included peas, she probably would not have ordered it, or at least asked them to leave the peas out. But she's a trooper and continued on undaunted as she deftly separated the peas out with her fork. But I really can't say much because I do the same thing with broccoli, mushrooms and cucumbers. Excepting the peas, she thoroughly enjoyed her meal. As I've already discussed, it was very hot, but there were a lot more spices working in there than just the heat. As is our usual situation, I tried a few bites of her meal (with the peas). I had not been expecting the rich nutty flavor and it really played very well with the rest of the spices. If you read our recent review of Margarita's Mexican Restaurant, you know that I'm a sucker for anything with the word "drunken" in its name (or "borracho" as it was called there). This time, it was Loyal Thai's drunken noodles. Unlike my bride's combination dish, I had to choose a type of meat and opted for the beef. It did have many of the same vegetables as hers did, but alas, no peas. Instead, it had scallions and some really succulent grape tomatoes. All of these were cooked in a very aromatic sauce and then stir-fried with a large plate of noodles. I had been expecting thin noodles like lo mein or the wonton noodles wrapped around the shrimp in our appetizer. Instead, these noodles were wider, similar in width to fettuccini noodles. These wider noodles were a little tougher to twirl up on my fork, so it made the eating a little messier. But the taste was still excellent. The sauce gave this dish a predominantly sweet flavor, but the flavors of the beef and savory vegetables were present as well. We had come out to dinner in the middle of the week, during the week between Christmas and New Year's. As you could expect, Loyal Thai was not very crowded, so the two of us were able to sit leisurely and enjoy our dinner in peace. When we did finally leave the restaurant, we came away full and satisfied. After a less than satisfactory experience, our last time out for dinner, we were especially appreciative of the pleasant evening the two of us had just spent in Loyal Thai. I think we can officially say that we have found another hidden treasure. If you want to step out of the ordinary and add a little eclectic spiciness to your time in Myrtle Beach, Loyal Thai is a good place to help you do that. The menu has plenty of depth to it so you and your friends can all get something different and share. Or you can do like the two of us plan to do and come back again. |
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