Alright, so I’m pretty much known by those around me as cheap. I tend to think of it more as “financially responsible” but … whatever. The point is, I always appreciate a good value when I find one.

Used to be that the $5 lunch was the marker to shoot for, but nowadays it seems that outside the “fastest” of fast food, that’s too lofty a goal. Still, anytime I can get close to $5 for a quality, local, filling meal, I feel pretty good about it. Hence, Sala Thai has won my heart with their lunch offering.

It’s not an all-you-can-eat buffet, but it’s still a buffet of sorts. At Sala Thai, the lunch special gives you the opportunity to choose three entrees from about eight available options, plus steamed or fried rice and soup, all for $5.95. When I first visited, it was $5.25, then it went up to about $5.50 and now it’s $5.95. Still, I think it’s a good value even at it’s current price. It’s not an enormous amount of food, but honestly, I like the portion size. I’d rather pay less and get the amount of food I really need than pay more for an all-you-can-eat option that makes me want to overeat in order to get my money’s worth.

Though you’ll be seated at a table when you arrive, to partake of the lunch special, you head up to the front and choose your items cafeteria style as the Sala Thai staff assembles them onto your plate for you.

The entree choices are always interesting and well-prepared. There are usually a few vegetarian options and a few with meat. There are some curries (like the chicken green curry with bamboo shoots and eggplant), some stir fries, and often pad thai is a choice as well. However, the pad thai on the buffet is a meatless variety and not nearly as good as Sala Thai’s chicken pad thai ordered off the menu. Of course, the menu version is $8.25, but is a very generous portion and very good.

Speaking of the menu, you can order off the menu instead of getting the lunch special if you prefer, though you’ll likely be spending more. And, of course, you can order of the menu at dinner as well. Most menu dishes range from $8-12. This is a great place for vegetarian and even vegan dining as there are lots of options to suit. It’s also a great place for family style dining to get a bunch of different dishes and share. Everything I’ve ever tried is extremely fresh and tasty. I’d love to here about the dishes you’ve tried in the comments.

The decor of Sala Thai is nothing exceptional but it’s comfortable and clean. What appears to have been an old Arby’s or other fast food restaurant near to the Asian district has been neatly transformed. Sala Thai has occupied the building long enough to truly call it home.

My only complaint is that there’s not a lunch special version of the regular pad thai with meat from the menu. But hey, I told you I was cheap, right?

What are your thoughts about Sala Thai? Let us know in the comments below.

Thai Sweet Basil Express is the newest in a string of restaurants to occupy its location.  Frankly, I don’t understand why any of them cannot seem to make a go of it.  They have all served delicious food, and the owners couldn’t be more accommodating or friendly.  Nevertheless, here goes the latest…

I took four friends and family members to lunch with me so I could get a variety of opinions and tastes.  We arrived kind of early for lunch, so we were the first ones there and got to spend some time with the new owner and chef, Chonlada Robertson, and her assistant, Pat.  They are friends of the previous tenant, who owned the Elephant Cafe, and who has moved to Boston.

We started with a couple of appetizers — the Edamame ($3.95) and the Potstickers ($3.95).  The Edamade is great for vegetarians and a rather fun thing to do while you wait for your entree — just sitting and pulling soybeans out of the skin with your teeth!  And it’s a great source of protein without filling you up.  The pork and veggie Pot Stickers were nice and crunchy and served with a soy-ginger dipping sauce which was very good.

My friend, Ali, went with the Yellow Curry Chicken ($5.95) and went spicy with it.  About two bites later, she began blowing her nose. This continued throughout the meal due to the heat.  I had a bite, and it was delicious, and yes — it packed a delightful punch to the nose.  If you like yellow curry, you have to try this dish.

My husband went with the Hawaiian Fried Rice with chicken ($6.95), which included eggs, raisins, pineapple chunks, cashews, tomatoes, carrots, onions and green peas.  It was more on the sweet side of things, which makes sense if he ordered it.  Most of the entrees he chooses could also qualify as dessert.

I had the Garlic Lover with chicken ($6.95), which included mushrooms, garlic, black pepper and fresh garlic sauce on a bed of steamed broccoli and cabbage.  This was yummy and yes, my breath stunk up the entire car on the way back to work, but it was worth every bite.

Mom went with the “I Love Veggie” ($6.95) and (gasp) added no meat, but tofu instead.  One of the great things about Thai Sweet Basil is that almost any of their entrees can be prepared for vegetarians. 

