Good Thai food near Midway

I am looking for a good thai restaurant near midway airport. Any rec's?

psychchef wrote:I am looking for a good thai restaurant near midway airport. Any rec's?

Since a certain amount of time has passed without any specific responses, I'll say the following.

Given that 'near' is a relative term, I 'll ask how near (in travel times or miles) are you thinking? There is a sort of a concentration of Thai places in Hyde Park, and from some perspectives that's kind of near Midway...

But then there's the question of 'good', and that I'll leave for others, who are more knowledgeable, to comment on...

Antonius

There is a Thai restaurant on Harlem around 7500 south in Bridgeview. It's right near the Thai Temple, and I've always suspected this is a good place. Still I have never tried. Has anyone? In the same small strip mall is a Thai grocery and Thai video store.

Rob

Vital Information wrote:There is a Thai restaurant on Harlem around 7500 south in Bridgeview. It's right near the Thai Temple, and I've always suspected this is a good place. Still I have never tried. Has anyone? In the same small strip mall is a Thai grocery and Thai video store.

Rob

Bahn Thai. It's on 74th and Harlem on the west part of the street. It is my FAVORITE Thai place in the Chicagoland area. Period. The food is pungent, spicy, flavorful, simply fantastic. It is not Americanized Thai food. And, be warned, their levels of hot are hotter than in most places. It's the only place where I can get food as spicy as I like it. If you like it really spicy, as I do, ask for it "Thai spicy."

My favorite dishes there are the mussels appetizer, the gai pad gaprao (holy basil chicken) and the panang curry. They also serve these room-temperature hot & sour curries which are quite delectable.
Seriously, this is the only decent Thai restaurant I've found on the Southwest Side, and it's become my favorite Thai restaurant of all time.

Antonius wrote:There is a sort of a concentration of Thai places in Hyde Park, and from some perspectives that's kind of near Midway...

1. Not anymore, some have closed.
2.Not that close to Midway
and more importantly 3. Not good
(though that may depend on perspective)

sazerac wrote:

Antonius wrote:There is a sort of a concentration of Thai places in Hyde Park, and from some perspectives that's kind of near Midway...

S:

1. Not anymore, some have closed.

One of the many advantages of having moved out of Hyde Park is my ever-increasing lack of knowledge about that neighbourhood.

2.Not that close to Midway and more importantly

Perspective... It's -- what -- a twenty minute drive from HP to Midway? That's closer than the fish-taco place or Casino (link) (which are a couple of places on the further Southside where I'd want to go!).

3. Not good (though that may depend on perspective)

Well, I didn't think all that much of the couple of places I ate in back when I lived down there, but then, what do I know? And besides, you know I rarely express any strong opinions...



A

Binko wrote:

Vital Information wrote:There is a Thai restaurant on Harlem around 7500 south in Bridgeview. It's right near the Thai Temple, and I've always suspected this is a good place. Still I have never tried. Has anyone? In the same small strip mall is a Thai grocery and Thai video store.

Rob

Bahn Thai. It's on 74th and Harlem on the west part of the street. It is my FAVORITE Thai place in the Chicagoland area. Period. The food is pungent, spicy, flavorful, simply fantastic. It is not Americanized Thai food. And, be warned, their levels of hot are hotter than in most places. It's the only place where I can get food as spicy as I like it. If you like it really spicy, as I do, ask for it "Thai spicy."

My favorite dishes there are the mussels appetizer, the gai pad gaprao (holy basil chicken) and the panang curry. They also serve these room-temperature hot & sour curries which are quite delectable.
Seriously, this is the only decent Thai restaurant I've found on the Southwest Side, and it's become my favorite Thai restaurant of all time.

Thanks for confirming!

Vital Information wrote:Thanks for confirming!

Any place that looks that run-down and crappy from the outside, yet manages to stay in business for 19 years must be doing something right with the food. Cuz you certainly don't go there for the ambiance.

