I’d heard once or twice how great & authentic Chao Thai was, first from a few foodie friends, from a Thai friend, from reliable sources, but I just hadn’t been able to get over there yet. I finally made my way with BFF for our semi-monthly-dinner…
The place is really tiny. After comically changing tables like 3 times (at the waitress’s request), we ordered Thai iced teas. This becomes very important later. Oh, they were good, not too sweet.
There are items listed on the menu with an asterisk by its name, indicating that it is a spicy dish. We ordered 5 dishes (like our last dinner, which was at Sripraphai), three of which had asterisks by their names. I asked the waitress, “Could you make it not so spicy?” and she smiled, agreeing, yeah, no problem, we can make it mild, don’t worry.
She lied. I mean she outright lied.
Papaya salad was bursting with freshness, juicy and… what the f* oh my god my mouth is burning my tongue is turning numb holy crap what the flip – yeah, I couldn’t feel my mouth. BFF couldn’t feel her mouth either but kept eating. Me? Nope. I finished what I’d scooped onto my plate, but there was no way I could even move. I started crying, my face was burning up, my nose began running and I couldn’t feel parts of my mouth. I guzzled my Thai iced tea.
The waitress actually noticed this, and came over and said “Oh too spicy?” with a fake air of sympathy. Then she offered to put more milk in our iced teas, which I eagerly nodded my acceptance. I couldn’t talk.
Not good. I’m not saying the salad wasn’t good – it was great, except for the whole being unable to eat anything for 10 full minutes.
The next dish to arrive was chicken sate. It was good. Well, it was alright. It’s just sate, and they didn’t offer beef sate, so we opted for chicken. I would have preferred pork, but we were getting pork later in the meal, and BFF suggested chicken. (I’ve only had pork sate at one other place, and it was sooo damn good, except for an incident later in the meal that put me off that place forever.) I ate this easily with bits of cilantro in each bite, yum.
*ignore the sate with cilantro in the pic … our table was crowded and we needed to make room for the next dish
Crispy pork with basil sauce. Also had an asterisk by its name; I’ve had basil sauce at other Thai places, so I figured I could eat this, right? Well, yes and no. The pork was crispy to a texture that I wouldn’t have even thought possible for pork, and while not overwhelmingly spicy, hard to eat from the chili seeds flecked on each piece that seared their mark into my tongue. (There are a few occasions where, directly after eating something too spicy for me, my tongue becomes super sensitive to any further heat. This was one of those occasions unfortunately.) I definitely liked this dish, but was unfortunately unable to eat as much as I’d have liked.
Crispy catfish salad. The catfish wasn’t very crispy, unfortunately, and I definitely find Sripraphai’s rendition much tastier. It didn’t help that this was also liberally covered with chili peppers mixed throughout… and the mango that was mentioned in the menu description was either green mango, or not present at all. I wasn’t pleased with this dish.
We ordered a noodle dish remarkably similar to the one we’d ordered at Sripraphai, which wasn’t spicy at all… and contrasted with the other dishes we’d eaten that night – it was way too bland comparatively, so this dish served only the purpose of something for me to actually eat without crying.
Our entire meal came out to just over $60 with tip, so it is similarly priced to Sripraphai.
Of note: after the waitress had laughingly given us more milk, and basically laughed in my face (it wasn’t malicious or mean, but it was laughter), I overheard her as she talked to another table.
Guy: WOW that was SPICY! Is that like, your spiciest dish?
Waitress: No *laughs* that’s not spicy, that’s BABY spicy!
Guy: What??? (his friends laugh with her)
Waitress: Yea, that was BABY spicy, like for… for kindergarteners!
I think she takes pleasure in watching people struggling to eat what she deems not spicy at all. Sadistic waitress!
Yvo says: Chao Thai doesn’t mess around; if they say it’s spicy, it’s spicy, and don’t bother asking for mild! I can’t blame them for that because the menu states clearly that it’s spicy. But I will think twice about returning except to get anything from the non-spicy parts of the menu – unfortunate, since most of the interesting items have asterisks by their name!
if you like unapologetically spicy food… this is the place for you
Leave a Reply