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| - Woot! I have found Chicago level good Thai food in AZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am giving Yupha's Thai Kitchen the crown for AZ's BEST Thai food-hands down! I was elated to see they had beef and pork Thai style jerky on their menu. Folks, this is the real deal...it might sound weird but it is amazingly good....just as good as the street food I used to get at the Thai Buddhist Temple's Sunday Markets. It brought tears of joy to my eyes. I will drive the two hours to Tempe any day for this dish!
The inside of this place is unlike any other Thai restaurant is no small, dingy, typical hole in the wall kind of place. It is hip, modern and elegant (in a relaxed, non intrusive way). The plates are white and square...the placemats are bamboo like...they even plate the food!
The beef jerky was cooked perfectly! The sauce was dazzling- it is like a Thai waterfall sauce with lovely notes of lime and chili. The sticky rice was presented in a banana leaf....the papaya salad was great and you could tell, they made it with a mortar and pastel-the proper way.
I also tried the Thai Toast, which was a special of the day...it was not much to write home about. Minced chicken inside of panko crusted fried bread. The sweet chili peanut dipping sauce was quite good.
One diner stole the show, when his dish arrived wrapped in tin foil that was shaped like a swan...I am guessing it must have been the duck (they have duck served 4 different ways here)...yes, it is cheesy....but kinda cool at the same time. I saw at least 4 tables ask their servers, what he was having.
I wish more places offered Thai style jerky! Now if I could just get some mee krob on the menu, I would be in total nirvana. No room left for desert, but they had some nice offerings for sure...I rarely can turn down a Thai style fried banana with the tasty sesame seeds in the batter.....yuuuuummm.
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