Bahn Thai is a nice family run restaurant. As Binko notes, it is not very prominent, just a small nondescript building. I ate there maybe five months ago. They listed many items that I'd only seen in Erik's translated menu, however they had just reopened after vacation so many of the items (néua tàet dìaw, oxtail curry) were not available then. Pla goong (shrimp with a chili lime dressing) was superb.

In the same building, and sharing the main door is a Thai grocery store. They have a great selection of everything Thai, including many many freezers full of fish and other seafood items. While many of their items are sourced from Thai grocer, they have excellent prices some even lower than Thai grocer ($2ish for the not so easy to find Tra Chang fish sauce). The grocery store takes cash only.

I haven't been there in years. I remember "mama" used to come from the kitchen to watch the Bulls in the playoffs. It was so cute. Do they clean their shrimp? This is a "pet peeve" of mine. I would love to try the chili lime shrimp. I plan to head that way tomorrow, if I can get a confirmation on clean shrimp. Oddly enough, I passed there today and this is "not close" to where I live.

IIRC the prawns were deveined. Curled up, there was a deep groove along the back.

Cool, thanks for the info...I'm there, asap.

Has anyone been here recently? I'm planning to go with some guys in between golf at the Bridgeview sports dome (8900 77th) and the casino. Also, is it BYOB or do they have a liquor license? Any other suggestions nearby (I'm not familiar with the area) would be appreciated as well. Thanks.

I can't say I know that area of Bridgeview well but having driven through it a couple of times without stopping, it appears that every middle-eastern restaurant on the Kedzie strip seems to have a "II" on Harlem in that area.

You're also not far from the stuff along 95th which includes Petey's in Oak Lawn, Top Notch Beefburger and Palermo's.

Abraus wrote:Has anyone been here recently? I'm planning to go with some guys in between golf at the Bridgeview sports dome (8900 77th) and the casino. Also, is it BYOB or do they have a liquor license? Any other suggestions nearby (I'm not familiar with the area) would be appreciated as well. Thanks.

I haven't made it INTO Bahn Thai recently but I drove past the other night and they seemed to be open but the grocery part looked to be closed. You also have two other places that are pretty decent on Harlem. There's Niko's which is a bit more pricey steaks/seafood ect and there's an Italian place called Mama Luigi's it's been my opinion that they do lunch better than dinner but you can still get a decent meal there.

You could always just go on down into Oak Lawn to Palermo's as someone else suggested or go down past 87th and Harlem and check out a few of the middle eastern places in the plaza there.

Niko's
7600 S Harlem Ave
Bridgeview,IL



Mama Luigi's
7500 S Harlem Ave
Bridgeview, IL
http://www.mamaluigis.com/

In Bridgeview around 87th and Harlem the strips have a couple of good M.Eastern grocery stores ( on opposite sides of the road) - I've picked up decent merguez (sausages; lamb & beef ), have even seen but not gotten the fresh spleen or sheep fries. Multiple fresh breads from pita to shrak are available there.

The Nile restaurant near Al-amal grocers serves a drab semblance of ME food.
Next to Al-amal there is a bakery/sweet store that had decent baklava and other fresh ME sweets.

Further south 106th or 111th or so, on Harlem is Al-Ameer restaurant and and an adjoining sweet store. The sweets are good, but the service at the restaurant has me sworn off there. Once out of four times there was the food good - a spicy fried liver and kidney dish. The last time I was there (after long enough since the previous time that I had forgotten that I shouldn't have gone) - I had to remind them after a half hour that we had ordered (the place was near empty) and then when we got our dishes, one of them was a shawerma with cold cold meat inside.

There are a number of Polish shops going south on Harlem that I have seen but not been, including one selling fresh pierogi (A&R Pierogi?) that was closed (Sunday) when I though I'd stop to go in.


Al-Amal Bakery & Grocery
7289 W 87th St
Bridgeview, IL
(708) 237-2625