Andy's Thai Kitchen

This was probably the best Thai food I've ever had.  I've had a good amount of New Haven/St Louis/LA/Orange County/wherever pad thai, pad see ew, green curry, massaman curry, etc. etc.  I've always seen Thai restaurants sort of like Indian lunch buffet places: generally mediocre-good, reliably so, but nothing wow amazing.  And then I came to ATK.

For food, 5 stars ++.  I don't expect (in fact I'm generally wary of) really "good" service at ethnic restaurants [complaints in this vein remind me of when Americans complain about French waiters in France], but I do want my food to come out in a timely manner, so knocked off a star there.  I'm for sure coming back and if the food comes out reasonably fast, no 45 minute waits for salad, then it's upping to five.

WOW AMAZING: grilled squid appetizer, served with a ginger-lime-spicy-fish sauce dipping sauce.  The squid is slightly sweet where it's charred, and it has a perfect balance of meatiness and smoothness without giving way to rubber.  Loved it.

ALSO AMAZING BUT HOT DAMN SPICY: papaya salad.  They  have like 8 variations on papaya salad but we took the 2 star (out of 3) spiciness-level one.  Incredible flavors with peanut, spice, lime, fresh, sassy, tangy, you are gonna sweat out your nose while eating this spicy.  The itty bitty dried shrimps have a great brininess and soak up the dressing, and the papaya itself is fantastic.  I got really scared after this one came out and I ran up to the front to ask her to change our order if it hadn't gotten to the kitchen yet because we'd ordered 3 star spiciness-level entrees.

SUPER GOOD: duck curry.  It had pineapple, a thick creamy curry sauce, and surprise! grapes and cherry tomatoes that really lifted up the dish.  Way yums.  

too sweet: pano (palo? pa-something-o?) a dish of stewed pork belly, hard boiled egg, and tofu in a sweet sauce.  Waaay too sweet.  The filipinos and the Vietnamese and I think also the Koreans do this dish too.  Tastes homey, but this one had too much sugar.  Ick.

good, but normal: garlic pepper chicken.  Exactly what it sounds like, but quite well executed.

It's BYOB and they charge $1 if you use their glasses.  

Right outside the brown line Wellington stop.

Seriously the best Thai food I've had.  I get way excited when I don't recognize everything on a menu.  I sort of get more excited with surly service, especially when everyone is speaking a language I don't know to each other.  But man that timing.  Oof.

great, authentic, good quality food, nice atmosphere.

The food is fantastic but the wait time and service are lacking.  Ordered Pad Thai a few weeks ago and the waitress brought something completely different.  She then reprimanded me stating it was a special order and not on their menu.  My fellow guest came to defense and backed me up that I did order the Pad Thai.
Went back today and waited 32 minutes for my food after it was ordered.  Again, waitress was less than friendlyand did not apologize for the wait.  There were also out of Pad Thai Noodles .....Great food, but don't go there on your lunch hour. Could be a stand-out with better management and service.