It’s easy to spend a weekend in Vegas confined to the Strip, drawn to the array of restaurants with celebrity chefs, shockingly creative designs and the highest of high end ingredients. Kobe beef tasting menu, anyone? Still, convenient and deluxe aren’t always interesting enough adjectives when it comes to describing restaurants. I kept reading about Lotus of Siam, an off the Strip hole-in-the-wall that was supposed to deliver some of the best Thai food in the U.S. I went with five friends to investigate.

Chef/owner Saipin Chutima is from Chiang Mai, Thailand, and specializes in Northern Thai dishes, which are influenced by neighboring Myanmar, Laos and South China’s Hunan Province. She apprenticed under her husband’s grandmother, a cook for the Thai royal family. Mrs. Chutima perfected her current menu at her former restaurant, Renu Nakorn in Norwalk, California. In 1999, she left Southern California with her menu and her husband Bill in tow to open Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas.

My friends and I were pre-warned that the restaurant featured atrocious décor, but it was fine: fake crystal chandeliers that could have been plucked from Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, non-descript tables and chairs, stand-up wooden dividers to separate tables, and rows and rows of framed photographs of the owners with diners, famous and not. A photo of Pat Sajak was prominently displayed.

We began with an order of Som Thum, Thai papaya salad ($6.95), a blend of julienned green papaya, chili, dried shrimp, tomato, crushed peanut, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar. Our waiter asked how spicy we wanted it, asked us to choose a number between 1 and 10, 10 being the spiciest. Tamara said, “Seven.” Our waiter said we wouldn’t want it any spicier than that. I asked how hot he takes his papaya salad. “Ten. But I grew up on it.” Sounds like a flagrant example of spice-ism. Of course, he was also right. The chili-heat of the dish almost overpowered everyone at the table. We resorted to chomping on the accompanying wedge of iceberg lettuce to dull the pain.

We ate three dishes from the laminated menu of Northern Thai delicacies. Khao Soi ($8.95) is a famous Northern Thai egg noodle soup with yellow curry, coconut cream, and chicken, with fried flat egg noodles on top. On the side was a small plate of sliced red onion, lime and pickled cabbage, designed for garnishing. Even though the soup lacked the fierce kick of the chili paste that accompanies the dish in Thailand, the rich, creamy mélange was still very good.

Northern Larb ($8.95) is atypical of the ground pork dish you’ll find on most authentic Thai menus in the States. There is no lime juice or chili kick. Instead, this bowl of ground hog incorporated milder Northern Thai spices and was garnished with cilantro, simple and delicious.

Kang Hung Lay (Pork Stew Northern Curry) ($8.95) had Burmese overtones. Cooked with pork, pork with fat, dried and fresh spices, the curry paste-soaked cubes of pig were tender, rich and somewhat spicy.

We ate two dishes from the “Lotus of Siam Special” portion of the menu. Nua Sao Renu ($9.95) featured sliced charbroiled beef served on bed of shredded cabbage, topped with tamarind sauce and fried dry chili. The meat was luscious, with an alternating spicy and sweet flavor, delicious.

The final dish of the night was Plar Dook Kra-Prow Krob ($28.95 – market price) was a large deep-fried whole catfish, topped with sauteed red and green chilies, garlic, and crispy basil leaves. The noble fish had crispy bronzed skin that sealed in tender, juicy flesh. It was a sensational, semi-spicy version of a Thai classic.

For dessert, sticky rice with mango ($6.50 – seasonal) featured a mound of sticky rice drizzled with condensed milk and a sprinkling of tiny yellow peanuts. There were two cross-sections of juicy orange fruit that went marvelously with the sweet rice.

Lotus of Siam has an extensive wine list, but most of us drank Thai iced tea ($2), the rare version that actually tasted like it had iced tea in it. The drink also wasn’t the unnatural orange color common to so many neighborhood Thai restaurants.

The verdict: My friends and I were all massively impressed by Lotus of Siam. It was the best Thai food any of them had ever eaten, and it was the most authentic and best tasting Thai food I’ve eaten outside Thailand. Lotus of Siam will definitely become a Vegas tradition. And casinos beware; the experience will lead to more off-the-strip eating.

Hours:
Lunch: Monday-Friday 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM
Dinner: Monday-Thursday 5:30 PM – 9:30 PM, Friday-Sunday 5:30 PM – 10 PM

Related Posts

1. Sri Siam Café – North Hollywood, CA – February 11, 2010
2. Bua Siam: Bringing Boar and Bay Leaf to NoHo from Northern Thailand
3. Dose of Vitamin P: Renu Nakorn Pork Stew Northern Style: Currying Pork By Way of Burma in Norwalk
4. You & Mee – Bangkok, Thailand – Saturday, May 14, 2005 & Tuesday, May 17, 2005
5. Bouchon – Las Vegas, NV – August 27, 2005

This entry is filed under Las Vegas, Thai.