By Minda Reves
The plastic tablecloths and praying Buddha at the Thai Kitchen on Dixie Highway are all part of generic Asian restaurant décor, but if you want some flair, just eat the food, and you’ll have discovered some of the best Thai food in Louisville.
The Thai Kitchen can be a quiet place post-lunch time, when I visited. But the server let us order the lunch special although we walked through the door after hours, and we sat down at the plastic tablecloth and perused the menu.
The lunch special is any noodle, rice or stir-fry entrée with an egg roll or cup of soup for $5.95.
The soup came first. The egg drop was flavorful without being salty, a rare feat for egg drop soup. Tiny cubes of pork practically spilled over from the wonton soup, also graced with scallions and wontons. The wontons were stuffed with pork, a good omen that the food would be just as pleasing. Crunchy noodles accompanied both bowls of soup.
Unfortunately for the obligatory first-date conversation lull or something like it, the restaurant lacked any sort of background music. Luckily, though, the food came up quickly. One meal was a classic Thai dish, Pad See Jew, made with flat noodles, chicken, broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts, onions, bean sprouts and bamboo, traditionally served spicy. The dish was undoubtedly fiery, but the spice did not drown out its flavoring.
I ordered the Thai Kitchen special fried rice, which included a wide array of meat, from chicken to crab. A fried egg sat on top of the rice, which is the traditional Thai style, but a rare treat in Louisville. My rice was three-stars spicy (the scale ranges from no spice to five-stars at most restaurants) and came with tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers mixed in to cool the palate. Both meals came in larger-than-life portions, all at the lunch special price.
Overall, the Thai Kitchen’s food proved the restaurant’s worth, despite there being no background music. Both meals were thoroughly enjoyable and the server was always sure to keep our glasses full.
Heat-o-phobes can start out with a non-spicy dish, like Pad Thai, and slowly work their way along the star track. If you are a first-time Thai taster, order a dish you’re familiar with from eating at Chinese restaurants and experience the Thai twist.
