Dining Out:

Sitting among other retail and eating establishments in an average strip mall, Exotic Thai Cuisine in Burbank will give you a good but not extraordinary sampling of Thai food in a pleasant setting. Although the interior was festively adorned with lanterns decorated with red hearts — gearing up for Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day — I liked the place but won’t be falling in love with it.

Seating is arranged with leather upholstered booths on the perimeter and tables in the center, and the crowd that evening was a mixture of friends, couples and families. The menu offers many selections, which range from expected traditional favorites to several interesting creations.

We started with an appetizer called shrimp in blankets (five pieces for $7.50), which had no description, so it might have been risky if we ended up getting a piece of dough with shrimp substituted for a hot dog. Fortunately it was similar to an egg roll (but without vegetables) with a fried outer skin surrounding a whole piece of shrimp. It was lightly crunchy and came with a sweet and sour sauce for dipping. The plate was nicely decorated with chunks of pineapple around the rim.

There is an item called glass noodle salad ($8.95) listed in two adjacent places on the menu, with what appeared to be different options. One section showed ground pork and squid, and the other said you could have shrimp and ground chicken. We said we wanted the latter, but when the dish arrived there were shrimp, whole pieces of squid and ground — we couldn’t tell if it was pork or chicken. So we can’t be sure if the menu is confusing or the chef just threw it all in for fun.

The vegetables in the salad are purple cabbage, carrots and scallions, and it is accented with chili paste and a tasty lime dressing for a spicy zest. Fortunately the haphazard ingredients didn’t detract from its ultimate enjoyment. The vegetables were fresh, and I really liked the lime flavoring because it accented the offering rather than overpowered it.

Our first entree was Tasty Antioxidant ($8.25), perhaps one of the strangest-named dishes I’ve ever eaten. It was tasty, and contained vegetables with antioxidants (confession: I looked this up on the Internet to know what it means) so I suppose it lived up to both names. The ingredients were sauteed broccoli, carrots and tomato in a black pepper and garlic sauce. We asked for our version to be toned down so the sauce was milder than their standard, but it still contained enough flavor to satisfy the palate and the vegetables were cooked well. You can choose chicken, beef, pork or tofu (or shrimp for an extra $3) to go with it. We opted for the beef, which was disappointing and a little tough to chew.

The spicy jumbo scallop with asparagus ($16) partially lives up to its name with a spicy garlic sauce, but the scallops didn’t seem any bigger than average. The added vegetable here is red bell pepper, and mint leaves heighten the flavor. The asparagus was uniformly sliced into a size that was conducive for eating with chopsticks and cooked to a tender-crisp state. This dish also had a really nice spicy kick to it, but the scallops were slightly overcooked.

The exotic fried rice ($8.50) had glazed sausage, shrimp, tomato, onion and egg. The flavors blended well, and the sausage stood apart because of its sweetness. They must cook this quickly because the tomato retained its firmness.

All the dishes were well presented in white porcelain plates and bowls, but the portions seemed small in comparison with other restaurants. It is a rare occasion that we did not have any leftovers. We didn’t leave hungry and ordered what seemed the right amount of food, but I would have expected larger sizes.

They are featuring a “Love Special” for February that is a complete four-course dinner for $20 per person. Clever marketing concept, but I don’t foresee a second date. We’ll just remain good friends.

Get in touch PHILLIP HAIN is a Glendale resident who doesn’t mind traveling a reasonable distance for a good meal. Get in touch PHILLIP HAIN is a Glendale resident who doesn’t mind traveling a reasonable distance for a good meal.