WHITE ELEPHANT
ADDRESS: 440 S Anaheim Boulevard, Suite 207, Anaheim, CA 92805
WEBSITE: https://www.welephant.com/
After hanging out in Downtown Disney, my friend Michele suggested that we head over to the Anaheim Packing District to check that area out, which was only a short drive away. I hadn’t heard of it before, but the Anaheim Packing District was a former orange processing location for Sunkist before the area got re-purposed. One of those buildings, named The Packing House, was transformed into a food hall, packed (no pun intended) with different restaurants, bars, and small shops. Those restaurants featured a variety of cuisines to choose from, and for a person like me where all types of food usually sounds good, it certainly makes figuring out what to eat a tough decision.
There are two levels to the food hall, and we wanted to play it smart by doing a full walkthrough of the place to see what all the options were before deciding what to eat. Funny enough, it ended up being a place that I saw when we first walked into the food hall that I ultimately decided on, called White Elephant. The place specialized in Thai cuisine, both in modern interpretations as well as classic preparations of dishes.
Along with classic dishes like pad thai, pad see ew, and drunken noodles, their options for their “Modern Twists” section of the menu featured a meal creation aspect, where you could choose one protein, one green, and one side. Some examples of proteins included Turmeric Grilled Chicken, Garlic Sesame Salmon, or Crying Tiger Steak, to name a few. But the one menu item that had caught my eye when initially walking by was the Coconut Milk Fried Chicken, which is what I ended up getting. I paired that with rice noodles and the “Spinach Lover” greens — baby spinach with feta cheese, pecans, and cilantro lime dressing over top.
It took the staff a little over 10 minutes before my order was ready, which seemed pretty efficient given that they had quite a few orders piling up after I put mine in. The food hall itself had communal seating areas located around the entire building, and we ended up taking our food outside to a table to eat. When I took the to-go container out of the bag, it definitely had some heft to it, and looked like it was bursting at the top with how much food was packed into it.
Inside, the container featured an array of colors between the three different items, and I really liked that color contrast between the chicken, greens, and rice noodles. The fried chicken looked like it had a nice, crisp exterior, with an orange-golden color to it. The spinach greens also looked fresh, with the cilantro lime dressing and feta cheese adding a visual pop to round things out. It was definitely a feast for the eyes, and it is also a rare instance where I thought that the photo was able to do the food justice.
The fried chicken certainly did not disappoint. The breading had just the right thickness to give it crunch, but yet still remained on the flaky side. The chicken thighs were marinated in coconut milk and Thai herbs, and I was able to get some subtle coconut flavor in some of my bites. The chicken itself remained moist, and with four big chunks of chicken provided, I thought there was definitely good value in the overall dish. The spinach greens, mixed in with the feta cheese, cilantro lime dressing, and pecans, helped to provide a nice flavor as well as freshness contrast to the fried chicken. Along with the rice noodles, this combination of the protein, veggies, and carbs really helped balance each other out so that I didn’t feel too heavy afterwards, like I normally might after eating fried foods.
The Anaheim Packing District definitely has quite a few options to choose from, and I would certainly like to go back to try some more places. But I think that White Elephant was a great introduction to what the food hall has to offer, with my dish having the bold flavors that are typical to Thai cuisine mixed with that modern twist of the fried chicken route. The pairing with the veggies and rice noodles was very complementary to each other, and everything felt like a very balanced container of food overall. If the quality of their other dishes are anything like the fried chicken that I got, White Elephant is definitely a must-visit if you are stopping by the Anaheim Packing District.
Let’s now take a look at the White Elephant Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Coconut Milk Fried Chicken with Spinach Lover and Rice Noodles **
Chicken thighs marinated with coconut milk and Thai herbs, deep-fried. Served with spinach greens topped with feta cheese, pecans, and cilantro lime dressing, along with rice noodles.
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And finally, here are my rankings for White Elephant:
Food: 5 / 5
You do eat with your eyes first, and the visual appeal of my food really popped from the initial impression. The flavors were there to back up how it looked, and the balance between all three of the items helped it to feel like a complete meal. I think that the diversity of their offerings also provides a good number of options to choose from as well.
Atmosphere: N/A
Since this was a food hall setting, the restaurant didn’t have a specific seating area that was designated to it to establish an ambiance.
Service: 4.5 / 5
The staff seemed to really crank out the food in a good amount of time, even though it seemed like there were quite a few orders stacked up.
Price: 4.75 / 5
Even though the box of food could be considered leaning on the expensive side priced at $18, I thought that the quality of the food as well as the richness of the flavors actually outweighed that. (This pricing also possibly reflected the premium location of being inside the food hall.) I would absolutely pay the price again, as the box of food left me super satisfied.
Overall:
14.25 / 15
(95%)
Categories: California, Restaurants
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