Cousin Carol had the Spicy Basil ($6.95) with pork. Her dish included fresh chili and garlic, bell peppers, onion and mushroom, green onion and sweet basil leaves.  This was yet again a completely different and really nice taste.  We all really enjoyed sampling each other’s dishes and the variety of tastes and seasonings.  All of our dishes were accompanied with a generous portion of white rice.

We thought the prices across the board here were very reasonable for the amount of food we received. Protein options for most entrees are chicken, pork, beef or tofu for $6.95 and shrimp for $7.95. The servings are very generous and piled high on your plate, such that we all took home half of our entrees for dinner the next night.

Chanlada and Pat have many years of cooking experience in Thailand and most recently, in Oregon.  They say they are always very interested to see how people all over the U.S. like their food prepared.  Toward the end of our meal, they insisted we try the appetizer entitled, “Oh My God!”  ($4.95). This was a fried tortilla roll with crab meat, cream cheese and basil leaves, accompanied by a fantastic spicy plum dipping sauce.  It was great as a dessert, as the sauce was also sweet. This was probably the best thing we tried.

Pat also insisted we come back to try his “subagetti” (spaghetti).  He said he used to work in an Italian restaurant and invented this Thai/Italian fusion dish.  There are four varieties available:  peanut sauce, red curry, green curry and yellow curry.  It’s the chef’s special available for $6.95 also. 

Pat and Chonlada are anxious for their business to begin.  We told them things should pick up after SNU classes begin again.  They said they ran more of a fast-food express type place in Oregon, so they are prepared for larger crowds. 

Here’s calling all Bethany-area residents.  This is another delightful place for new tastes.  Let’s get out and support them!  After you’ve tried it, let me know what you think.

When I sat down to write about Kang’s Asian Bistro, I found it hard to describe. Part of it, surely, was from food overload. We had so many dishes and sushi rolls that it’s hard to really separate them properly.

But part of it also is that Kang’s has such a broad reach — from Thai to Chinese to Japanese to American foods — that it can be a little schizophrenic. It’s very much like a locally-owned P.F. Chang’s, except with sushi — or maybe a less-expensive version of Buddha Tao.

For instance, we started the meal with summer rolls — the Vietnamese restaurant favorites with shrimp and vegetables stuffed inside sticky rice paper. These fresh, light rolls don’t boast as much punch as some I’ve had (there was much less mint than I’m used to) but the accompanying spicy garlic sauce and the peanut sauce more than made up for it. But at $7 for four pieces (two rolls cut in half), it is a pretty expensive start to the meal.

We also had lettuce wraps ($8.45), the kind you might find on the menu at Chili’s, but these were much better. The chicken was expertly cooked and flavorful and the spicy sauce they served with them had a real kick, full of nasal heat, that I appreciate.

The sushi, which came next, was good, but not quite what I like. Sushi is subjective. Some people like nothing in their roll but rice and a sliver of fish or vegetable all wrapped up in seaweed. Some like nigiri — where there’s a slab of fresh fish on a ball of rice. And some like those towering rolls, fish inside and out, plenty of sauces and creams and seasonings &mdash the kinds that look like works of art when done right.

At Kang’s, you can get a couple of nigiri at very reasonable prices — anywhere from $1.75 for quail egg or $5.95 for tuna or yellowtail — or sashimi for $9-$11. Sarah would like for me to point out that she tried sashimi for the first time here. Yes, we’re all very proud of her for eating raw salmon, but the majority of the sushi we tried were Kang’s special rolls. They were a bit too much. I am an equal-opportunity sushi lover. I take all kinds, but at some point, you just need to put the roll down and be done with it.

The Mountain Roll ($14.45) was filled with shrimp tempura, cucumber, salmon, tuna, yellow tail, masago, spicy mayo, eel sauce and green onions. It tasted fine, though a bit heavy, but my problem was picking out individual flavors. The same went for the Baby Gecko ($9.45) which had cream cheese, jalapeno, salmon, spicy mayo, eel sauce and green onion. Plus, that one was tempura fried. Tasty, but it all started to taste the same.

The Spicy Cowboy ($11.45) also had tempura shrimp in it, but was at least a bit lighter. It was Tim’s favorite, and a favorite of some we’ve heard from on Twitter. Even though most of the rolls we tried were heavy and complex, they do have plain-old tuna and cucumber and California rolls, too and the pricing is quite reasonable — along the lines of what you’d find at Tokyo.

