Thai Kitchen Restaurant

By Katherine E. Hill

“The lunch menu offers a variety of Thai favorites, with choices of beef, pork, chicken or vegetarian.”

Authentic Thai cuisine has made a welcomed home in Tahoe City’s lineup of fantastic eateries. A colorful interior sets the backdrop for the taste of Thailand that is a true family affair at Thai Kitchen.

Led by Ocean Thammavong, the woman behind the cuisine, and her husband Simon, who greets customers as they come in and often waits on them, the couple, has made Thai Kitchen a wonderfully delicious restaurant that feels like you’re eating at a friend’s home. Joining them is brother Kelvin, aunt Sandy Xualath and many other family members.

Ocean learned to cook at 15-years-old and has been creating dishes cooked in the northern style of Thailand since.

I enjoyed lunch recently at Thai Kitchen with my sister Michelle Allen, and we were welcomed by Simon as we entered. Bowls of the house vegetarian soup arrived almost immediately, as all lunch specials are served with rice and soup.

The wonderfully flavored soup is light and tasty, but filled with tofu, scallions, carrots, parsley, carrots and peas for a great start to any meal.

Michelle ordered a hot green tea for lunch, while I opted for the Thai ice tea, a brightly colored, sweet mixture of black tea, sugar and condensed milk served over ice.

The lunch menu offers a variety of Thai favorites, with choices of beef, pork, chicken or vegetarian, and include the Pra Ram (peanut sauce), Pad-Bai-Kra-Pow (stir fried basil), Pad Thai, Pad Mak Kua (stir fried eggplant) and much more. There also is a selection of House Specialty Combinations including the Fried Spring Rolls, Satay Chicken, Friend Wanton and Papaya Salad, among others.

For lunch, I chose the Fried Tofu and Michelle decided on the Green Curry. The service is fast and the dishes arrived within minutes.

The Fried Tofu was a wonderful combination of huge chunks of tofu served with a bowl of freshly steamed mixed vegetables with bean sprouts, carrots, eggplant, beans, peppers and zucchini with a Sweet & Sour dipping sauce. The combination plate also comes with a salad of bean sprouts, iceberg lettuce and a creamy dressing and is served with rice (I chose the brown rice).

Michelle’s Green Curry was served with wonderfully delicious chicken, mixed vegetables of bean sprouts, carrots, eggplant, bean, peppers and zucchini and basil. She also chose the brown rice. The curry dishes are available with a choice of red, yellow or green curry.

One thing to note about Thai Kitchen is that they use Thai chilies in their cuisine and rate the spiciness level of their dishes from 1 to 10. So, you’ll need to specify when ordering. Both of our dishes rated around a 2, according to Simon, and we could have gone much higher (although we grew up eating jalapeños and Popeye’s spicy chicken).

Simon recommends that for your initial visit to try a 2 or 3 and then work your way up. For Tahoe, the average seems to be around 5 or 6, he says, but he also has many customers who order the 10.

But don’t worry, if you order something and it’s too spicy, let them know and they’ll be happy to prepare you a new dish, Simon says. “We want to make sure you’re happy,” he says.

Simon also brought us the Fresh Thai Spring Rolls, a customer favorite. The colorful and delicious spring rolls feature lettuce, carrots, cucumber, green onion, mint leaves and fried tofu wrapped in rice paper and served with a plum sauce. He also brought us the peanut sauce to sample, and it is one of the best I’ve tasted.

The servings are ample and I was happy to have leftovers to savor at home later.

Thai Kitchen serves lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday. Dinner is served daily from 3 to 9:30 p.m. Thai Kitchen is located at 255 North Lake Blvd. in Tahoe City. Call (530) 538-1784.