It’s easy to miss this small storefront, just across the street from the Shed at the Dallas Farmers Market. And so far, it looks like most people have: Every time I’ve gone to Ka-Tip Thai Street Food, even during the peak pandemonium of a Saturday afternoon at the farmers market, I was just about the only one there.
But what is taking shape behind Ka-Tip’s tinted glass windows is one of the most exciting new restaurants in the city. George Kaiho and his wife, Yuyee Sakpanichkul Kaiho — two veterans of Tei-An, Dallas’ lauded Japanese restaurant — have put together a menu of astoundingly delicious, unadulterated regional Thai dishes unlike any I have found in D-FW.
This is the food Yuyee grew up eating in Bangkok, which she reproduces here with flawless technique, farmers market produce and key ingredients sent directly from her mother in Thailand. Order at the counter, grab a sunny yellow chair in the small dining room and prepare to have your mind blown: Even the dishes you thought you knew — hot-and-sour tom yum soup, pad Thai, a simple green papaya salad — taste like they’ve been shaken to life with a riot of new flavors.
Fiery, funky, sprightly with fresh herbs and rippling with complexity — this is food that will haunt you until you return to eat it again and again. In a city where Thai fare tends to be too sweet, too bland and too carelessly made, Ka-Tip is a small treasure.
And like another small but celebrated Dallas restaurant — Khao Noodle Shop — it was created by people who are not professional chefs. George Kaiho was born in Dallas and grew up in Japan, then returned to study anthropology at the University of North Texas. He taught himself to be one of the most creative cocktail makers in the city, which led to running the bar program at Tei-An and, currently, at Jettison in Sylvan Thirty.
Yuyee grew up in Bangkok, studied hospitality in Thailand, then came to the U.S. to work in the front of the house in hotels and restaurants.
The Kaihos have been imagining opening a restaurant together almost since the day they met 10 years ago, but the original idea was for a fine dining spot along the lines of Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas.
Finances intervened, and they pared back to what became Ka-Tip: a counter-service operation with a menu focusing on street food from Bangkok, Chiang Mai and, mostly, the intensely flavored Isan cooking of northeastern Thailand. Dishes are never updated or cheffy. Common substitutions in American Thai restaurants — such as chicken in pad Thai or bell peppers in green curry — are never made.
Casual as the restaurant is, the Kaihos maintain a certain refined sensibility. The dining room is a stylish mix of concrete and blond wood by HD Design, the group behind the restaurants at Trinity Groves and the Joule hotel addition. A series of wood beams runs up a back wall and curves onto the ceiling, representing a bamboo fish trap, and patterns based on a ka-tip — the woven basket that holds sticky rice — appear throughout the space.
One wall is devoted to chalkboard artwork by Izumi Okubo, a friend who did the snarling chalk portraits of Anthony Bourdain and Johnny Cash for Knife Plano. Here she has depicted an alleyway in Bangkok, with vendors making the coconut pancakes and other dishes on the Ka-Tip menu.
Those behind the counter have the poise and knowledge of servers at a high-end restaurant. And though you’ll order everything at once, dishes will be delivered to your table in an order that makes sense (snacks first, then soups, then larger dishes) — something that even some high-end places can’t seem to pull off.
George plans to introduce a short wine list focused on German riesling before the year is out, as well as Belgian- style craft brews from Pegasus City Brewery in Dallas.
But for now, Ka-Tip is also one of the best BYOB restaurants in town, with zero corkage and Riedel glassware, no less.
Now, during the restaurant’s early months, George and Yuyee are handling most everything themselves, with help from family and friends, including Yuyee’s father, who is a warm presence in the dining room and the restaurant’s de facto greeter. Before heading to Jettison, George preps ingredients.
But after that, the kitchen belongs to Yuyee.
She can’t quite explain how she came to cook so well, but it started by helping her grandmother prepare food for 30 or 40 people a day, extended family and employees of the Sakpanichkul family lumber business. After that, it’s been a matter of eating and traveling throughout Thailand and having a palate sensitive to the nuances of regional dishes.
Her papaya salad is a good place to start. Som tum Thai is usually pretty ordinary — a raw salad beaten into soggy submission after a long soak in a pungent dressing. But here, the delicate strands of papaya and carrot are distinct and crisp, contrasting with crunchy green beans and chewy dried shrimp and ground peanuts, in a finely balanced spicy-sweet-sour dressing. (Using the less-fishy Three Crabs fish sauce makes a big difference, Yuyee says. But so does the quality and freshness of the other ingredients — including those dried shrimp.)
Tom yum goong, the spicy-sour shrimp soup ordered almost like a reflex in Thai restaurants, is also transformed here. The broth is filled with complex flavors — kaffir lime, lemon grass, galangal, shallots — then boosted with good shrimp paste, Thai chile and handfuls of herbs. Three fat shrimp and plumes of fresh oyster mushrooms finish the dish.
Likewise, the classic geng kyow wan gai, or chicken green curry, isn’t the usual thick, creamy concoction. Here it is much lighter, yet more complex (as it is made on its home turf, Yuyee explains). The savory, herbaceous coconut curry is filled with strips of chicken and golf-ball- size Thai eggplant cut into quarters, plus earthy slivers of bamboo shoot and cabbage. Tiny green eggplants about the size of large capers float through the dish, adding a slight bitterness and pop when you bite into them.