One big selling point for Kang’s is that if you don’t like sushi, there’s plenty more to eat. My favorite was probably Kang’s Fiery Chicken ($11.95) which was basically a General Tso’s Chicken with a fresher, spicier sauce. I also enjoyed the Mongolian Beef ($11.45) which was tender and flavorful.

One disappointment was the Crispy Thai Fire Fish ($15.45). Everything about that dish was perfect, except for the fish. If they had just chosen something other than catfish, I’m sure it would have been my favorite. Catfish, as Andrew said, just tastes like catfish, and messing with that can create an odd flavor. It wasn’t bad, I just would have liked it a lot more if it had been rainbow trout or another lightly-flavored white fish.

A delicacy was the Five Spice Quail, which wasn’t too hot, but had a richer flavor than plain old chicken. At $16.95, it’s an expensive treat, but delicious.

One other let down was the Thai Steak Salad ($11.50), which tasted great, but was textured all wrong. The lettuce was crisp, the cherry tomatoes were fresh, the marinade/dressing on the steak was wonderful, but Sarah commented that the steak itself was tough and chewy.

All in all, I really enjoyed Kang’s. The restaurant in Nichols Hills is hidden away on Olie Street, and the decor inside is modern, but comfortable. The prices are reasonable — especially for nigiri — and the flavors are spot on. Despite a few texture issues, I would definitely go back.

And if you’re with someone who just doesn’t care of Asian food of any stripe, Kang’s does a grilled beef tenderloin to placate them. If you’re tired of the long waits and higher prices at P.F. Chang’s, you can get similar, locally-produced food at Kang’s Asian Bistro. Please let us know what you think about Kang’s in the comments.

PLEASE NOTE: Elephant Cafe has closed and a new restaurant with new ownership has opened up in its place. This review does not cover the new restaurant.

When I really need a break from work at lunchtime, I know I can get a quiet, relaxing meal and a variety of tastes at the Elephant Cafe, which just opened in September in downtown Bethany.  It was formerly known as Big! Rice and Noodle (read our review here), and that owner’s niece has taken over and given it a new name.  Lein Wu is half Thai and half Chinese, and the largely expanded menu provides many Thai, Japanese and other Asian choices.  She and her employees have the gift of hospitality that so many of my Asian friends possess.

My work girlfriends and I recently ate here during a working lunch, and everyone really enjoyed their entree choices.  Susan chose safely with the cashew chicken ($6.25).  She said it was good, but for her taste, just a tad too many onions and spices.  I went with a lunch combo ($6.25), which included my choice of a veggie roll (3) or a Bangkok roll (3); a choice of miso soup or clear soup (or hot and sour soup for $1 more); and a choice of lunch entree.  I chose the Bangkok rolls, the hot and sour soup and the spicy basil fried rice, which included chicken, onion, basil and bell pepper.  It also included a spicy Thai chili sauce, but I found myself needing to add extra red chili sauce from the side.  This dish did have a good flavor, but it just wasn’t quite spicy enough for me.  Beth, being a sushi lover, went with the orange chicken ($6.25) and a salmon roll ($4.25).

Side note to whoever dines with Beth — last time we ate here, I decided to venture out and try a bite of her sushi, as she promised me there would be nothing raw or “icky” on it.  She ordered a California roll, and when it arrived, I pointed out how cute the little shaved carrots on top were.  After I had consumed my portion, she said, “oh, by the way, the ‘carrots’ may have been roe.”

“MAY have been roe?  And just exactly what is roe?” I shrieked.  I was a first time sushi eater.

“Well … like … maybe salmon eggs,” she hedged.

I had been tricked and hoped I would live to see my next meal.  Which I did.  But not before she heard another thing or two about it.

Anyway, back to lunch, friend Ali had the “best decorated” lunch by choosing the steak teriyaki lunch box ($7.95), which included the steak, rice, salad and vegetable tempura.  It probably also tasted the best.

The previous time I dined here and had my first sushi experience, I tried the elephant combo appetizer ($7.95), which included crab rangoon, Bangkok rolls, chicken satay and vegetable rolls.  It was accompanied by a variety of dipping sauces, which were all tasty.  The chicken satay was especially nice smeared with the peanut sauce.

Dinner entrees run between $8.25 and $11.95, which isn’t bad, considering the amount of food you get.  I could have easily taken home half of my lunch for dinner again that evening.  And another nice thing is that they accept credit cards whereas Big! Rice and Noodle did not.  Miss Wu has done a nice job in creating a pleasant atmosphere.  We were the only patrons when we first arrived, but several others arrived during our meal.  She sent out two dessert entrees for us to try — the fried ice cream and the fried bananas.  The fried bananas won hands down!

