“We are a “Very Thai” kitchen, focusing on street food and snacks that you would commonly find while visiting Thailand. Most of our dishes are best shared and many dishes are from the Isan region (northeastern), where they like their food spicy. We source our produce and meat locally when possible, and we do not use MSG.” When I read that introductory statement on Glai Bann’s website and menu, I nearly danced with joy. Over the years I’ve become increasingly frustrated with Thai restaurants in that the balance of flavors–sweet, sour, salty, bitter, spicy–has skewed overwhelmingly toward sweet. The culinary journey at many Thai restaurants is incomplete for those of us who don’t particularly like entrees as sweet as desserts.
Much of the credit (or blame) for my intolerance of “perfectly fine, acceptable to most” Thai restaurants is because I’ve experienced THE best. That would be Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas, Nevada. No less than Pulitzer Prize award-winning writer Jonathan Gold called Lotus of Siam “the single best Thai restaurant in North America.” In 2010, Chef-owner Saipin Chutima was accorded with “Best Chef: Southwest” honors by the James Beard Foundation. Her specialty is Issan-style Thai food, its genesis being the northeastern region of the country where the chef was raised, a region in which cuisine is more highly spiced than those of the other regions of Thailand.
In 2023, TIME Magazine named the Isan region one of the “World’s Greatest Places” in 2023, noting that “chances are you’ve already tried food from Isan, and you might not even know it. The largest region in Thailand, which hugs the border with Laos and Cambodia in the country’s northeast, has given us such classic dishes as som tum (green papaya salad) and larb (ground meat salad), and its diaspora is spreading this sour, spicy, herbaceous cooking style far and wide.” The number of Michelin-recommended restaurants in the Isan Region has grown significantly in recent years, recognition that Isan style cuisine is not synonymous with Thai cuisine.
Glai Baan launched in Phoenix in 2017 and has been packed ever since. Some of that is because the restaurant’s dining room is Liliputian though an comfortable patio accommodates overflow crowds very well. Mostly, however, this is a restaurant which will continue to garner recognition because its food is spectacular. Taste explosions in every bite. In 2024 alone, Glai Baan was included in the 2024 USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year list along with 46 other restaurants across the fruited plain. It’s been featured on copious other “Best of” lists including The Republic’s 100 Essential Restaurants of 2024. OpenTable recommended it on its list of “12 romantic restaurants for a date night in Phoenix.” It’s certainly well-deserving.
The name Glai Baan translates from Thai to “far from home.” The backstory behind the name is that Chef-Owner Pornsupak “Cat” Bunnag opened the restaurant because she was missing the flavors of her Isan home. There may be a backstory behind its storefront appearance (maybe terrible gardener), too. Glai Baan sits behind a veritable jungle of roughly kempt foliage. A couple of doors are the only clue that there’s a building behind that foliage. Lilliputian may be the most apt description for the eatery’s interior. Thankfully there’s a patio to accommodate overflow crowds. One caution about a visit to Glai Baan, parking is very limited and the ingress and egress are one way.
Even when Glai Baan is crowded, service is friendly and professional. Servers can be trusted to recommend something for every taste (such as my Kim’s inability to enjoy piquant foods) or to explain the genesis and composition of every dish. The menu lists just slightly more than twenty dishes (some Thai restaurants have nearly that many curry dishes alone). The sole surprise–and maybe a concession to diners who don’t know better–is the availability of pad Thai, a dish that was invented in 1938. Pad Thai is the one dish which most exemplifies the “dessert sweet” nature of too many Thai dishes.
Menu items are spelled out in Thai with English translations following. As a lifelong lover of language, I appreciate that the Thai language has 44 consonants, 32 vowels, 4 tone marks, and various other symbols for pronunciation. I appreciate Glai Baan’s “small plates” menu even more. Our first small plate was kanom jeeb, steamed local pork dumplings with scallions served with a ginger soy sauce. Reminiscent of dumplings you might see in a dim sum menu, these folded little pockets of deliciousness are absolutely terrific. A large pork “meatball” is the sole occupant of that pocket. Cut it in half and dip it into the ginger soy sauce for best results. These are outstanding dumplings.
Outstanding also is the Silom Road Moo ping (pork skewers). If (like me), you’re tired of the satay offered at most Thai restaurants, you’ll love these skewers. Unlike satay which my friend Carlos calls “desiccated corpse meat” these skewers are moist and fresh. Moreover, they’re absolutely delicious especially when dipped into the accompanying “jaew” dipping sauce which literally translates to “kick ass.” It’s made from fish sauce, lime juice and (or) tamarind, sugar, dried chilies, toasted rice powder and fresh herbs. The skewers are made from local pork shoulder which has been marinated in soy sauce, coconut milk and garlic. You might never order satay again once you’ve had these skewers.
How do you even describe curry? According to The Today Show website “flavorful, aromatic, rich, creamy and perhaps spicy come to mind.” The article goes on to explain that “the name “curry” was imposed by the British and then popularized by tourism. For example, saucy Thai dishes that the world knows as green curry, red curry and massaman curry are referred to as such because the tourist economy that the country relies on benefits from labeling dishes in a way that foreign tourists understand.” As someone who absolutely adores curry dishes, it doesn’t matter what it’s called as long as it’s delicious.
Glai Baan offers only one curry dish–Panang Curry which surprisingly doesn’t have any history with Penang in Malaysia. What was possibly the smallest bowl of panang curry I’ve ever been served was probably (make that undoubtedly) the best panang curry I’ve ever had. It was undiluted by excess coconut milk, expressing curry flavors to the nth degree. Served in a steely vessel with the reddish curry was a large chunk of braised and absolutely wonderful beef, a roasted red pepper, bamboo shoots and sprigs of Thai basil which provided an aromatic blessing to the dish. A bowl of rice accompanied the curry, but it was far more rice than was needed. This is life-altering curry, as good as the curry I’ve loved and lusted after from Lotus of Siam.
Instead of an entree, my Kim ordered the soy marinated grilled chicken from the small plates menu as her entree. Four lightly battered legs and wings served with sweet chili sauce were delivered. My poultry-loving bride enjoyed every morsel as she tends to do with any dish resembling fried chicken. The grilled chicken was magnificent: perfectly salted, moist and tender. Because the sweet chili sauce was too piquant for my Kim, our gracious server ferried over some ginger soy sauce which made her very happy.
There was only one dessert on the menu, a Thai coconut custard dip served with sliced white bread. The white bread has wonderful absorbing qualities perfectly made for sopping up all that delightful custard dip. That coconut custard dip is reminiscent (in flavor) of the coconut sauce used on mangoes with sticky rice, our favorite Thai dessert.
In naming Glai Baan as the Valley of the Sun’s best Thai restaurant, the Phoenix New Times aply captured its vibe: “what it lacks in size, it makes up for in authenticity and out-of-this-world flavor.” Another thing it’s lacking is me–more often. I love this Isan restaurant.
Glai Baan
2333 E Osborn Road
Phoenix, Arizona
(602) 595-5881
Website | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 26 December 2024
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$$
BEST BET: Thai Coconut Custard Dip, Steamed Local Pork Dumplings, Pork Skewers, Grilled Chicken, Panang Curry
REVIEW #1440
Beautifully written review of this restaurant that makes me want to try it! It does look romantic and a great date night restaurant with the lush outside patio that should entice many to try! The Panang Curry looks small but excellent, I very much like the taste of curry, even in a small plate. Thanks Gil for writing such a great piece.
Thank you, my friend. You would love Glai Baan. It’s got a few gluten-free options, too.