Imagine this: you are out eating dinner with your family and as you sit down at the restaurant you have an uncanny feeling you know the person sitting a few tables away. After multiple (not so) discrete glances, you realize “[oh look!] there’s Dr. Moore sitting there and staring off into space because that feels so good at the end of the work week.”

This scenario is one Dani Moore, a Wilson AP Environmental Science and AP Biology teacher, joked about (relatively seriously) as she described dining at her “neighborhood joint” Beau Thai in Mount Pleasant. Moore discovered the restaurant simply by noticing it as she walked around the neighborhood. For a time, she went with a friend on Friday nights after yoga class. And now, “whenever I don’t really feel like cooking, [I] go,” Moore explained. “[Beau Thai] is super neighborhood-y and I dig the vibe.”

So, on a brisk, sunny afternoon, my friend Emma and I walked up to the door of Beau Thai, a beige brick one-story building with tall windows extending across the front facade on Mt Pleasant St. The inside was relatively large with tall concrete ceilings and lightbulbs hanging above the small square wooden tables and grey school-style chairs. Sunlight from the front and side windows glowed off of the white tiled walls by the bar counter in the far left corner of the room. Covering the entire wall across from the front door were a few large vintage images of greenery and a middle-aged Thai couple. 

Beau Thai serves a wide variety of appetizers, from steamed dumplings to crispy pork belly, rice dishes, and noodle bowls — many dishes are gluten-free or vegetarian. Prices tend to range from $7 to $15. On Moore’s recommendation, we ordered the garden rolls ($7) and drunken noodles ($13).

The garden rolls, composed of fresh lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and fried tofu wrapped in translucent white rice paper, were refreshing. The smooth, sweet-spicy peanut sauce added a pop of flavor to the array of textures.

Drunken noodles are wide rice noodles stir-fried with pork in a mixture of soy sauce, chili pepper, and basil. The dish arrived piping hot—the noodles were delicate but still chewy, and explosively sweet and salty from the soy sauce and sauteed onion, which quickly grew into a dull burn from the chili peppers. The pork was perfectly cooked—it was tender without being dry. The dish was definitely on the oily side, but a trait comparable to other versions I have had in the past.

From the lo-fi background music to the cheery ambience, Beau Thai has a great atmosphere with kind and efficient staff and good food. I wouldn’t say it was the best Thai food I have eaten—nor the cheapest—but you should definitely consider adding it to your weekend dining repertoire.