Seeing a review in the Enquirer triggered a craving for Thai food for me one day and I asked the hubby if he was up for it. Thankfully he was, so we made the drive from our home through the lovely evening 71S traffic and past the insanity around the Kenwood Towne Centre and found this place tucked into a strip mall. I am ever so glad we did!
Now, this place is tiny, and that's probably the only drawback. You definitely feel a bit crowded and we unfortunately got to hear a bit too much of the conversation of the couple sitting right next to us. They were not happy about something (not the restaurant) and it was a bit uncomfortable. We tried to block them out and enjoy the experience.
I started with a Thai iced tea. I love these and it's probably good that they're not more readily available or I'd be in trouble. I don't even want to know how much sugar is in it.
The husband got the ribs with the hoisin plum sauce and he made a groan of pure culinary ecstasy after biting into one. I snagged a bite and agreed that they were delicious. I am a HUGE fan of the pak krob, a crispy veggie salad. Tempura veggies with toasted cashews and garlic lime dressing. I don't know how they figured out how to deep fry lettuce, but it works! Now, a word of warning about the dressing...it smells odd. Whatever they use to make it sour reminds me vaguely of a gym bag. It may be off-putting for some, and I fully understand it may not be everyone's cup of tea. But if you can get past the smell, it actually is really really good.
I got the mee heang for my entree. Egg noodles with sliced pork in a salty, sweet & spicy sauce. I went a heat level of 2 out of 5 because I'm a chicken. I may venture to a 3 next time. A nice bonus were the crispy pork dumplings that came with it. Almost like another appetizer in addition to the main dish. I ate as much as I could, and still had some left in the bowl, which turned out to be a good thing.
The husband ordered kao moo oap, an oven roasted pork over jasmine rice. And maybe I just am not that experienced with Thai food, and I'm used to the more "exotic" options...if you consider a deep fried salad and pad thai exotic (hey I can be pedestrian, I admit), but it looked and tasted kind of like the pork roast at family dinner. Now, don't get me wrong...it was really good & flavorful...still a very yummy dish. But the hubby kind of had an idea of what flavors he assumed he would be getting, and this was not it. It was definitely a milder dish. So he was a bit disappointed, and was happy I had some of my dish left. However, I thought that the dish was still good, so I snagged a couple of final bites from his plate.
Somehow we rallied enough for dessert. Holy moly, if you have room order the cheesecake! We opted to split the coffee brulee option and it was soooooo good. The coffee cut through the sweetness, so it wasn't cloying like cheesecake can be. And it's always a bit satisfying to take your fork and thwack through a torched sugar layer.
We will definitely be back, though we did find out their sister restaurant is a lot closer to home so we may have to rotate between the 2. read more