This is our 4th time eating here, but it’s been about 15 months since we’ve eaten here and it’s one of Andrea’s favorites since we’re guaranteed to get a flavorfully delicious meal.
We started with cocktails which is always a good way for us to start if they have a good cocktail program, which they do. Andrea went with the Orapim which is a spicy tequila-based drink and I went with Viyada which was a more fruity-citrus mezcal based one.
We again went with the Chef’s Pick menu (as we did the last two times we dined here) since that’s always a good way to try a lot of different dishes (esp. without having a big group). Plus we were starving and we also knew the food would come out very quickly this way.
There was an amuse, but I don’t recall the details of it. The next 5 dishes would all come from the “First Course” part of the menu (or off menu). First up was the gaeng gradang tod, pork croquettes with a delicious curry sauce on the side. The croquettes are really more like a meat filled puff pastry. Delicious start (esp. with the curry sauce which we always keep the rest of it to use later in the meal also), although a touch on the greasy side.
This was soon followed by the som tum, a little salad of charred brusell sprouts, apple, cashews, dried shrimp.
I don’t remember the details of the next disk, but it wasn’t something we’ve previously had and the pomegranates were new to any of the dishes we’ve had here.
Next came the squid and pork jowl (a sort of surf and turf) with chili lime dressing. So many layers of flavors here which is the case with most of the dishes. There’s heat and acid from the chili lime, sweetness from the braise on the pork, the savoriness of the pork, and a bit of peanut and cilantro for good measure.
Then came the namtok moo, which is the grilled pork chop cooked perfectly (with a touch of pink) in nam jim jeaw sauce with onion, mint, and cilantro eaten either with the lettuce wrap, cucumber slice, or sticky rice. Choose your own adventure! We did all 3 of course.
Every was so good and we finished every bite and this was all just part of the “first” course. Fortunately, there was a bit of a pause before the second “course” started and we had another round of cocktails, this time the nang laveng, a sort of vodka, sake, sochu, yuzu martini and Andrea had the sawari, a green tea gin based drink. Again, both were quite good, although I did still prefer our agave-based cocktails in the first round.
The second course included two dishes – the caramelized fish sauce cabbage and the prik king gai which was a crispy chicken stir fry with spicy curry paste, beans and dried shrimp. These were the same dishes we had last time we dined here and were still good.
Desserts were the same as last time, the pandan parfait and another dessert with a mix of things that I initially liked to halo halo, but it’s really more like a boba with all of the tapioca in it.
All in all a very flavorful meal once again from Nari, that satisfied our palettes and our hunger (perhaps a bit extra with that). The only minor “complain” I would have is that food is relatively which is a minor deterrent to eating here more frequently.
This is still our top go-to for Thai food. I’m most interested to go back to Khao Tiew and try some other dishes we haven’t tried and Prik Hom has been good the two times we’ve been there. I can also recommend Kin Khao (sister restaurant to Nari) having eaten there 3 times (once with Andrea for dinner and twice for lunch with vendors).
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