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A Caveat I really wanted to like Lotus Thai Cuisine. The little restaurant is charming, with its skylights, sunken tables, bright purple and earth-tone walls and elegant sconces. A small fish pond by the entrance fascinated Michaela to no end - and you get to take off your shoes if you want to eat on the carpeted, elevated platform where the sunken tables lie. The service was good - the waiters were attentive, even if they looked a little worried about Mika's possible antics. But ultimately a restaurant is about the food, and this is where Lotus Thai fell painfully short. Kathy, Mika and I stopped by Lotus Thai for lunch one Friday in June 2004. We ordered three dishes from the lunch menu - planning to take the leftovers home for Mike. We got the beef satay, the BBQ chicken and a pork kebab (about $7 each) which was served with the same fiery sweet-and-sour sauce as the chicken. All the meats were impossibly dry, either from careless overcooking or just poor reheating. The accompanying sauces were OK, but they couldn't rescue the low-quality meats; nothing could have. The best part of the meals was certainly the rice. The portions were on the small side for Thai restaurants. The BBQ chicken consisted of three pieces which were mostly bone and the only two small skewers of the pork kebab were served. I certainly wouldn't go back to Lotus Thai for lunch, though the restaurant is nice enough that I may give it a try for dinner (perhaps they pay more attention to this meal?). If I return, I would order a beef or lamb curry; it's tougher to dry meat when cooked in liquid. Lotus Thai Cuisine 4133 Piedmont Avenue Oakland (510) 658-8491