Suzanne and I spent part of Presidents Day wandering about the Financial District and Downtown. We started out by heading to the Ferry Building. I could spend some serious money there on ingredients. In fact, I expect I will.

After we tired of wandering we realized we were hungry and looked for a place to eat. Everything in the ferry building was packed, so we headed back into the financial district. “What do you want?” she asked. “Hmm.. Thai” I said. I was just whipping out my iPhone to check for nearby Thai restaurants when we looked across the street and saw Osha. Suzanne raves about the location in the Mission, and I was impressed with their SOMA location, so we went in.

Suzanne got a Palmtinni while I went with an Anchor Steam. What was of note was the mug:

Notice where the handle is. I’m calling this a case of bad design. It’s too high. With the mug full it’s awkward to tip it up to drink from.

We started with Thai Samosas (Potato, onion, carrot and yellow curry in a pot sticker wrapper served with fresh cucumber salad). These tasted fine but we both thought they were a bit too light & flakey. They came with 4 pieces but we’d started in before think to take a pic.

Next up was the Mango Salad (Streamed prawns, sliced mango, red onions, mint, cilantro, Kaffir lime leaf and cashew nuts in spicy lemongrass dressing). This was the star of the meal. Beautifully done. Crisp and refreshing, tart & nicely spicy. And it was garnished with lots of sliced cucumber. I like cucumber. Suzanne doesn’t. I ate all the cucumbers. Win-win.
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For the main entre we got Volcanic Beef (Wok-fried grilled premium flank steak with basil and black pepperin Lava sauce garnished with onion rings). While it was well presented and flavorful enough, it lacked heat. We ordered it “spicy” but it was bland with respect to chilis.

The Mango Salad was far and away the star of the meal. In fact it’s the only dish that I’d order again.

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Suzanne and I went for Thai tonight before popping into Wicked Grounds (a review of which is forthcoming).

We started with the curry puffs (crispy pastries filled with curried diced duck & sweet potatoes), of which I have no picture as we started into them before thinking to snap a picture.  They were good  Duck… yum.

We then moved on to the larb gai (minced chicken tossed in lime, chili and parched rice). This stuff was *good*.

Next it was on to the main course.

First tamarind prawns (light battered prawns wok tossed in spicy tamarind with crisp shallots and garlic). These were nice.  The prawns were nicely done, although we found the sauce to be more sweet & sour than tamarind. The crisp shallots were especially tasty, though.

The other main course dish was kang kua gai (tangy red curry of julienned chicken breast and pumpkin).  This was tasty enough, and the pumpkin was nice. However, the chicken was on the dry side.

Overall, dinner was great.  The restaurant itself was nice enough, and the service was spectacular. Worth a visit, I’d say.

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