Thai One On

A colleague from Denver was visiting recently and had two requests: 1. Pay homage at Dean & Deluca in Soho and 2. Eat some yummy Asian food.  Luckily, we were able to fulfill both desires with one subway ride downtown from our Flatiron office. 

The place we originally hoped to try turned out to be closed, so we wondered down Spring Street and found refuge at Kin Khao. 

First, I must highly recommend the Watermelon Tini.  I'm usually not one to go for cocktails, but I could drink these far longer than is probably wise.

The fried spring rolls were filled with huge chunks of really fresh crab meat.  They made you realize how bad many spring rolls are.  The chicken satay was really good, too.  I mean, this shouldn't be hard, right?  It's grilled chicken and peanut sauce.  But most places the chicken has the consistency of cotton batting.  At Kin Khao the chicken was plump, moist and very flavorful.  High praise for the humble chicken.

I tend to be boring at Thai restaurants and order the Pad Thai.  I know what it is and I can pronounce it.  But, truthfully, this isn't a bad strategy.  If the Pad Thai is bad, not much else is likely to be good.  At Kin Khao it's excellent.  We also got a really delicious steak dish (I should've made a not of the name of the dish, but I was one Watermelon Tini in by then, so ...).

I'm told, by both my husband and Fred Wilson's blog, that the best Thai restaurant in New York is in Woodside, Queens.  I'm sure I'll find out soon.  In the meantime, Kin Khao is definitely one to add to the Rolodex.

Kin Khao
171 Spring St, between Thompson Street and West Broadway
NYC
(212) 966-3939
Map