I’ve said before that if one works in the Bethany area, one will be challenged for lunch and dinner choices.  That’s why I’m always excited to see somebody new giving it a “go” in this part of town.  So, try the Elephant Cafe and let me know what you think in the comments.  I hope Lien will be able to stick around for a long time.

Ever looked down a stretch of road and seen nothing but the same old, same old? Burger joints, taco parlors, pizzerias — all featuring familiar names and mediocre flavors. At some point, you have to try something new and I’ve got just the place. It’s one of the very best in my opinion. It’s called Thai Palace.

It doesn’t look like much from the outside – just another strip mall restaurant with its name spelled out in boring, green block-letters. The inside doesn’t inspire much either. White cloth on the tables, pictures that fade into the walls as decorations, and what appears to be just a single employee. That’s Nick.

Nick is going to blow your mind.

Formerly the owner of Sala Thai (down in the Asian District), Nick started Thai Palace a few years ago and brought all his recipes with him. I mean ALL of them. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the menu. It puts the Cheesecake Factory to shame with its size and variety. The only difference is, Nick cooks food you want to eat.

Between 11am and 1pm, Thai Palace features a buffet of rotating entrees, rice and soup for $6. It’s not all-you-can-eat. In fact, you can’t even try everything on the buffet on one dish. But don’t worry, it’s still a heck of a deal. You’ll get plenty of food and these are authentic Thai dishes prepared by a master of his craft.

If you don’t want the buffet or if you come for dinner, there’s that massive menu to satiate your appetite. The green curry vegetables are amazing, with veggies still crisp and fresh and a sauce that is as complex as it is delicious. If you want it hot (and Nick will ask how hot you like it), it can sear your mouth shut. I’ve eaten with some friends who dial it up so high they are blowing their noses after every bite. Despite all the pain, though, nobody ever leaves food on their plate.

Personally, I tend toward a less-scalding experience, especially with some classic dishes like Pad Thai. I’ve had Pad Thai from lots of places and it’s not always good. Some Pad Thai is so sweet you might as well be eating candy. Other places it’s so bland it tastes like it was born in a cardboard box. Not at Thai Palace. They hit it right on the mark, blending sweet and savory. If you don’t like the Pad Thai here, you just don’t like Pad Thai.

There are a couple of drawbacks to Thai Palace. One is the overly vast menu with too many choices. The other is an impatient chef. Nick is in the business of getting you your food fast, so if you don’t order when he comes to you, it might take a while for him to return.

But if you can put up with the idiosyncrasies of a one man show, you will be rewarded with a great treat. Thai cuisine is definitely a step outside the ordinary. And for the real Thai experience — the soups, the curries, the stir-fry, the noodles and the deep, hot spices — there’s no place in Oklahoma City that compares to Thai Palace.

I’m surprised, taken aback, shocked … I’m really quite confused by my experience at Lotsa Noodles the other day. You see, I had several people recently tell me how good the place is and so I was really looking forward to trying it. When I got there, the sweet-looking decor and high-end marketing impressed me so much I had to ask the people to make sure it wasn’t a chain (and it isn’t, though they are looking at opening a location in Woodward soon). But then my food came out and, man oh man, I was disappointed.

First of all, if you asked my wife she would tell you that there is very rarely any food that I don’t like. I mean, I just like food and I will give any food the benefit of the doubt. So, you have to understand that it is not to be taken lightly when I say that I did not like the food here. Let me say it again — I did not like it.

Of course, I was open to the possibility that maybe I just went on a bad day or chose the wrong thing from the menu. I wouldn’t want to offer such a negative impression based on one isolated experience. So, I checked with my trusty co-writers here and found that they have had equally lackluster experiences with this place (I should have checked with them before I went).

Andrew says, “I have had an alfredo dish (tastes like it came out of a jar), the Stroganoff (much better than the alfredo), and a pesto noodle dish that was very underwhelming. I’ll never go back.”

Sarah says, “The last time we ate there, he (my husband) thought the pasta was too soggy, and he agrees it is way too expensive for what you get. Nothing I’ve had has ever been horrible, but it’s nothing special either.”

With these two impressions giving credence to my own, I feel completely justified in presenting my opinion here. So, here’s a some more detail about my experience.

