After some misses earlier this year, I've had some great recent experiences at Spoon. I'm hoping that they've worked through any consistency problems that they may have been having.

Their fried chicken is consistently excellent, their crispy pork and Chinese broccoli might be the best rendition in town, and the nam khao thawt remains one of my favorite Thai dishes anywhere. On our most recent visit, we tried the pickled bamboo shoot salad for the first time and found it to be funky, sour, spicy, and delicious.

I'm not ready to give up on Spoon yet. I still think it deserves a spot on the short list of Chicago's best Thai spots.

--Rich

I don't think this is a topic one agrees or disagrees with. Objectively, egg noodles are not rice noodles and leaving any of the above in the broth doesn't work and is not how they used to do it at Spoon (and is not how they do it elsewhere). I am one of the original Spoon fans and I can tell you it pains me to say that when Spoon has been "off" lately, it was bad, unrecognizable crap. Different recipes, clearly different cook. I called and expressed my dismay last time. Maybe others did too and they turned it around. If so, good for Spoon. But for the positive comments here ("uphill alert") I wouldn't go back. But now I will. If it sucks again, someone's going to owe me $25 .

It's been years since we've been to Spoon Thai, but we're going to up in that neck of the woods this afternoon and are planning to have a late lunch/early dinner there. Am trying to remember what some of their signature dishes are? IIRC, the Isaan sausage and banana blossom salad is outstanding, beyond that, my mind is blank. Any suggestions? Also, are they still byob?

Naem khao thawt (love that my phone just auto-corrected "khao"!!) which is the crispy rice and sausage dish, Chinese broccoli with crispy pork, raw shrimp salad and their red curry dishes are our favorites, along with the ones you mentioned.

I think their sausage is fantastic and the best of the Thai sausages offered in Chicago. Catfish curry custard (hor mok pla) is another one of my favorites there. Naem khao thawt that boudreaulicious mentions or the rice with pork, green apple, egg, etc. - I love both (prefer the former) but only get one per visit absent a big crowd. I like the banana blossom salad but prefer Sticky Rice's, which is a little less sweet. One of their curries, particularly one of the sour ones, might be real nice on a cold winter evening. Enjoy!

Recently there have been reports of some meals at Spoon that weren't up to par. We eat there fairly frequently (and live walking distance) and I have to say, all our recent meals there have been great. On our visits a couple nights ago, we had several of our faves (the Vietnamese style crepe, Nahm Khao Thawt, banana blossom salad). We also tried the basil fried rice, which I'd never had (and I've cut a pretty wide swath through the menu there). I generally don't like fried rice that much but it was terrific-lots of Thai basil, some sliced jalapenos to give it a little heat. Definitely something I'll be ordering in the future.

I've eaten at Spoon twice in the past several months and the experiences couldn't have been any different. The first was on a Saturday night, place packed (good timing got us a two-top by the window. Service was very good and the food was fantastic. From the fish cakes to the fried chicken, crispy pad see ew to Nahm Khao Thawt, everything was fresh and first rate. Could not wait to get back.

Cut to a Sunday evening about six weeks ago and utter disaster. We ordered some of the same dishes. Fish cakes were greasy, the inside of the Vietnamese-style crepe was okay, but the crepe itself--also greasy and a little off. The crispy pad see ew was off, as in tasting of rancid oil. As it was also completely overcooked, we sent it back and they offered to remake it. The next version looked better, but the aroma of oil gone bad was still prevalent, so we paid our check (they took the ew off) and left, without much thought for returning. There are too many other wonderful Thai restaurants in town to subject ourselves to the risk. We were the only table and while there were a fair amount of pickup orders, we felt for those folks when they got home.