Most Authentic Thai Restaurants - DFW

[ponchai]

When I want Thai food, I got to have Thai food. I like the no nonsense places. I'm looking for restaurants that cook the traditional dishes close to how mom used to make it. I don't rave about how nice the place looks, what condition it's in or where it is. Send me a mobile vendor. Just give me Thai.

There are several places that I highly recommend

My friends and I from work name this our favorite Thai spot.

In Dallas -
Best Thai
540 Preston Royal Shopping Ctr
Dallas, TX 75230
[phone]‎

This place is as home as you can get. The dining area probably seats no more than 25 people. It's tucked in the corner of the shopping strip that Tom Thumb is located in. They use a spicy scale of 1 to 5. Oh yea...you can also request 6. I dare you.
My favorite is the Pad ke Maow with Shrimp (Spicy Flat Noodles with Basil and Shrimp), also known as drunken noodles. The prices here are good. A typical lunch or dinner entree is around $7.

My wife and I have a favorite Thai spot.

In Arlington -
Thai House Restaurant
3701 S Cooper St # 131
Arlington, TX 76015
[phone]

Authentic and family owned. You can't go wrong with any of the noodle dishes here. The owner is very nice and will be happy to customize your dish the way you like it. Although the drunken noodles don't compare to the previous restaurant I love the Thai style fried rice here. Although they don't have a spicy scale, you can request for them to make your dish spicy. The Tom Yum soups are excellent. This place is also vegetarian friendly. The price here is fair, averaging about $9 per dish.

[pinotho]

Not being Thai, I don't think I can speak to authenticity, but I am very impressed with the food at Thai Tanee (on Alpha, just east of Montford). Their kitchen is so good, and accomodating, that I think they can prepare any dish however you wish it prepared.

[LewisvilleHounder]

Are you asking for authentic Thai restaurant or are you telling us these are authentic?

The most authentic Thai restaurants I have been to are:

Jasmine Thai
2050 W Spring Creek Pkwy
Suite 206
Plano, TX 75023
Tel: 972 – 517 – 1677
Fax: 972 – 517 – 1623
http://www.jasminethai.net/

This seems to be the most authentic that I have had in Dallas. If you push them hard enough they will start giving you more authentic Thai dishes. I have had about 8 or 9 of them so far and they are very different from the flavors of the non-authentic. My favorite still is the sour coconut soup with catfish and coconut shoots, Yum Neua Salad was also very different and very good, Tom Yum Plaa with fresh coconut was also different in taste from the other on the menu. They do have a somewhat tame grilled GIANT prawn. These suckers are the size of small lobsters and usually come 13-14 per order. They come with a Thai style dipping sauce (fish sauce and chilies). I did managed to stray once from the authentic menu and got the Thai Herbal Chicken and the Jungle Curry. The Herbal chicken has the option of being a meal or appetizer. I went with the latter and it came out a heaping mound of sweet lightly battered chicken pieces with fried thai basil. It was good and perfectly fried. The jungle curry is the hottest dish I have had in Dallas to date. I jokingly ordered it Thai hot thinking they would hold back on the spice. It was a sinus draining experience like no other and I enjoyed it.

My other place is:
Bankok Orchid
3311 W Airport Fwy
Irving, TX 75062
[phone]
http://www.bangkokorchidtx.com/aboutus.html

This place is very small and almost claustrophobic in the decor and also has trance music pumping that at times can get bothersome. The plating here wins awards. I have never seen such nice plating at an ethnic restaurant as here. I would blow right past that other menu and head strait for the "Authentic Thai Menu". I had the crispy catfish flake salad last time I was in and enjoyed it. Next time I will ask for less catfish and more veggies as the balance got a bit off on the catfish. The service is nice but when I dined there was no crowd. A shame really b/c this place is better than a good majority.

Finally:
Andaman Thai
508 S Elm St # S
Denton, TX 76201
[phone]
http://www.andamanthairestaurant.com/

Every time I am in this place everyone is ordering the "safe" dishes and usually compaining about the spice level. This happens to be the only restaurant I have dined at recently that about 90% of the customers can come and go before you get your order. I am not sure why but people in Denton are rapid eaters. All of that aside this is no glamour or hip place. It is in a less traveled part of Denton just south of the Downtown Square. It is not run down but just not a lot of foot traffic like say on the Loop or UNT/TWU campuses. I really do like that it is a low key place and it is larger than the previous two in space. The menu does hold some real treasures you just have to pick them out. Sam Rod Trout was awesome, as was the monotonous sounding Mango Trout, the Nam Prik Ong (descibed as a Northern Thai Dip) is a plate of mouth searing ground chicken goodness. and finally the Gang Som curry was very good. I actually like this place for "letting me have it" as I asked for the spiciest level on the Nam Prik Ong and it is still one of the spiciest dishes I had last year.