Bangkok Cafe
17 N Vail Ave
Arlington Heights, IL 60005
Downtown Arlington Heights is a surprisingly nice little place, with a range of restaurants ranging from bars to Spanish Tapas. And for the burbs, it has a surprising number of Thai places, too. However, Bangkok Cafe is a notch above the typical strip-mall Thai offering endemic to the area. All in all, Bangkok Cafe is the type of local Thai place you would expect to find in a trendier area of Chicago – not too expensive (dishes under about $9 apiece), muted, modern decor, with the requisite gamut of noodle and curry dishes represented.
A friend in town and I were craving Thai while in the area, so we decided to give Bangkok Cafe a try. We stuck with some standby favorites – Mussaman Curry and the Pad See Eiw, though the menu did offer some more unusual seafood dishes. The Mussaman curry was good, but seemed to contain less coconut milk than usual, though it came with a nice topping of cashews. The Pad See Eiw was a bit unusual in that it came ontop 0f a bed of spinach – never seen that presentation before!
We were pleased with our meals, and the atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasant and conducive to chatting (though it was surprisingly full of teenagers at the time). We hear Bangkok Cafe also does a brisk lunch business and has a $6.99 special. Bangkok Cafe doesn’t break the mold (or the bank), but it’s a great place for a nice, low key dinner in the burbs if you are craving solid American Thai food.
Eating The World 