Global Eats

Mekong Thai Cuisine

I enjoy the cozy monotony of a good Pad Thai. For better or worse, the dish is my barometer for assessing Thai menus. This habit failed me big-time at Mekong Thai Cuisine. Had I stopped with that ubiquitous noodle stir-fry­—which was serviceable but not spectacular—I would have missed some of the tastiest Thai food around.

Pho Lang Thang

The restaurant is small, but the crowds have been colossal for Pho Lang Thang in the 10 months since they’ve opened, spilling into the single lane that runs between it and the market house of Findlay Market. There, a half dozen or so people sit on five-gallon buckets around a sheet of plywood stretched across sawhorses. They’re slurping bowls of pho and wrapping jaws around hefty Vietnamese-style deli sandwiches known as bánh mì. It may be the best seat not in the house—the under-ventilated restaurant is heavily incensed with oil (your clothes, hair, and skin will be wearing the same pungent smell) from frying crisp cha gio, batons of rice wrappers stuffed with glass noodles, minced pork, mushrooms, and carrots.

New China Gourmet

You could lose your lunch at New China Gourmet. But you could just as well win your lunch, too. Frank the cook likes to play his customers a game of ping-pong. If you win, he buys your lunch. If you lose, you’re buying. I need to point out that Frank doesn’t have to give many meals away, but it certainly happens. And where does this table tennis battle royale take place?

Taqueria Mercado

I have been writing this column for nine years, and am happy to report that I am still uncovering new dives and have yet to recycle a place. So I need to plead special dispensation here for a return trip to the original Taqueria Mercado in Fairfield.

Yat Ka Mein

For five years, Yat Ka Mein, an inconspicuous noodle house sandwiched between Penn Station and Aveda Frederic’s Institute in a Hyde Park strip mall, has catered to our inner Chinese peasant.

China Chef

It’s gotten so bad that kids are beginning to think that Chinese and buffet are one word. China Chef remains a holdout—here you actually get what you order fresh from the wok and you don’t have to take your chances on something that’s been sitting two hours under a heat lamp.

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