Thai Food in North Augusta

As a resident technically of North Augusta, SC in the CSRA community, I was excited to see that a part-Thai restaurant had ventured into the generally uninspiring dining community that is North Augusta. An amazing town, yes. A wonderful, friendly community to live in, yes. A dining haven, no. I think the fact that the menu of the River House Restaurant is 1/2 Thai, 1/2 Continental (steak, fish, etc) illustrates the tepidness of restaurateurs to venture full throttle into the North Augusta Dining scene (well, lack there of). The restaurant itself is in the old B.C. Davenports space, which is pretty cozy and comfortable. The owners are also the owners of Mai Thai is Columbia County, a well known established Thai Restaurant. Entrees range from about 10-25 dollars with the Thai food being toward the lower end and the traditional steaks on the higher one. They do serve beer and wine, though we chose not to drink that evening, so I cannot comment on the selections available. As we ate Thai food on our recent visit to the River House, I can only speak for the Thai side of the menu. There are about 20 Thai dishes that cover the expected range of Thai delights but it lacks some innovation. Part of the fun, to me, of eating ethnic food is getting to try new things and chef specialties, but there really weren't any to speak of. For appetizers we had the Calamari with Thai Dipping Sauce and "A3" (a ground spicy chicken dish with lettuce--almost a salad). The calamari were served hot and crisp, which we enjoyed. While I always like sweet red chili sauce (just see the large bottle in my fridge), I had hoped the dipping sauce might be something more alluring. The ground chicken salad was indeed spicy, and while tasty, I found it to have a bit of a bitter aftertaste but it was generally good. For entrees, we shared the drunken noodles with beef and a seafood curry with kaffir lime leaves and mushrooms. The portions were fair sized. The drunken noodles had a nice texture and a reasonable amount of thinly sliced and tender beef but needed to be kicked up a bit. Had it not been for the basil, it would have been near devoid of flavor. The seafood curry had plenty of flavor but only contained 8 mediumish shrimp and a sprinkling of mushrooms for $15.00. Even with rising food prices, I thought this was a bit lacking. The staff was lovely and attentive. I am glad the River House is here, and with a few more interesting specialties would be worth visiting again. The waitperson stated that their fried cheesecake was delicious, but we decided to eat some chocolate mousse parfaits my honey had prepared at home (which were delicious!). Overall, I found the environment inviting and the food mediocre.

Rating: 9/20

The River House is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is located at 301 Georgia Ave, North Augusta.