PIN KAOW THAI RESTAURANT

Pin Kaow isn’t our favorite Thai in town. In fact, it probably doesn’t even make our top five. But it’s been around for fifteen+ years and is very popular with Northwesterners and other Summerlin-like folk on that side of town. They recently opened two other branches — at South Rainbow and Robindale, and Eastern at I-215 — with identical menus, so we dropped in for the first time in a long time. FYI: Back in the day, when ELV was young, virile, voted Democratic, and often mistaken for any one of these guys, we were regulars.

Not much has changed on the menu, that still features the generic, best-hits dishes of Thai cooking, all competently prepared. But the original space has expanded, and the decor has definitely been updated. It’s much more comfortable than it used to be (ELV remembers bare bones tables and chairs back in the mid 90’s), but remains bright and cheery, as are the people working there. Then again, we’ve never been in a Thai restaurant where the staff was anything but.

They dial the spices up or down, upon request, on a 10-point scale…although we’ve never figured out how any cook (Thai or otherwise) can determine such fine gradations of spiciness (e.g. a # 4 level of heat versus a # 5, or a 7 versus an 8). Many Thai restaurants do this (Thai Spice on Flamingo is another one), but we doubt that, in the history of the world (or at least in the history of the world of Thai restaurants in America), any diner has ever exclaimed: “Whew…I’m sure glad they made this dish a 6 instead of a 7…. I just can’t take a 7!”

ELV suspects Thai restaurants doing this are full of cooks laughing at us gullible Americans. ELV also suspects there are really only four levels of prig kee nu-induced heat: 1) round-eye, gringo-friendly, i.e. barely hot at all; 2) medium spicy heat for pasty-faced gaijin like the staff at ELV — converts to Thai cooking who seem to enjoy a little pain with their pleasure; 3) slightly hotter still for macho food freaks who like to go native, and don’t mind having their palates torched; and finally, 4) heat-induced flaming sphincter burn for ex-pats and immigrants who miss their homeland. ELV doubts if anyone eats Thai food at this level of spiciness unless they were raised on it. And we can’t imagine how impervious to pain their anuses must be.

PIN KAOW THAI RESTAURANT

1974 North Rainbow Blvd.

Las Vegas, NV 89108

702.638.2746

www.pinkaowthai.com

6 thoughts on “PIN KAOW THAI RESTAURANT

  1. As for the awful, tasteless chicken satay: But does it taste like chicken?

    And what level of spiciness are you, John? I think you’re probably one of those “macho food freaks who like to go native, and don’t mind having their palates torched.” All the more to quench that fire with the adult beverage of your choice, ehh??

  2. Regarding the 1-10 spiciness scale, I can attest only to my experiences at Lotus of Siam, where we have tried 3, 4 and 5 various times; and whereas 3 is too tame for me, and 5 a little too spicy, 4 is just about right. I wouldn’t want to try anything above 5, but I assure you that the restaurant is able to create a difference among those levels.

  3. hey John it seems you frequent Thai spots. There is a place called Mix Zone Cafe located by UMC hospital that does their level of spiciness from 0-4stars on every dish. They say that their 4 is comparable to a 10 in most thai restaurants. But if you want it hotter ask for 100 stars if you can handle the heat!! Luckily they are located by the hospital!!

  4. I have been here a few times and really like it but as to the hotness scale we have asked for 11 and Thai hot and even my 15 year old boys think it is not hot enough! We used to go to an authentic Thai place in Wichita KS and the guy there made it hot, hot enough to be painful the next day.LOL

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