archi's thai.

"Here's the thing you need to know about Thai food in Las Vegas: Even at its most middling, it beats the hell out of most of the junk they're serving up on Manhattan’s Ninth Avenue. Archi’s isn't the best Thai joint in town, but it's one of the most pleasant."

This is from the New York Post last week. Not that we need out-of-towners to tell us there is terrific Thai food in Vegas, but at the very least, this is proof that our city's reputation for southeast Asian fare has grown beyond our physical borders. And I agree that Archi's isn't the best Thai joint in town, but it might be top five, so far.

I write "so far" because I eat a lot of Thai food, but not necessarily because I want to. I love it, but not more than I enjoy Vietnamese food or a great deli or a perfect slice of pizza. It's wifey. It is difficult to be an ever-wandering, culinarily curious restaurant writer when your first pick of dining companions only ever wants to get Thai food. Though it is delicious, we eat at our neighborhood joint twice as much as we go anywhere else. This woman actually came home one day and complained to me, like it was my fault, that her co-worker had tasted the goods at Aria's Lemongrass (the first Thai restaurant on the Strip) before she did. So yeah, it's something of an obsession.

That same co-worker helped wifey discover Archi's, a casual restaurant with three locations in Las Vegas. Other local eateries specializing in this cuisine often have extensive menus with a lot of Chinese dishes leaking in, but Archi's is a bit more authentic, sticking to its own style and flavors. My first go-round included Tom Kha soup with a refreshing lime flavor balancing the smoothness of coconut milk, a mild but tasty yellow curry with potatoes, onions and carrots, and the big winner: a forehead-sweat inducing Pad Kapow, spicy basil ground chicken with zucchini, bell peppers, garlic and chili. I actually ate most of it, even though wifey placed the order. That should teach her.