By Dr. Ink

Think in multiples of five when entering the tranquil confines of Lotus Thai Cuisine in Hillcrest for happy hour. The long-established restaurant, famous for its corn fritters and precise execution of colored curries, has rolled out a menu of appetizers and drinks priced without complication.

For $5 apiece, you can swim in a 21-ounce beer from Thailand or Japan while noshing on various appetizers such as lemongrass pork, chicken satay, shrimp tempura and more at the same cost. The five-spot specials apply also to soju cocktails and wines by the glass, all served within eyeshot of a trickling water feature and a linear seating arrangement that would easily pass muster by a feng shui expert.

Rarely, if ever, will you encounter at Lotus the raucous, booze-guzzling crowds of other happy-hour scenes, where admittedly I’ve been known to blow my budget on high-powered cocktails and loud jukeboxes. Here, you decompress through quiet conversation with friends, unloading your day’s highs and lows while sharing the dining room with customers eating full meals from the regular menu.

Visiting with a friend who prefers civility over frivolity, we each nursed from jumbo bottles of Singha beer, which is brewed in Bangkok and known for its sweet, malty notes. Though not so difficult to find, we reveled over its $5 price tag opposed to about $8 that you’d pay per bottle on the retail market. If our eyes served us correctly after polishing most of it off, the label’s fine print showed the beer ranks at a sturdy 6 percent alcohol. Bring on the appetizers!

The chicken satay featured four skewers of breast meat conforming to the length of each stick. They’re served with cucumber relish and peanut sauce sporting a sweet, silky sheen. Good pickings, but not enough to anchor our feet to the ground afterwards. So we proceeded to tofu fries, adding a dose of chili paste to them along with way, and then ultimately filling up on an order of tasty Thai corn fritters, which incorporate corn and green beans. In the end, we came away with stomachs full of fizzy Thai lager and mildly spiced eats for a painless $12.50 apiece.

RATINGS:

Drinks: 4/5
Hard alcohol goes missing from the drink list, although the Asian beers, assorted soju cocktails and several wines by the glass leave you with plenty of choices.

Food: 4/5
Choose from nearly a dozen appetizers ranging from green papaya salad and shrimp tempura to classic chicken satay and the restaurant’s signature corn fritters.

Value: 4/5
Everything is $5 during happy hour. Food and drink portions vary, however. The beers are served in large, 21-ounce bottles; wines by the glass appear generously poured; and tofu French fries and corn fritters are adequately filling.

Service: 5/5
Service is swift, thanks to a well-staffed dining room.

Duration: 5/5
Get your Thai food and drink fix any day of the week, as happy hour extends through weekends.

Lotus Thai
3761 Sixth Ave. (Hillcrest)
619-299-8272
Happy Hour: 5 to 7 p.m., daily