Cafe de Bangkok - Tastier Thai in Gilbert

[Skillet Doux]

Prestonclarke09's mentioned Cafe de Bangkok in his post asking people about their favorite restaurants in Gilbert, and a bunch of us appear to be in agreement on this one, so I figured we'd better get a topic started. Not leastways because I'd very much like to hear about others' experience here and any dishes they feel really stand out

I've only been twice — once to dine in, once to carry out — but both times I've walked away very happy.

I don't want to get in over my weight class and start talking about the finer points of what is and isn't traditional. My impression is that there's a little bit of both going on here — portions of the menu dedicated to the Ameri-Thai standards, others pushing into some more esoteric traditional foods. But the style seems squarely focused on Bangkok et. al.

I've only tried a handful of dishes but these two certainly stood out:

cafedebangkok_guayteaw.jpg (614.96 KiB) Viewed 1613 times

The guay teow tom yam sukhothai is a bold dish. It's a rice noodle soup that's loaded up with ALL the meats — BBQ pork, ground pork, fish ball and pork liver — along with some crisp Chinese broccoli, bean sprouts and ground peanuts. The ace here is the tom yam-style broth, quite sweet, but well-balanced with sour and plenty of bright aromatics.

I'd spied miang kham on the online menu, but it wasn't on the printed house menu, so I asked. The fellow helping us (the owner?) told us that the betel leaves he had weren't fresh enough for miang kham, but there was another dish with betel leaves he felt they'd work for, so we put ourselves in his hands. Glad we did:

cafedebangkok_gaengpu.jpg (711.24 KiB) Viewed 1613 times

This is the gaeng pu bai cha plu, it appears to be a fairly regular off-menu item, and it is *dynamite*. The curry is bright and potent. I'm thinking the crab is probably pasteurized lump, but in this context it was good enough. But man, the real star is hiding just beneath the surface — a HUGE pile of stewed betel leaves basically covered the entire bottom of the dish. And they were just wonderful — intensely verdant, peppery and herbaceous, with a great texture.

There are a lot of dishes lurking on this menu that you don't really see around town. I'm looking forward to exploring it some more. Anybody get in here and get off the beaten path a little bit?

Cafe de Bangkok
cafedebangkokgilbert.com
1111 N Gilbert Road
Gilbert, AZ 85234

[Lunchbox]

I'm glad this is here because I've been wondering how this is. I have a soft spot for this location because it was a place (I think it was called Mint Thai cafe) that was one of the very first Thai Restaurants that I ever ate at probably 25 years ago before I even moved to PHX. My cousins took me and I was in love with the flavors. My wife and I used to go every now and again before we had kids. Now that they're older they'll eat thai food so we need to go check it out. Before it was a "concept" Tasty Thai was our go-to spot. This sounds like a good replacement.

[exit2lef]

I have a soft spot for this location because it was a place (I think it was called Mint Thai cafe) that was one of the very first Thai Restaurants that I ever ate at probably 25 years ago before I even moved to PHX.

I remember Mint Thai. It was, at the time, one of the few non Euro-American restaurants in Gilbert. It wasn't bad at all, particulary by the standards of Gilbert in the ''90s.