Critic's Review
Tara is a new Thai and Japanese Cuisine restaurant tucked in a strip mall on East Commercial just west of the bridge. Its a nice space with green walls, black and green resin tables, track lighting and jazzy music playing. Its a pretty space with attractive but uncomfortable orange plastic chairs the only negative. There's also pet grooming place next door so expect to hear some barking.
You can get take out here, but they're not really set up for it. There's no place to wait and there's no front register. They do deliver with a $25. minimum.
I started with soup: the Tom Yum Goong which is a hot and sour soup flavored with lemongrass and lime with shrimp and mushrooms.
The soup was overpowered with lime without enough spice. Not a bad flavor, but not the correct one either. The soup included whole straw mushrooms and nice, jumbo shrimp with the tails on.
For the main course I had Red Curry Chicken which is served with steamed jasmine rice. The lunch price for this dish is $8.95.
The curry was nicely balanced with mild spice. It was very mild; not as spicy as I expected. But I did enjoy it. The chicken was a bit dry and they used green peppers instead of red peppers; the red pepper in the picture was just a garnish. This kind of cost cutting is an annoyance, particularly when they're charging more than most other places. Overall I liked the dish, but it could have been better.
Tara is a nice place with pleasant service unless barking dogs really annoy you. There are no bargains here, and it seems that they tend to temper the spice in their dishes. If you like your food spicy I suggest you specify it when you order.
******
UPDATE: The dog grooming place has closed.