Bree Thai

I tried Bree Thai last night it was very good food. It's located on the Southwest side of Chicago, Archer and Central. I had heard good things about this place. I ordered Phad Prik King with pork(a special). We also had baby chicken egg rolls. All the food was excellent, spiced just right. The presentation is perfect. There is no liquor served and I'm not sure if it's BYOB, I did not inquire. The owner introduced himself and was very friendly and appreciative of our choice to eat at his restaurant. He was saying that there are so many Thai restaurants on the North side but not on the South side, that's why he chose this location. I'm anxious to try it again, there are more dishes I would love to try.

I am not an expert at all on Thai food. I would love to see other LTH reviews on Bree Thai to know if this is a great Thai restaurant. It's certainly nice to have such a place on the SW side of Chicago!

The exact address is :
5306 S Central Ave
Chicago, IL

I was excited to see "Southern Thai Home Cooking" on Bree Thai's menu because that style of cooking is seriously underrepresented in Chicago.



Trying to zero in on the dishes they might do best, I asked the owner which were Southern style. Everything on the menu is Southern, I was told (even the crab Rangoon?). When that approach proved fruitless we decided to try a couple dishes from the specials board, one with "Southern" in its name.



Heat is one of the hallmarks of Southern Thai cooking so we made it clear we wanted our dishes authentically spicy. They seemed reluctant—completely unwilling actually—to meet our request but agreed to bring us some hot sauce on the side (it turned out to be a dish of crushed dry red chilies).

Tom yum was chock full of big chunks of bland chicken breast and sliced button mushrooms. The thin, timid broth contained little fish sauce or heat and not a trace of lemon grass or lime leaves.



Pretty, though.

Pad prik consisted largely of carrots and broccoli (both unorthodox ingredients) in addition to green beans and truly delicious cubes of deep-fried pork belly. The sauce emphasized sweet over spice and the traditional garnish of a chiffonade of lime leaves was nowhere to be found.



An attractive dish, but hardly pad prik.

Southern beef salad is simply yum nuea, and not a particularly good example at that. It looks like a large serving but the grayish beef sits on a mound of shredded iceberg lettuce, making it not a particularly good value at $13.



Nice presentation, though.

Bree Thai
5306 S Central Av (at Archer)
Chicago
773-767-3200

Edited to restore photo links.