I’ve mentioned the sleek, high-end marketing, and it really is top-notch. Just go visit their website and you’ll see what I mean. Beautiful photographs of the food, high-end design, simplicity — they’ve got it going on with marketing. The interior of the restaurant is equally polished. You really will find it hard to believe that it’s not a chain. I’ve heard that it used to be a chain called “Nothing but Noodles,” but at some point, the owners took it independent. They must have learned a lot about marketing from their chain experience because everything looks outstanding.

But then comes the food. Again, it looks great in the photos. And the menu is really interesting and widely varied. I was getting really excited about it as I waited to order. I chose Pad Thai. I love Pad Thai. It’s one of my favorite dishes so I really wanted to see how theirs stacked up. The cost was $6.49 for a bowl. Seemed pretty good to me, so I ordered it.

But then I noticed on the take-out menu I was perusing that the Pad Thai doesn’t come with meat. In fact, most of the noodle dishes don’t come with meat. Meats are listed as “toppings” and to add chicken to your Pad Thai will cost you $2.49 extra. So, now I’m realizing that to get a bowl of chicken Pad Thai, you’re looking at $9. “Yikes,” I thought. “This had better be some really good Pad Thai.” I kept an open mind.

Then it came. It smelled funny. I stirred it around in the bowl and noticed that the scrambled egg was not crumbled up and distributed throughout the Pad Thai. Nope. It was about a 3×3 inch block of scrambled egg that I had to try and crumble and stir around myself. Then, I tasted it and what I found was an almost watery-tasting sauce with very little punch to it and an overpowering amount of garlic (which I am still tasting now). Nothing bold. Nothing to set it apart. Just a bowl of slightly Asian-influenced noodles and a big brick of scrambled egg.

The other funny thing is that they served it with an Italian breadstick. Now, I understand they have Italian noodles too, but shouldn’t you pair up your offerings in the same family?

And this leads me to my conclusion. When you have a restaurant that serves such a variety of types of foods including American noodle dishes (like stroganoff), Asian dishes, Italian pastas … etc., it’s an interesting concept but near impossible to pull off. How can you expect to create Italian dishes that rival Italian restaurants or Thai dishes that compete with the Asian district? And, even moreso, how can you expect to charge 50% more for them?

To my mind, it’s just a doomed concept. But, I will say, they appear to be doing ok. Maybe the high-end branding is enough to distract people from the food and justify the higher price tag. The free wifi is nice as well. But, I cannot in good conscience support this place or return here because they are cranking out mediocre dishes. I wish them continued success, but I’ll be getting my noodles elsewhere.

Please note: Big! Rice and Noodle has closed and been reopened by a new owner as the Elephant Cafe (read our review of Elephant Cafe).

It’s always a big deal when a new restaurant opens in Bethany. Those of us who work here are pretty limited in eating choices, so we’re always excited to try something new. When Mom and I drove by Big! Rice and Noodle the other day, we couldn’t wait to check it out. Knowing that my co-reviewer, Tim, especially likes Thai food, I told him to go, too, and to give me his opinion. Which he did. So really, this article is a co-review by Tim and Sarah.

First of all, Tim and his co-workers arrived at 11:15 for lunch only to discover the place doesn’t open until 11:30. So, if you have plans to visit, please make note of the hours. Tim was able to review the menu which is posted outside, but then had to move on to someplace else because of time constraints. When Tim returned the next time, he had the following to say about his experience.

Tim’s take: I liked it and I give it the benefit of the doubt for being fairly new. I like the concept and the location. I wish the food had a little more zip to it. It was good, just not over-the-top great. I had Pad Thai and it was smooth and sweet, but usually I like it to have some kick and spice and smokiness in there too, and that was missing. They did provide the hot sauce so we could add our own heat, but that still didn’t quite get it for me.

I thought the place set itself up as a nice dinner location, but not so much a great lunch place. For one, it’s slow because they are trying to keep up with just a few employees. For two, the pricing is more dinner-ish and they didn’t have any lunch specials, which i thought would be beneficial. The plates and glasses and stuff are nice, so they are going for a little “higher-end” experience, which is fine, but they might have a tough time pulling that off in this location. With the college nearby, I’d think they could get a good bit of traffic if they provided something a little more accessible and quick.

A lot of the Thai places around where I live [the Asian district] have lunch specials in the $5-6 range and usually include soup and a spring roll. This place had the Pad Thai at $6.50 or $8 (with seafood) and you have to buy everything else ala carte.

I did like the fact that they had some interesting dishes, like the mango wrap Sarah mentions below. That was good and very interesting. The menu was, overall, pretty unique and I like that as well. The food seemed to all be quite fresh. Sarah says it’s handmade, and I can believe it.

