Bua Thai Cuisine, Washington D.C.

We actually planned to visit Sushi Taro on 17th street for the last day of their ramen special: Tonkasu ramen.  The picture looked soooo appetizing that I decided to drive 40+ mins to DC to meet up with husband.  When he arrived before 12pm, he was told at least 30 min wait, and at 12:30pm there was still no tables or bar seats available.  So since we were out of luck with the ramen, we strolled down the street and found this Thai restaurant called Bua for lunch.

Bua is a small but cozy restaurant, the interior decor makes you feel at home with brick walls and simple decor.  The tables and settings are clean and elegant.  We were immediately seats and placed our orders for lunch.

I order the Thai stick appetizer, it is a grilled beef appetizer with a variation of satay sauce.  The dish was excellent!  Maybe we were just too hungry after waiting 45 minutes for lunch at Sushi Taro, but this was juicy and had all the right flavors.  I'd definitely order this again, maybe two orders next time :)

Thai stick

We were both cold from walking up and down the street and finding parking.  So we both ordered noodle soup from their menu.  He ordered the beef stew with rice noodles, it had some asian herb flavor to it.  Although not his favorite, he said it was descent... 

beef stew noodle soup

I ordered the tom yum chicken noodle soup.  It was just okay as well, not very 'tom yum' like.  I think the restaurant adopted more American flare due to its location, but the flavors were there nonetheless.  It was good enough that I finished the whole bowl.  Even though I'm not Thai of origin, I could tell the tom yum flavor was not very authentic.

tom yum chicken noodle soup

Overall, it was a satisfying lunch.  My conclusion is: excellent appetizer and average entrees.  It was a bit pricey though, the noodle soups were both on the small side (about a regular size bowl in Pho) and they were $9 each.  But the service was great and the owner was courteous (he exchanged $5 worth of change for me so I could fill meters before I sat down to eat).  I had no complaints and went home with a full tummy.

FoodiePop's rating for Thai food: 3.8/5

Bua Thai Cuisine
1635 P Street
N.W. Washington, DC 20036