If you’re a farmers market regular, you might recognize some dishes, which the Kaihos offered in a yearlong pop-up that ended over the summer. These snacky bites include the incredible Sakpanichkul family recipe for fried chicken wings, peek gai tod, which are marinated in soy sauce, palm sugar and coriander, turning the skin a dark sticky-spicy mahogany. They’re topped with crisped shallots and served with a soy dipping sauce.
A variation on fried wontons, gyao grob, has thin shells in the shape of puffed pillows, concealing a whole boiled quail egg rattling around like the surprise inside a child’s toy. Pork and shrimp dumplings, steamed and tender, get some crunch from water chestnuts, cilantro root and garlic chips.
Pad Thai is still the dish that everyone loves, but a more savory version balancing salt, sweet and heat and never made with chicken. (“If you say you want pad Thai with chicken, Thai people would be like, ‘Ugggh, what?’” Yuyee says. “You’d never hear that in your life.”)
The classic recipe is studded with dried shrimp, bean sprouts, tofu, chives (not green onion) and, if you’re feeling modern, fresh shrimp as well. The tamarind-based sauce is stir-fried with rice noodles, shallots and pickled shrimp. Douse it at will with the ground peanuts, chile flakes and lime served on the side.
Yum woon sen, or glass noodles with shrimp, is, incredibly, considered a “diet food” that’s usually sold from pushcarts in Thailand, Yuyee says. The clear bean curd noodles are the foundation for this spicy salad, with celery, wood ear mushrooms, lime and Thai basil offsetting a serious slow burn of chile that propels one bite into the next.
For something richer, and highly satisfying in cooler weather, you’ll want the deep bowl of tom yum moo sub, a redolent, complex noodle soup made with pork stock, rice noodles, ground pork, cracked peanuts, fish balls and, if that isn’t enough, a few rectangles of fried wonton. At $12, it’s one of the most expensive dishes on the menu. Most items are under $10.
The dessert menu is still in progress, and to be honest, it is a little early to be writing a review. The Kaihos have a lot planned. There will be regional multicourse dinners, featuring dishes like fried chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and wine pairings, starting in December or January. And new items will be added to the regular menu, including hoi tod, a crispy egg pancake with mussels and bean sprouts; sausage from the Chiang Mai province scented with herbs and lemon grass; and Muslim dishes from the south spiced with cinnamon, cumin and turmeric.
Still, you should go now. While there is a chance to sit in the peaceful dining room as light streams through the window and dishes are delivered at a leisurely pace. While Yuyee is at the stove, and at some point, comes by to ask how you’re enjoying what she cooked for you. While you can still BYOB your own riesling and be stunned by the perfect lock of the pairing.
And because soon, this will be a very busy restaurant.
Ka-Tip Thai Street Food
Rating: Three stars
Price: $ (Small plates and soups $5 to $12, salads $7 to $12, noodles and rice dishes $12 to $14, grilled pork shoulder $10. When available, coconut pancake dessert $5.)
Service: Order at the counter, then grab a tin cup of water, utensils and a table. Your order will be thoughtfully delivered a few dishes at a time (snacks first, followed by soups, then main courses).
Ambience: In a casual but stylish spot near the Dallas Farmers Market, George Kaiho and his wife, Yuyee Sakpanichkul Kaiho, are serving an astoundingly delicious menu of regional Thai dishes. Addictively fiery, sprightly and fresh, it’s the kind of food that will haunt you until you return to eat it again and again. In a city where Thai fare is generally too sweet, too bland and too carelessly made, it is a small treasure.
Noise: Easy listening (66 decibels)
Drinks: This is one of the best BYOB restaurants in town, with zero corkage and good Riedel stemware. A short wine list focused on German riesling is planned for later this year, along with Belgian-style craft brews from Pegasus City Brewery in Dallas. There are also Thai iced tea and iced coffee, limeade made with purple butterfly pea powder and other soft drinks ($2.50 to $4).
Recommended: Gyao grob (fried wonton with quail egg), peek gai tod (fried chicken wings), tom yum goong (spicy-sour shrimp soup), som tum Thai (Thai papaya salad), geng kyow wan gai (chicken green curry), yum woon sen (glass noodles with shrimp), pad Thai goong sod (rice noodles with fresh shrimp), tom yum moo sub (spicy noodle soup with pork and fish balls), Thai iced tea
GPS: Choose between the banquette and a communal picnic table (not that there was anyone to commune with on my visits).
Address: 1011 S. Pearl Expressway, Dallas; 214-238-2232; katipthaidallas.com
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.; Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.; Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Reservations: Accepted
Credit cards: All major
Health department score: Not inspected at publication time
Access: Restaurant is on one level.
Parking: Street parking
Ratings Legend
4 stars: Extraordinary (First-rate on every level; a benchmark dining experience)
3 stars: Excellent (A destination restaurant and leader on the DFW food scene)
2 stars: Very Good (Strong concept and generally strong execution)
1 star: Good (Has merit, but limited ambition or spotty execution)
No stars: Poor (Not recommended)
Noise Levels
Below 60: Quiet. Maybe too quiet.
60-69: Easy listening. Normal conversation, with a light background buzz.
70-79: Shouty. Conversation is possible, but only with raised voices.
80-85: Loud. Can you hear me now? Probably not.
86-plus: Deafening.
Prices
Average dinner per person.
$ -- $19 and under
$$ -- $20 to $50
$$$ -- $50 to $99
$$$$ -- $100 and over