Sarah’s take: The first time Mom and I went, it was slow. The second time I went with my work friend, Beth, it was much faster, but we were the first ones in there for lunch. Maybe that made a difference.

The owners are Naya, Jack and Pat Surasrang, who have lived in the U.S. for 20 years. They immigrated from Thailand, and have owned restaurants in California, Maine and Connecticut. They opened this location in Bethany last November in order to be closer to family, and everything they make is homemade.

Mom and I ordered the mango wrap as an appetizer, which was enormous. We were thinking small, burrito-style wrap, like an eggroll, but this was square-shaped and it was the size of an entire plate. Three or four people could easily have split one wrap. In spite of the size, it was delicious. It was on the sweet side, which Mom loved (she goes running and screaming at the site of one grain of pepper, let alone a bottle of hot sauce). By the time our entrees arrived, we were stuffed. She had the crispy noodles with vegetables and I had the cashew chicken. Again, these entrees covered the entire plate. So, we ended up taking most of it home for dinner that night. We could have easily split these dishes. My take on the taste is the same as Tim’s – it was all good, but it needs just a little spice to kick things up. If you can’t stand spice, then this is your place. They do have two spicy dishes on their menu, but most of the time, Asian food has a little more something to it than this did.

The next time I went with Beth, we each had the chicken fried rice with no appetizer and this time, the portions were better. Again, it was good. It was flavored a little differently than any other chicken fried rice I’ve ever had, but it still needed just a little kick of something.

I’m glad we finally have an Asian food place in Bethany. It will beat driving several miles north to the next closest place. Just don’t go if you’re in a hurry, or if you’re looking for a decorative-type atmosphere, because there aren’t any decorations yet. But maybe this is what adds to the quaintness of the place. Maybe they’re only worried about their food, and not how the place looks. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? For me, it’s Pad Thai. Of all the Asian food varieties, Thai is my favorite, so you can understand why I have spent a good amount of time trying many of Oklahoma City’s Thai restaurants. So far, Thai Kitchen is winning.

Besides the great food, I like Thai Kitchen for its courage. This little restaurant sits near the Arts District downtown, not too far from the art museum and the downtown library. If you’ve ever been to that area, you know there aren’t many other restaurants around, and the ones that are there only open at lunch or maybe on certain evenings to accommodate the Civic Center crowds.

But Thai Kitchen breaks the mold, staying open for lunch and dinner (until 9pm!) every day except Sunday. Sure, they’re building a pretty major apartments complex (Arts Quarter) next door, which should be great business for Thai Kitchen, but that project is at least 6 months to completion yet Thai Kitchen is already there, open and serving up great dishes day and night. As a person who lives near downtown, I very much appreciate this opportunity to find good food downtown in the evenings and on the weekends. Thai Kitchen, may your tribe increase!

Ok, so now to the food. There are other good Thai places in the city, but Thai Kitchen simply adds that extra bit of flavor to every bite. I judge things mostly by the Pad Thai, and theirs is right on. The noodles are moist but not all clumpy or drenched in extra sauce. The flavors are a great blend with just a hint of sweetness that doesn’t overpower. Sometimes I order chicken into the mix and whatever they do back there adds a nice smokiness and flavor to the meat.

At lunch, Thai kitchen usually offers a buffet option ($6.99) which includes Pad Thai and a variety of other specialties. The Pad Thai on the lunch buffet doesn’t include meat, so if you need it with meat, you have to order off the menu. Luckily, they offer a host of lunch specials ($5.95) including Pad Thai with meat. It’s a tough call. Either get Pad Thai with meat, or get the meatless version and the chance to sample everything else. I’d say if it’s your first time, definitely get the buffet so you can taste it all.

So what’s the downside? Well, the atmosphere isn’t anything to write home about. The room is a bit run down and the collection of very plain restaurant booths and tables have holes and duct-tape patches of various shapes and sizes. I guess it could be kind of hip if they were going for the sort of intentionally run-down look, but unfortunately, I don’t think it’s intentional. But, for me, this all just kind of adds to the fun. It’s all a part of the surprise of finding such great food in such an unlikely location.

The only other issue is that the popularity of this little place sometimes works against it. Sometimes the lunch rush can overtake the buffet line and leave you waiting five or ten minutes for it to be replenished. But generally the wait staff is nice enough to let you know when your favorite dish has been refreshed on the line, so have patience, OKC. Bring a friend or spouse and think of the buffet down time as quality time together. Thai Kitchen is definitely worth the wait.