My favorite authentic Thai restaurant in the South Bay is Siam Imperial located on Palm Avenue in Imperial Beach, just a block from the beachfront. Their doors opened a little more than a year ago and I have been hooked since.
Enter their doors and you’ll find a rustic contemporary open and airy space filled with an intoxicating smell of delicious food.
While there are a few choices for Thai in the South County area, there are two special reasons I take a greater liking to this establishment other than the authenticity and great flavor of the food.
Service absolutely makes or breaks the dining experience and the service has never wavered from fantastic. It’s a great place to bring the entire family, including small kids.
Another reason is their ocean friendly restaurant status through the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. Of just more than 100 restaurants with this status — meaning they partake in healthy, mindful conservation and sustainability practices — only three are in South County.
Two of the three owners, Kate and Win, are present daily serving and running the restaurant. All three owners are originally from Bangkok and also were in the hospitality industry in Thailand. Kate and her active-duty military husband are Chula Vista residents.
Ask for the chef specials for delicious off-menu items like my current favorite: scallop tofu savoey (seared scallops, fried tofu and asparagus served over a minced pork gravy sauce, served with a side of jasmine rice).
The restaurant’s signature dishes are must-haves: the refreshing asparagus and avocado salad and the very unique shrimp parcel that is a traditional Thai snack that’s enclosed in a net made from egg and folded into parcels.
Siam Imperial, 226 Palm Ave., Imperial Beach, is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday (closed on Monday).
Lunch specials are available weekdays and a delicious way to try all items on the menu.
Contact Kris Galicia Brown at:
Email: kris@krisgaliciabrown.com
Instagram: @krisgaliciabrown
Twitter: @krisgaliciabrwn
www.krisgaliciabrown.com
PERFORMING ARTS CALENDAR
OnStagePlayhouse
Chula Vista’s intimate community theater presents its first production of the 2018-19 season, “Xanadu,”directed by Teri Brown, July 13 to Aug. 18. The musical production, based on the 1980 film of the same name, can be simultaneously indefensible and irresistable as the outlandishly enjoyable stage spoof of the outrageously bad movie about a painter and his muse who find love at a roller disco in Los Angeles.
Broadway San Diego TV special
Broadway/San Diego is excited to announce the initial airing of the one-hour TV special on Friday, June 22, at 9:30 p.m., featuring highlights from the 5th annual Broadway/San Diego High School Musical Theatre Awards which took place on May 27 and is sponsored by San Diego County Credit Union®.
The first airing of this program comes just two days before two of San Diego’s best high school musical theater performers and winners of the 2018 Broadway San Diego Awards, Jonas McMullen and Felicity Bryant, compete at the Jimmy Awards in New York. The TV special will air a total of nine times on Cox YurView channels in California. This is channel 4 in San Diego, channel 3 in Orange County, and channel 8 in Santa Barbara.
The Top 20 nominees including three Best Musical nominees from San Diego County high schools will be featured in the 60-minute program.
The Jimmy Awards, also known as The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, presented by the Broadway League Foundation, will include a record number of 80 participants from 40 regional programs across the country.
Nominees will compete for the coveted Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor and Best Performance by an Actress and a chance at one of two $10,000 scholarships. The talent showcase will feature dynamic ensemble and solo performances plus appearances by current Broadway Stars. Nominees prepare for their debut on a Broadway stage during a nine-day professional training intensive with NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ New Studio on Broadway faculty members, plus other theatre professionals.
Participating San Diego County High Schools
Academy of Our Lady of Peace
Mary Poppins (Fall)
The Addams Family (Spring)
Canyon Crest Academy
Into the Woods (Fall)
Jekyll & Hyde (Spring)
Cathedral Catholic High School
Grease (Spring)
42nd Street (Spring)
Classical Academy High School
Drowsy Chaperone (Spring)
Coronado School of the Arts
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Fall)
City of Angels (Spring)
La Costa Canyon High School
Les Misérables (Spring)
La Jolla High School
Grease (Spring)
Mira Mesa High School
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Spring)
Mission Hills High School
American Idiot (Spring)
The O’Farrell Charter School
West Side Story (Spring)
Pacific Ridge School
Once on this Island (Spring)
Patrick Henry High School
Shrek the Musical (Spring)
Point Loma High School
Rent: School Edition (Spring)
Rancho Buena Vista
Bring It on! (Spring)
San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts
A Chorus Line (Spring)
San Dieguito Academy
Calvin Berger (Fall)
Chicago: School Edition (Spring)
Santa Fe Christian School
Mary Poppins (Spring)
Scripps Ranch High School
Legally Blonde (Spring)
Steele Canyon High School
The Sound of Music (Spring)
University City High School
Bye Bye Birdie (Spring)
West Hills High School
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Fall)
Westview High School
Legally Blonde (Spring)
WHEN: Broadway San Diego Awards One-Hour TV Special Airings
Friday, June 22, 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, June 28, 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 3, 1 p.m.
Friday, July 6, 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 1, 9:30 p.m.
Friday, July 1, 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 19, 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 26, 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 2, 9:30 p.m.
