5 Tips for your first visit to Thai restaurant

Your interest began when you heard day after day about a great Thai restaurant from your neighbor, but you were a little scared. Thai food is spicy and uses different flavors and isn’t quite anything you or your family is used to.  Will your family even like it? Is it going to burn your mouth?   I totally understand how you feel, I had the same feeling when I tried Mexican food for the first time three years ago.

There have been countless people who I’ve come across that wished they could have tried Thai food earlier, they were just very apprehensive, and ended up loving it.  To help eliminate some of those apprehensions, I put together a few items to help make your first Thai food an enjoyable one.

1. A warm and welcoming greeting is always a good start.

Since you are basically about to walk into the new culture and try this new style of food, you can really impress the waiter and chef by learning how we greet each other. We say Sawasdee Krup/Ka (Krup is used by a man and Ka is used by woman)

2. Sesame Chicken or Beef Broccoli?

Now you are sitting at the table and looking into the menu, about 60 items. To play it safe, you’re looking at either sesame chicken or broccoli beef. Well rookie, how about neither of them?  Step outside your comfort zone and get something decidedly Thai.  Although most of Thai restaurants would carry these two items, both of these are Chinese and you’d never get a taste of Thai if you stayed in the Chinese comfort zone…Here is what I always recommend for the first time customers.

Appetizer: Chicken Satay: Typically the favorite appetizer in any Thai restaurant. It’s grilled chicken marinated with yellow curry powder and is a great way to start offf your meal.

Soup: Tom Yum Shrimp. This hot and sour Thai style soup was ranked as the eighth most delicious food in the world by CNN in 2011.

Entrees: Try Pad Kra Prow Chicken or Pad Thai Shrimp. For you who love rice dishes, I recommend Pad Kra Paow–It’s stir fried chicken in a  spicy and flavorful basil sauce. Or you might like the most famous Thai noodle dish, Pad Thai. These traditional thin noodles are stir-fried with shrimp (or chicken) egg, scallions, bean sprouts and crushed peanuts in Thai style sauce and is always a great choice for first time customers.

Pad Kra Paow Chicken

3. How about Spice Level? 

Every dish can be cooked with a different level of spiciness. Most dishes can be cooked very, very mildly. Curry dishes are typically your most mild dishes. If you are not familiar with spicy food, I would recommend you start mild and see how it affects you. I’ve had a lot of first time customers think that they can handle hot and they leave with their mouth on fire, not getting a chance to even enjoy their meal. Thai spicy is different than Mexican spicy. It might be better if you start with lower level than what you anticipate and ask the chef to provide a little heat from chillis on the side.

4. Family Style.

Thai folks typically eat similar to how Americans eat on Thanksgiving, family style. We all sit together and have food in the middle to share. This is a good way to get exposed to a lot of different dishes on your first try, you may like more than you think.

5. Can I have some Soy sauce?  

Thai food is typically full of flavor, and it’s rare that you’ll find your food bland. But in the case that you need a little bit more of a salty taste, ask for fish sauce instead of soy sauce.  Thai folks never eat their food with soy sauce.  Fish sauce is the savory and salty sauce that Thai people use to add a little saltiness to their food.  Putting soy sauce on Thai food is the equivalent of putting ketchup on pizza, not terrible, just a little unusual.

I hope this will help you on your first visit. Feel free to leave any questions or comments after your first visit.  We love to make those experiences the best!

Nate

www.thaicafedfw.com