Last Night @ Arun's Thai Restaurant In Chicago

Our drive to Chicago was not very exciting... I did, however, learn that you can not just find people with no teeth in Tennessee or Mississppi; close enough to big city Chi-town, you can still find very odd looking people in Illinois... three teeth on one man lol! Never heard of dentists?!

If anything at all, the meal at the end of the drive waiting for us helped the king make the seven hour plus drive into the city. I was of no help of course... I mean, I offered to drive but he was sweet and took charge; and I could only 'enlighten' him that much during the drive lol. After awhile, even I needed a nap. Fine(!), I took more than just one nap...

Dinner at Arun's last night was awesome! Speaking from experience, having the best Thai food in Thailand, Arun's did not disappoint. Seated in a non-descript corner of a not-so-nice neighborhood, the Thai restaurant sort of stuck out with it's slightly fancy outside decor - though even that was minimal. You can hardly tell there was anything going on inside. We stood outside for a little waiting for my friend Ling, (we were early) and scoped for parallel parking spots for her. The restaurant has valet parking on Friday and Saturday nights, but has no parking lot of its own.

Inside Arun's was not that exciting either. It wasn't a very beautifully decorated restaurant nor that unique. A little scary once you realize what the wallpapers are pictures of actually lol. Maybe it's just from a Chinese Singaporean's perspective, I don't know... we were greeted immediately by one of the friendly wait staff and were offered our choice of bottled still or sparkling waters - which they, fortunately (and surprisingly) did not charge a bunch of money for considering how many bottles we had lol. Our waiter then explained to us how the meal would be served; six appetizers, four dishes to be done family-style (i.e. shared), and two desserts. I could hardly contain myself. I was hungry and I could see and smell the goodness from the neighboring tables that they were having a feast and a half! There is no menu at Arun's -- just a fixed price 12-course dinner which they customize to your dietary preferences and desired spice level.

Our first dish, though not a very traditional Thai dish, was pretty on the plate and a good way to start our culinary adventure. The spring-themed dish had perfectly cooked green and white asparagus, a couple tied together with some limp green onions topped with a vinegarette dressing garnished with some freshly toasted almonds was nice. The vinegar in the dressing prepared both my palate and my appetite for what was to come. Not impressed yet but no complaints. After all, it tasted good :) I was afraid this was the start of a overly fru-fru meal that was not going to be very Thai-tasting. After all, all those reviews on Yelp weren't exactly given by the Thai nationals.

The very familiar second appetizer was 'miang khum'. We've had this often and as I understand it, served everywhere from the most fancy of Thai restaurants to street vendors. Sitting on the betel leaf, you have one chilli-padi (super hot!), fried shallots, fresh onion, a couple peanuts, one dried shrimp, some toasted coconut shavings, one tiny wedge of lime and ginger. Wrap that up in the leaf, add some of the tamarind based sauce and you get a perfect burst of all the flavors in your mouth. YUM! This dish is usually served in a big platter where you get to pick everything you want on your leaf... but this way, you eat it as it's supposed to. How can anyone not like this!? The flavors were perfectly fresh and the leaves were unusually large compared to the ones we've had elsewhere.

Appetizer number three came all pretty and wrapped up by a cucumber 'string', also too pretty to eat - yeah right! A dumpling, the staff explained... and I don't quite remember much more after that :) ...unlike normal Chinese dumplings I'm used to, the skin of this dumpling used that of rice noodles... like hor fan... just a lot more delicate. I can't quite remember what was in this dumpling but it was very good. Served in an almost sweet tomato sauce... it was gone in two gulps.

The next dish is familiar to most Southeast Asians. Well, not at first by sight, given the elaborate plating... but when the waitress informed us that it was a Thai spring roll. But, instead of being wrapped in a wonton wrapper or rice paper, this one was rolled in a poh-pia wrapper. Poh-pia is typical Singaporean hawker food, but the wrapper was where the similarity ended. Last night's poh-pia had pork, sweet crabmeat, cucumber and green onions. The spring roll was cut into two pieces, and we were instructed to take the shiso leaf from the tomato garnish, cut in half, and eat it with the spring roll along with the sweet sauce, the jalapeno slice hidden underneath, and a dot of very very hot "Chinese-style" mustard. Very good. But I think I like my $2 pohpiah back home better lol! OK, I'm clearly becoming delusional.

