Restaurant Redux: Thai Pot Cafe

My husband and I jokingly refer to 2014 as the Year of Thai Food. We’re both obsessed with Portland chef Andy Ricker‘s cookbook Pok Pok (not to mention the restaurant itself, which my husband has been to nearly 20 times). We slave over the book’s time-consuming recipes, find new favorites, and then go back for more. The same goes for dining out: Thai cuisine is often at the top of our lists—both here and away. We recently traveled to Las Vegas and ate at Chada Thai and the legendary Lotus of Siam, and shopped at one of the city’s largest Asian markets—all within 30 hours. Needless to say, we can’t get enough.

Closer to home, there are a number of good Thai restaurants (Aurora’s Thai Street Food is one favorite). A couple of weeks ago, we dined at Thai Pot Cafe to check out the eatery’s new digs. Thai Pot, which is owned by the husband-and-wife team Charlie Brown and Tui Promsomsri, closed its longstanding Colorado Boulevard location on Christmas Day and reopened two blocks north in early January. While the old space was cramped and low on ambience, the new restaurant is spacious and sharp looking. But most important: Promsomsri’s vibrantly flavored food has remained the same: The pad see-ewe is as sultry as ever and the tom yum is tart and bracing. Sprinkle some of the dried Thai chile powder over your dishes for extra heat.

Don’t miss: Order the fragrant, slightly spicy Thai sausage as an appetizer and sandwich each bite with slivers of fresh ginger, roasted peanuts, and rings of pickled (and fiery) chiles.

1350 S. Colorado Blvd., #900 (in the Century 21 Plaza), 303-639-6200

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