Another excellent addition to West Portal, this Thai place opened about a year ago and has been booming ever since. Nice take the on papaya salad, they fry the shreds then you spoon over the funky/spicy vinegary sauce. I got this take out once and it held up quite well for fried food. Pad Thai was good, generous perfectly cooked plump shrimp, not sweet. Duck breast red curry was excellent, sous vide medium rare tender duck breast in a flavorful curry. Mango sticky rice was one of the best versions I’ve had, warm rice, perfect ripeness mango and sweet coconut milk. I had the Pad Ped Nuer Saab here once before, that was also really good. They really take care to execute everything properly. Great to have good Thai food close to my neighborhood. There is usually a wait, but they have that Yelp waitlist and the time estimate was accurate, so you could pop into West Portal for a cocktail or glass of wine while you wait.
The Sherwood, a block down, close to Elena’s is quite nice for cocktails
Thanks for posting about Khao Tiew. I went here once a few months ago but hadn’t written anything about it for some reason. I should go back and try some more things. It’s around the corner from West Portal station. When I went the TV inside was playing Mark Wiens videos. I had the Tiew Klook ($19), which is described as:
Soup-less thin rice noodles feature a homemade sweet and tangy soy sauce, homemade wanton, ground pork, sliced pork, homemade pork crackling, bean sprout, cilantro and peanut
I think I found some info about the dish here:
I thought it was a pretty good bowl of noodles. It’s “dry” and seasoned with a flavorful dark sauce that was sweet and sour. Lots of different toppings.
They also have Beerlao.
Menu.
Yep, I think it makes you order more, you get hungrier watching food videos before you order lol. I had leftover pad Thai yesterday - it was pretty standard, nothing special but generous with the shrimp.
I haven’t found good Pad Thai since Thep Phenom (?) Waller/Fillmore closed.
Where is the best in SF or Peninsula?
I wish I knew! This version is respctable, not gloppy sweet, but nothing special.
It’s always hard to say “the best” as everybody has different preferences but if we eliminate high-end places like Kin Khao or Nari, Isarn Garden in San Carlos is for us so far one of the best Thai places in the Bay area (including their Pad Thai)
