Arun Thai - Novato

385 Bel Marin Keys Blvd, Novato CA 94949
(415) 883-8017
Parking: parking lot
Hours: Lunch Mon - Fri 11am to 3pm, Dinner Mon - Sun 5pm - 10pm

Last Visited: July 31, 2010

Food: 3 to 4 stars
Atmosphere: 3 to 4 stars
Service: 3 stars
Price: $ to $$$

I was reading the Novato Advance and saw the nice write up on Arun Thai. Their description of the pumpkin curry prawns sounded so delicious that I knew exactly what I was going to get when I went for lunch.

Arun Thai is located in a small strip mall if you could call it that. It's a stand alone building that has warehouse spaces in the back. The front has a sign showing the restaurant name clearly, so you won't miss it if you look past the lawn area.

The less impressive exterior is quickly forgotten when you get a glimpse of the modern interior. A combination of dark wood, eggplant and chartreuse walls, colorful napkins, and Thai paintings transport you to an inviting place. I was quite impressed at what they had done so simply and smartly. The large flower bouquet also adds to the ambiance and the windows both in the front and side of the restaurant stream in a lot of natural light. Two entrances, one on the side and one in the front, bring you into the dining area which contains a booths against one wall, regular tables in the middle, and a bank of tables against a cushioned seating area along the other wall.

Owned by a husband and wife team, Arun Thai is named after the husband. The servers are friendly and happy to explain items to you if you have questions. Upon our arrival for lunch, we were given ice water and menus. It seemed to take them a while to come back since it was pretty busy during this lunch time, but the food still came out quickly.

The lunch menu is fairly simple offering a reduced set of items from the main menu, but still providing enough variety that you'll be able go back again and again to try new things.

- Lunch items are accompanied by salad or soup of the day and a choice of jasmine or brown rice. While the menu stated that soup was available as a choice, the server just brought salad to us without asking and since it was our first time, we really didn't pay much attention to this. The fresh salad greens (mixed greens with more lettuce and a wedge of tomato) was dressed in a light vinaigrette with fresh herbs.

- Pumpkin Curry Prawn - Prawns are simmered in a creamy red curry sauce, with seasonal vegetables and Kabucha pumpkin. As you can see from the picture, I ordered this both for lunch and dinner. The lunch plate came with a huge serving of rice - more than I could finish. The dinner curry was nicely presented with fresh Thai basil leaves on top. The seasonal vegetables included red and green bell peppers, carrots, green beans, and zucchini. I really like the balance of sweet and savory in this dish. Another thing that is done well is that they don't let the pumpkin stew too long - it's soft without being mushy and it hasn't broken down to the point of changing the texture of the sauce. It's about as perfect as a pumpkin curry gets. Lunch $8.50, Dinner $12.50

While the lunch visit was a bit slow in terms of ordering and having our check brough to us, the food was very good and well-flavored and we still managed to leave within an hour which is perfect for the business crowd. I was impressed enough to come back for a second visit not long after the first.

For dinner, I opted to try out an appetizer as well as some of their noodle offerings.

- Tod Mun - Ground fish is mixed with Thai curry paste and green beans, then deep fried until brown. The four cakes are served with a sweet and sour cucumber salad. The salad contains red onion and chopped cilantro too. I liked the flavor of the cakes - not too salty which is often the fault found at other locations. The cucumber salad was also very fresh with the cucumbers being super crunchy and marinated just right so that the onion and cucumbers with the dressing was refreshing and paired well with the tod mun. Great. $6.50

- Pad Thai - Rice noodles are fried in a wok with tofu, egg, bean sprouts, and shrimp. While the photo here was taken after we had already started to dig into the dish, you'll notice that for all of the other dishes shown, presentation is attended to and very nice. The pad thai noodles were al dente and the tamarind sauce was a little more sweet than I prefer, but still good. Lunch $7.95, Dinner $9.50

- Drunken Noodle with Beef - Wide flat rice noodles are fried in a wok with a garlic basil sauce, beef, American broccoli, and Chinese broccoli. I liked how there were more noodles in this dish than you find at other restaurants. You can really taste the basil in this dish. Good. $7.95

My overall experience at Arun has been very positive. Go early for dinner for more one-on-one service if you think you'll have a lot of questions. While lunch service could use some refinement, it's a great addition to Novato's lunch and dinner scene; I will definitely visit again.

I've also heard that their BBQ Thai Islamic lamb ($16) which is only listed on the dinner menu is awesome. Several people I know have raved about that quite a bit. I'll have to give it a try next time.