Khao Street Food sets new standards for Ottawa Thai food

Khao Street Food has arrived and it’s a welcome sign for lovers of unique dishes and bold Thai flavours. 

Over the last two years Ottawa lost three of its best Thai restaurants: Talay Thai, Anna Thai and Tuk Tuk. Of the three Tuk Tuk was the eatery that had most in common with Khao Street Food because of the similarities in the menu. 

I’m happy to report that Khao Street Foods menu is even more wide-ranging and the execution shows experience. 

Over the period of two visits, a week apart, I dove into a number of appetizers and mains and that had only whetted my appetite for more.

Thailand has four distinct culinary regions and for those interested in knowing more about what they’re eating at Khao Street Food, you can find a handy guide here.

On one visit I ordered the moo san chan todd, roasted pork belly cut into bite size pieces. The crackling was wafer-thin and brittle and broke away into delicate shards adding a contrast to the nicely seasoned layers of moistly sweet pork and fat.

Alongside was a house made fiery chili sauce that added even more succulence to this humble, yet perfectly rendered starter.

The deep fried vegetable fritters were a beloved sharing plate at our table and was enough for the three of us. The salty, tangy plum sauce was delicious against the hot, golden tempura-style batter and the vegetables had been parboiled so that each different vegetable had the same tenderness.

Look chin tod are beef meatballs made springy in texture through a blending process using either corn or potato starch. It’s similar in texture to those meatballs you find in Vietnamese pho. These however had a much nicer texture and flavour than any meatball from a pho house.

Here the dipping sauce was a fiery little number known as nam jim and it’s an all purpose elevating accent to all sorts of dishes. I often make a good amount in advance and store it in the fridge where it can keep a few months.

Thai mango salad is typically made with green underripe mangos although more often than not nowadays, I’ve been served this dish with fully ripened mango. It’s seldom a bad thing but the unripe variety does bring a little more tang and crunch to the experience.

It’s a versatile dish that can incorporate a variety of different vegetables such as bell peppers, cabbage or cucumber. The version served to me was classic enough with added red and green bell peppers, shallots, green onion along with cashews and peanuts.

In the past I’ve had this dish served with fried battered fish on top, which was unusual enough, but at Khao they’d added dried tiny anchovies. 

I took a few mouthfuls enjoying the freshness of the flavours until the potent fishiness took over. I’m always happy to try variations on favourites if they lean in the direction of the traditional, but the dried little fishies were not for me. Their taste dominated everything else.

Moo manao reminded me a little of those delicious Thai beef salads topped with toasted rice powder. You can get this appetizer with either pork or beef and I opted for the former.

The meat was entirely lean and had been velvetized and dowsed in a spicy seafood sauce, that while hot, was so stimulating I actually felt as if I were getting hungrier the more I ate. That’s some trick.

Overwhelmed by the artistry of the kitchen I knew I had to try their tom yum soup to see how well they prepared their broth. I ordered it with shrimp (goong) and I was delighted by the results.

The broth had a balance between all the elements of sweet, salty, sour and heat but the pungency of the mushrooms was off-putting. They’d used mushrooms that had already been decaying and I find this a too common problem at most Thai restaurants. It’s egregious and it’s a practice that needs to stop.

Another curiosity was that the shrimp used had a distinct bitter note. At first I thought I might be imagining things but all the shrimp were like this. A first for me and I have no idea why that should be the case.

When the server came to ask about the soup I was up front about my disappointment and in the end, they did not take this off the bill. A wild misstep for what was an otherwise great meal.

On another visit I had a much better experience with the tom jued soup. This is a purely vegetarian (perhaps even vegan) soup of carrots, napa cabbage, fried garlic, organic tofu, cilantro, celery, broccoli, green onions and threads of mung bean noodles.

I was told that the broth as well is vegetarian and the depth actually had me fooled thinking that surely there must be chicken in that stock. From the colour, freshness of ingredients to the gorgeous flavours, this was a comforting winner.

I chose another dish I’d not seen elsewhere: kuay tiew hang noodles. This was a thinner rice noodle dressed in a darker sweet soy-based sauce and loaded with tender slices of beef, meatballs, bean sprouts, celery, green onions and a handful of crunchy fried garlic. 

This is one of those Thai dishes that will excite enthusiasts and is also perfectly suited for those new to the cuisine. It’s all round delicious, well executed and non-challenging.

Of course, given what I’d experienced to that point at Khao Street Food, on the second visit I finally waded into the deep end and ordered pad thai.

There’s a reason it's seen as a de facto national dish and when done right, it’s exciting, activating every taste bud. As with anything it comes down to the quality of the ingredients used and the balance of the seasonings to make that delicious tamarind-based sauce.

For the experience of pad thai to be complete, it requires more than just a great sauce but also the right choice of rice noodle. This kitchen understands that and they use a thinner, square (cross-section view) noodle that was perfectly cooked to give a little resistance when eating. 

Served as it was with a veil of egg, I had high hopes and my expectations were met. I had found a perfectly executed pad thai in Ottawa.

I’d ordered mine with sweet and tender prawns and although I felt myself slipping into a happy stupor, I kept shovelling those noodles.

Reason prevailed before I could finish them and I took home what remained. Later on, upon reheating, I found that it had actually travelled well and that’s not something you can generally expect from pad thai as it’s often a messy clump.

Word of mouth has spread rapidly as on each lunch time visit, the place is very quickly filled so I expect that soon reservations will be a must. 

The kitchen crew are clearly experienced in this cuisine and you would think that this would be self-evident for every restaurant, but that’s not always the case. Kudos to the star that assembled this talent.

With that one hiccup involving the tom yum soup aside, my impressions of the food here have made this my go-to Thai eatery in Ottawa. Fans can now have the experience of traditional regional cooking that will have them going back often for these bold and diverse dishes.

Although there is an appealing looking drinks menu with fun looking cocktails, they are still waiting on their liquor license. 

There is one small area however at which Khao Street Food could work a little harder and that’s the service. It’s certainly friendly but for example on each visit, my table, throughout my meal, was left littered with empty plates that were only removed once I’d paid my bill. 

With Khao Street Food Ottawa finally has a Thai restaurant that would easily fit in alongside the better Thai eateries in Toronto or Vancouver. Our city deserves it.

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