and so, looking for an adventure ( and needing to do some shopping in A Big City ), we trekked to madison. we thought it would be fun to have lunch somewhere that served cuisine a bit more exotic than the typical fare to be round in rural southwest wisconsin and not knowing the madison restaurant scene nearly as well as i should, i put out a call on the social intertubes for a thai food recommendation.

bahn thai received the most number of votes so we decided to give it a try and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was next door to westfield comics which gave us the perfect opportunity to introduce odin to the wonders of a Comic Book Store. not having been in a comics shop in A Very Long Time, i was quickly reminded that the age appropriate pickings for an almost seven year old are slim ( thankfully odin didn’t stumble upon the new issue of heavy metal ), but we had a great time sitting on the floor and flipping through what selection they did have.

odin eventually settled on a copy of a batman comic which made for a great way to pass the time while we waited for our food after we meandered over to the restaurant ( as an aside, i think odin could develop a great love of comics and we’re looking for recommendations – some folks have already recommended the muppet show comic book and the secret science alliance ).

the food arrived quickly and bahn thai served good, but not great fare. the pork pad thai was a little sweet for my taste, but the fried rice and chicken satay were excellent. definitely worth more trips to explore the menu.

sa-bai got the second most number of votes on email, fb and twitter. vietenne palace and one for sala thai both got votes and look interesting from the yelp reviews. so we have plenty of thai options the next time we visit madison!

we’re certainly looking forward to hitting “madtown” more often. i can’t believe we’ve only visited a few times over the past few years.