Thong Thai

If you're from the area, you've driven past this place a hundred times on your way to Costco, Target, Walmart, etc. It looks run down from the outside and it looks like it could fit maybe ten people max. It even has a memorable name. As my Thai friend Veera said, it was named after him on Miami Beach.

We decided to finally eat here tonight. Places like this intrigue me and I've been burned before. This time, not so much. Our Host/waiter seemed very nice. Service is pleasant but at a minimum here. Not a lot of conversation or checking up on us, but our food came out quickly and we always had water.

We ordered pad thai (just ok. a bit mushy and a tad too sour), curry chicken and penang beef. The curries were pretty good with the penang beef being the standout. That said,we eat Thai food a lot and I can't say either curry looked or tasted authentic to us. Either way, whatever it was, it was good.

I'm not sure this will pull us away from our regular Thai joints, but for one night it did the job.

I make it a point to come back to Thong Thai whenever I'm in town, it's usually my first stop for food when I'm back in Chicago.

I absolutely love the Kao Pad Thai which is their Thai Chicken Fried Rice. I've checked out several other Thai places around the Chicagoland Area, none of which have chicken fried rice like this. It's kind of like a version of their Pad Thai but with rice, instead of noodles.

Everything else I've ordered here is so good and the service so fast. Other favorites are the Mee Krob, Satay, Kai Cashew, Neur Nam Mun Hoy & The My Choice Supreme.

My suggestion would be to go with other people and order family-style, so you get to try several dishes!

When I first walked in and sat down, I almost got up and walked out.  The table cloth looked like previous diners had used it for a napkin and the floor needed a good sweeping and mopping.  Dirty dining area worries me and I start getting images in my head of a cooking area that might be filled with cockroaches.  Not good.  If I hadn't been so hungry, I might have left, but instead I got up and moved to a cleaner table.

I'm glad I stayed.  I'm not very experienced with Thai food, so I can't compare with many others, but I really liked the food here.  I had Pad Woonsen, my girlfriend had Pad Kee Mau Kai and we shared a Chicken Satay and it was all very delicious.  The prices are very reasonable.

I am only giving 4 stars because I am of the opinion that restaurants should be so clean that you could eat off the floor.  I will certainly go back though because they redeemed themselves with the great food.  Next time, I might go earlier in the day in hopes everything will be cleaner.