PGH Dining: Pusadee's Garden

We dined at Pusadee's Garden on a night it monsooned in PGH. The rain was coming down so hard that it almost bent my umbrella. Seriously.

Pusadee's has a lovely patio, adorned with plants and cozy seating, but we didn't get to enjoy that {OBVIOUSLY}. Instead, we were seated at one of the white-tableclothed tables near the window in the front of the restaurant, with a view of the monsoon. It seemed so pleasant from the inside looking out. We were pleased with the simple, yet complete, Thai menu. There were spring rolls to curries, and tom yum soup to lighter dishes like eggplant basil stir-fry. 

We started with the garden roll, which was filled with vegetables and served with a chili-carrot sauce. The cilantro and mint combination was refreshing in the roll.

 We then moved on to the tom kar, which is a coconut soup. We ordered it with vegetables only, since we had a curry coming. It was delicious! {But then again, we love anything with that creamy coconut milk inside.}

Mushrooms, broccoli and carrot simmered in a coconut broth.

To finish off out appetizers {haven't we had enough appetizing?!}, we had the grilled shrimp salad with chili lime dressing. This salad was nothing like the description on the menu. We never though it'd come with stewed tomatoes on top, and the lime flavor must have been masked by the tomato mixture. It was good, but NOT what we were expecting to arrive at the table. 

 Finally, we shared the pumpkin curry with chicken, kabocha squash, zucchini and carrots. It was a fabulous dish, but we hardly tasted the pumpkin. There was a hint of squashiness, but it came from the kabocha. I missed the pumpkin!

 The meal ended with my noshing down on a bay leaf:

Isn't that a sign for good luck? If so, I'll take it, especially since it was in the shape of a heart!

Pusadee's Garden was good, but not overwhelmingly. I'm sure that if we were to have sat on the patio for dinner, our view of our meal would have been even more enjoyable. Also, the menu was somewhat misleading, and we missed a few of the majorly advertised flavors in multiple dishes {i.e. lime, chili, and pumpkin}. The waitstaff was excellent, and we'll likely be walking over to give it another shot sometime this summer.

Neighborhood: UpLa, Upper Lawrenceville

Good For: Dates, BYOB, Family Dinners

Gems: Patio Seating, Well-Rounded Menu

Drawbacks: Misleading Menu Items