Thai Table has been one year in the making, but Maplewood’s solitary Thai restaurant finally threw its doors open on September 19.
“We built it out from an empty box,” says Natthinee Hughes, the restaurant’s Thai-born owner and chef, explaining the lengthy pre-opening period. Hughes moved to the U.S. almost six years ago, working at Clayton’s Blue Elephant before deciding to open her own restaurant. “I live in Maplewood, and we had everything here but Thai food,” she says.
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Thai Table’s menu is expansive, so take your time ordering and seek out recommendations from the server. Tell them what flavors or ingredients you like and let them guide you to discover something you might not have tried before. Your server will also ask you to rank your spice tolerance on a scale of one to five, with five being the hottest. Hughes says even she is sometimes surprised by how hot Thai Table’s chiles can be, so don’t be ashamed of requesting less heat if that’s your preference. As in many Asian food cultures, Thai food is intended to be shared, so balance out the entree-type dishes with a salad, soup, or appetizer. If your party is large enough, you’ll get to enjoy all of the above.
Hughes is from northeast Thailand, so look for examples of her home region’s Isan cuisine. “The food in central Thailand isn’t plain, but it isn’t really spicy,” Hughes says. “But people in the northeast and the south like to eat spicy food.” Hughes says that in southern Thai cuisine, the heat comes more from herbs, but Isan cooking is all about peppers.
The “Bangkok Zabb” section of the menu includes a number of those northeastern dishes. “Zabb” is a Thai word describing a delicious, spicy flavor, and that’s certainly what the nam tok beef ($13.95) delivers. The beef is flame-grilled and served with a dressing of dried chili and lime. Take a piece of lettuce and make a mini wrap by adding some sticky rice (a northeastern Thai staple), beef, red onion, and cilantro. Eat your wrap in one bite, and enjoy the combination of flavors and textures, but brace yourself for a spicy kick. Other northeastern dishes on the menu include the popular somtum (papaya salad, $6.95) and lab kai (ground chicken salad, $11.95).
The Thai Table salad ($11.95) includes two skewers of plump, grilled shrimp served with lettuce, red cabbage, cherry tomatoes, pineapple, and a half-lemon. Squeeze the lemon over both the shrimp and the salad to add tangy citrus, and dip the shrimp in the restaurant’s signature dressing, a moderately spicy, deep-green sauce.
If Thai food is new to you, you might also want to order go-to’s like red and green curries, chicken satay skewers, spring and summer rolls, and Tom Yum soup. Massaman beef ($13.95) is a rich, southern Thai curry of coconut milk, potatoes, onions, and peanuts, with slow-cooked beef and steamed rice. This is a good option if you’re somewhat spice-shy. The Pad Thai ($9.95) is crowd-pleasing comfort food, flat rice noodles with crushed peanuts, bamboo shoots, green onion and egg. The steamed rice, fried rice, and noodle dishes come with your choice of chicken, pork, tofu, or vegetables; add $2 for beef, or $4 for shrimp.
Thai Table also runs an affordable lunch deal on weekdays from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. For $8.95, you can have a soup or appetizer, along with your choice from 11 curries, noodles, or fried rice dishes.
