-Grubbing in Chicago
Modern Southern Thai Food in Lakeview
Thai food continues to ascend in Chicago right now. You may remember back in March when I posted about a hot new Thai restaurant from NYC that opened a location in the South Loop. Well today we’re going to check out a hot new Thai restaurant from California that opened in Lake View East.
Recently Opened in Lakeview East
Coup de Thai comes to us from Los Gatos California (homebase of Netflix). It opened at the end of July and started gaining buzz almost immediately. We visited on a Friday night in the beginning of August and the entire neighborhood was buzzing with people from all walks of life and that spilled over into the restaurant. Coup de Thai describes themselves as a modern southern Thai restaurant - it’s currently byob but that may change. The menu is smaller and made up of two sections 1) The Opening Act and 2) Center Stage. When I visit a restaurant like this I like to find menu items that stand out in terms of dishes you don’t really see elsewhere and I found a couple immediately in the ‘Dragon Balls’ and the ‘Tom Yum Ceviche’. First out were the Dragon Balls which are described on the menu as “spicy chicken balls fried with mint, shallot, green onion, cilantro, kafir lime leaves, and salad.” This appetizer is actually at the center of a lawsuit with their California location that alleges this dish was too spicy and caused permanent damage to a customer - sounds a bit like a Karen’s claim but I won’t pretend to know the whole story. What I do know is the version served at this location was far from spicy. They were nicely spiced and I liked the fresh herbs that came with them and the dipping sauce too but they weren’t spicy at all. Though the Tom Yum Ceviche was a different story completely. Shrimp gets the ceviche treatment with tom yum ingredients resulting in a bold and sour and super spicy dish. We also tried the ‘Golden Shrooms’ on our waitresses rec and those were also good. I liked the use of enoki mushrooms and the tangy chili sauce that came with it was excellent.
I counted about five Southern Thai dishes on the menu including Khua Kling which is a spicy dry fried curry consisting of ground chicken stir fried in a homemade southern Thai style red curry paste with lots of fresh herbs mixed in. When they say that a dish is spicy here they’re talking spicy like you would find in Thailand. Real deal heat. If you don’t like spicy there’s options like Shrimp in Noodle Claypot which is one of my favorites going back to the first time I tried it at the Floating Market in Bangkok. Coup de Thai makes theirs with firm black tiger shrimp and glass noodles tossed with ginger and onion and served in a piping hot claypot. I love the different textures this dish gives off.
Since they just opened on our visit there wasn’t much info out there about what to get but the Crab Curry caught my eye as it’s a pretty typical southern Thai dish and I had read somewhere that all the curries are made from scratch so it seemed like it would be something worth trying and that it was. The menu describes their crab curry as jumbo lump crab meat with wild betel leaves simmered in a homemade turmeric curry which doesn’t sound all that spicy but this was one of the spiciest (and most pleasurable) dishes I’ve ate of late. It took me back to a famous stall in Bangkok where we ordered the stir fried crab with medium heat and it was just about the spiciest thing we ever ate but we couldn’t stop eating all the luscious crab which was the same story with the crab curry at Coup de Thai which comes filled with chunks of soft and succulent crab. This dish will either blow your tastebuds through the roof or have you gasping for breath while grabbing for your water - it won’t help. If you can handle the heat you’ll be taken to levels rarely reached with Thai curries in Chicago.
Coup de Thai
2932 N Broadway
Chicago, IL 60657
(224) 236-2636
Website
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