Next was one of my favorite dishes last night, and we still haven't made it through the appetizers yet! Not THE favorite... just one of them! "Emerald Sea" is a gorgeous dish that is reminiscent of one of my favorite Thai noodle dishes, phad kee mao ("drunken noodle" in America/English). The large unbattered prawn is wrapped in egg noodles then fried, crispy yet juicy. It sits atop a little puff-pastry kind of cup that hid a huge slice of jalapeno (yes you're supposed to eat that) and a couple of strands of rice noodles (also used in phad kee mao). All that sat on the spinach sauce that was absolutely delicious! When I mixed all the above (in small doses of course) in one mouthful, I realized, 'hey, this IS pad kee mao!!!'. Pretty bloody cool!!

The last appetizer came as the hottest dish of the evening. OMFG, it totally shocked both Ling's and my palette and system hahaha! The both of us were practically in tears. I know my face was as red as beet lol! Not that neither of us finished this dish of course lol! A mouthful of egg noodles, basil and fish balls in ma'phuckin' hot green curry :) This might have been the king's favorite dish. The boy sat there gleaming in all that spiciness and taste while the two of us kept downing the water lol. He even drank the rest of the curry gravy with a spoon. Must have been quite funny to all the pale skins in the restaurant :)

I was already full by this time but I was also much anticipating the real meal to be served. Yes, family style... but then, not really family style lol. You each get one serving of everything served. But it was nice to be served all four dishes at one time to mix all of the typical greatness of Thai flavors with rice.

Eating Nemo lol... why I'd never be able to perfect the art of cooking Thai food. Vegetable and fruit carving is a big part of it lol. This lightly pan-fried seabass topped with three different sauces (sweet, spicy and sour) was to die for! Crisp on the outside (almost like panko breaded) and soft and moist on the inside.


Minced chicken in basil and cilantro - much like larb, but very herbal rather than fiery spicy. Absolutely delicious! One suggestion however, they should serve this is a slight bowl... kind of hard to scoop fluffy ground chicken from a plate :) [Note from "The Boy": it wasn't that tough to serve -- the Queen was too distracted by her meal to be bothered to serve it properly -- heehee].

The massaman curry beef tenderloin was my favorite of the evening. Much like Singapore's beef rendang, this dish was made to perfection! All I needed was more rice to have the gravy that sat there screaming for all of our attention lol. I think we agreed it was just as well none of us had second servings of rice - as much as some of us were very tempted to lol!

The lobster in yellow curry paste might have been my least favorite of the four entrees. I love lobster (of course) but this sort of paled in comparison to everything else that was a few flavors mixed in one dish. Of course the lobster was good too! It was cooked perfectly and wonderfully sweet, but just a tad strong in curry powder for me, if you ask me. But what do I know :)

Don't be mistaken. This (left) is certainly NOT the lowly viewed, mango pudding you can get at any Asian grocery store! This is made 100% of the sweetest mango you'd ever come across served on top of the most fragrant sticky rice (you can certainly taste the pandanus leaf / flavor it was cooked in). I cleaned everything off with no problem, of course. Full as I was... even the mint went perfect lol! ...and the final desert... the lychee sorbet... how could have they served two of my favorite fruits as dessert? All they needed was to bring out the halved watermelon and I would have been in heaven lol!

I'd love to return to Arun's again to see what else they can come up with to impress me. They change the menu often so I'm not worried - I'd be quite happy to have the same meal all over again! Arun's Thai Restaurant gets a 8/10 from me. Why only 8 when the food was flawless and the service excellent? Well... the asparagus though helped with the start of a perfect meal just did not taste Thai enough for me... and the decor of the restaurant... they can do something about it if they've been serving not-cheap omakase-style meals since the 80s and can pack the place on a Wednesday night. Spend some money to make more money please!

[Another note from "The Boy" -- I liked the decor. The brightly colored Thai wallpaper provided for a festive atmosphere. My only complaint was the lighting which was strangely harsh and it made my pictures appear washed out. Ignore the Queen's comments on decor -- unless it's a glass table with a brushed aluminum floor, something akin to an operating theatre, she thinks it's dowdy).