Do Khao may well be the best Thai restaurant inside the Beltway. I say that provisionally, of course, based on a single meal, and I haven’t tried every Thai restaurant inside the Beltway, but I have tested the contenders. So perhaps I should say they have the best Ka Pow inside the Beltway.
Dok Khao has five locations in Maryland and Virginia, and four other Thai places in the area under the Pattana Restaurant Group umbrella. Nancy and I went to the one at 8551 Connecticut, in the same new Chevy Chase Lake development that features Elena James.
As we entered we immediately saw the Heatheringtons, close friends of Michael and Liza, eating with their children, Liesl, and Eleanor, contemporaries of Ella and Lily respectively, and Richard. That was a warm welcome indeed, and a sign that Dok Khao and its menu are kid-friendly.
The interior is lovely with a relaxing garden feel,
with a separate and very stylish bar area toward the back.
There’s plenty of seating. As you saw, there’s a long banquet table along one wall and, in the back, a separated nook where Nancy and I had a booth. There are more booths ahead of the bar, and tables in between the bar and banquet sides, plus tables outside. Service was prompt and our server, Jeep, was friendly.
It was a Sunday and Don Khao has a separate brunch menu, which offers bottomless selected cocktails for $29 (two hour limit), a great deal if you have a driver and a plan to sleep all afternoon. Both Nancy and I stuck to food and ordered off the very extensive “all day” menu.
Nancy ordered a green curry with vegetables.
Nancy was thrilled. She loved both the green curry sauce and the abundance of properly cooked vegetables. It was a lot of food, and she only ate half and took the rest home for dinner. Meanwhile, I ordered my Thai test dish, here spelled Kapow, with pork. It was marked by a red pepper on the menu.
Outstanding! If you look closely you’ll see plenty of Thai as well as bell peppers, and if you take a deep breath you may be able to smell the basil and garlic in the sauce. It tasted authentically, boldly spiced without the muting of flavors that so often compromises Thai food, and thus the best Kapok inside the Beltway. Isn’t the red chile atop the rice on both of our dishes a pretty touch?
The bill for the meal came to a locally reasonable $48.12 with tax, plus a tip. We both left very enthusiastic about the restaurant.
We were so enthusiastic that we took Michael, Ella, and Lily to dinner at Dok Khao on a Friday night. (Liza was off roughing it at the Cloisters in Sea Island.) This was before Thanksgiving, but the transformation for the Christmas season was well under way and the atmosphere was festive and fun as we entered.
Note the light fixture on the right. When you go, be on the lookout for details of the decor. The joint was jumpin’ with a 30-minute wait for a table, and quite loud near the entrance. Fortunately, we had a reservation and were seated near the back, close to the bar where, surprisingly for a bar area, it was quiet enough for easy conversation.
Jun appeared with a smile and menus and returned with water. We quickly ordered two appetizers, Jacketed Shrimp and Steamed Dumplings, and beverages. Nancy was just back from a Florida trip with her buddies, and came armed with stuffies, a manatee for Ella and a sea turtle for Lily. Jun arrived with the appetizers and, seeing the stuffies, presently returned with sheets of seaweed for the girls to feed the manatee and the sea turtle. What a hit! