Over the course of our Best of... we saw a few spots receive only a handful of votes, all of which were high scores. This put the restaurants under the threshold to be included in the final lists, but still served as a good reminder of places we needed to visit.
Phonthip has been recommended to us by multiple people, and we finally decided to check it out as the uniformly high scores for it trickled in. And you know, you were right. Phonthip is, likely, the best Thai food in Spokane. The menu is creative -- most Thai spots in the region have rather interchangeable menus -- and the food is good. What more do you really need? Reasonable prices? Phonthip has that too.
We tried the pumpkin curry during our visit, something that just seemed appropriately seasonable. Served with your choice of meat and kabocha, the curry had just a bit of kick toward the middle of the tongue. Not too spicy, but very warming, and the Thai basil added a subtle sweetness to the sauce.
The accompanying rice was... Well, it was just rice, really, but served in a reasonable portion. That's a good thing; those huge buckets of rice often goes wasted, but here the size matched that of the main dish.
We also sampled the Tom Kha soup: The broth here was very good, with fresh flavors of ginger and lemongrass dominating the palette. Sadly the chicken hadn't quite taken on those flavors and kind of seemed like it had been thrown in last minute. That's too bad, as the soup really could have been of meritorious quality had it not been for the flavorless chicken.
The dumpling appetizer is recommended as a starter -- five small dumplings won't fill you up, and is the perfect amount for two people. Try the Thai ice tea too; very refreshing.
Phonthip might not be quite up there with Pok Pok, but we'll stand by those who claim it's Spokane's best Thai food. It's definitely worth the trek up north, should you live elsewhere, and hopefully by next year's Best of... enough of us will have tried the place to give it the recognition it does deserve.