Khao San
1435 NW Flanders St.
Portland, OR 97209
khaosanpdx.com
Yelp

I love Asian food more than any other food on this planet.  After a couple non Asian meals, I will usually crave something Asian.  So I was happy to squeeze in some Thai food during my Portland trip.  The Thai food is noticeable solid in Portland.  Of course there are your average joints, but on the whole I’ve always been pleased with my options here.  After a long day out and about checking out parts of Portland unknown to me with Decidedly Undecided, Zhu Zhu Hamster, and Little Pet, we settled on Khao San which had pretty good Yelp reviews and wasn’t too far off the beaten path.  Big Spoon was able to get away from a rough day on call to feast with us.

Blue Crab and Rice Noodle Stir Fry rice noodle, blue crab meat, egg, bean sprout, chives, garlic, chili, fried soft shell crab
Kind of like a less sweet/sour and more savory version of pad Thai.  There was great crabby flavor and the fried soft shell crab was a delicious crunchy addition.

I think this was like pad ka prao.  The fried egg and bit of fish sauce for dipping were snazzy touches.

Kor Mu Yaang chargrilled pork, smoked chili tamarind relish
I enjoyed the presentation of these grilled and skewered meats.  It could have been juicier.  I really liked the sweet/sour/spicy sauce.

Tasty and with that same tasty sauce.

I think Zhu Zhu Hamster or Little Pet was adamant about ordering this.  I knew they weren’t going to be nearly as tasty the Pok Pok wings, but I had no idea they were going to be battered in curry and coconut.  They were definitely interesting.

I’ve had better curry.  Nothing too memorable here.  It was certainly a comforting dish, though most anything saucey over rice gives me warm fuzzies inside.

If I have a say in the ordering at a restaurant (which I usually do), I will always throw in veggies.  I love my veggies.  I especially love my Thai salads.  It’s hard to mess this dish up.

Tom yum soup is another favorite Thai dish, but I did not like the addition of evaporated milk in this version.  It kind of lended a grainy aftertaste in my mouth.  The lemongrassy and kaffir lime flavors were spot on though.

Yelpers were all about the hooker shrimp, which was a unique dish for my palate.  I can’t say I loved it though.  I’m not a huge fan of Chinese celery.  The mixture of eggs, curry powder, and evaporated milk made more of a grainy clumpy eggy sauce.  Not my favorite dish.

No Thai meal is complete without some mango sticky rice.

I actually quite enjoyed the bananas and coconut flavors going on here, which typically are foods I try to avoid.  I guess anything battered and fried goes down pretty easy though.