Dining hours at the Brandeis University dining halls are not exactly ideal, and judging by the line of delivery cars waiting to drive up to Ziv Quad every Friday and Saturday night, one might suspect that local Waltham restaurants have a secret deal with the University to keep the incomprehensibly minimal dining hours in place. After a couple of years at this school, many of us just fall into a comfortable habit of weekend spending on tried and true delivery favorites. One of those favorites, Baan Thai (659 Main Street) offers a 10 percent discount for all Brandeis delivery orders and will honor the discount for eating-in with a valid Brandeis ID. Many students admit to having Baan Thai programmed into their cell phones, and others acknowledge that they've never set foot in the actual restaurant. Most of the time, they don't even have to look at the menu online anymore. In this lax familiarity with a known favorite, however, one might miss out on new changes at work.

As of Oct. 21, Baan Thai has returned sushi to its menu. Back when it was known as Tumrubthai, the local Thai favorite offered sushi in addition to Thai dishes. The owners did away with the sushi for quite a few years but, for some reason, began experimenting with their menu in 2008. For a brief stint, Baan Thai offered dim sum on the weekends. This was discontinued about four months ago, likely due to lack of popularity. Now, in compliance with the general trend of increasingly generic pan-Asian restaurants in the area, Baan Thai has once again joined the masses of ethnic restaurants that branch out in completely arbitrary directions.

The restaurant now has a white sign advertising "SUSHI" on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Baanthaifood.com also opens to a page marked "Specials-Now featuring Sushi." Had I blindly ordered pad thai for delivery as usual, I might not have seen any of the advertisements for this huge change. I drove out to Main Street with an express craving for pad thai, but I changed my mind upon seeing the new menu. I should have stuck with the pad thai.

For a sushi menu, the menu actually includes very little raw fish. It has many cooked and vegetarian options including California rolls ($4.95), eel avocado rolls ($5.95), asparagus rolls ($3.95) and mushroom rolls ($4.50). As a true test of its new sushi capabilities, I chose the Sushi Deluxe Combo-$16.95 for eight pieces of tuna and avocado rolls, 10 pieces of assorted sushi and, supposedly, a bowl of miso soup.

According to the owner, unlike the dim sum experiment, sushi is a permanent menu addition and is served every day during regular hours. The sushi chef, an amiable man from Quincy, also offered information about his role at Baan Thai. He mentioned that he picks up fish by looking for "what's fresh" at a pier on Northern Ave. in Boston every day on his way to Waltham.

Our waiter delivered a plate of well-presented sushi accompanied by garnishes of orange slices. The tuna and avocado rolls contained sizable pieces of fish in each roll. The avocado was soft and ripe. The rice was relatively well seasoned, but could have had more of that distinct sugar/vinegar flavor, and, more importantly, there was oddly little rice around the seaweed. The 10 assorted pieces of nigiri sushi consisted of two pieces each of tuna (maguro), fluke (hirame), salmon (sake), yellow tail (hamachi) and white tuna (ono). Each piece of fish was fairly large, but, again, the amount of rice below the fish was tiny. Rice should be the cheapest ingredient, but for some odd reason, the sushi chef was very stingy with it.

Despite my friendly chat with the chef, I'm not wholly convinced that all of his fish is brought in fresh daily. The hamachi had the best texture and tasted fresh. Likewise, the salmon was a quality cut and very smooth. The tuna did not match in quality, however lower grades of sushi tuna often have a distinct texture and are chewier rather than melt-in-your mouth smooth. Had I not tasted the white tuna, I might have just assumed that this maguro was simply a lower quality cut rather than defrosted fish.

Fluke and white tuna are not the most standard offerings in common sushi combos. This fluke was about standard, but the white tuna was completely unacceptable and very wet. Wet sushi fish is extremely unpalatable and often a sign that the fish has been frozen and recently thawed. Perhaps the kindly chef had rinsed his ingredients only moments ago, but, in that case, any well-taught sushi chef always pats the fish dry before preparing a dish. Overall, Baan?Thai sushi is edible, but not worth the price.

The service during this meal was also very disappointing. Frequenters of Baan Thai delivery service might not realize that the restaurant can be fairly busy on a Friday night. I have eaten in the restaurant numerous times and have not previously had problems. On this particular night, however, my sushi was delivered promptly, but my dining companion's pad thai did not arrive until I had nearly finished my dinner. We suspect the order was never placed until we reminded our server. Also, I never got any miso soup, and the bill did not reflect any remorse for the poor service.

I keep Baan Thai in my speed dial for a reason: The restaurant offers a 10 percent discount and has decent curries. But, if I'm going to drive all the way into Waltham for mediocre sushi, I'll stick with Sushi Yasu, which sits a few doors farther down Main Street (617 Main Street). Unlike Yasu, Baan Thai does deliver, so if a serious craving for sushi hits after Usdan closes, it is an option in a desperate situation. However, as the sushi made in Usdan Cafe is much better than the original C-store sushi, it is a cheaper and more viable alternative. Keep ordering from Baan Thai, but stick with the Thai menu.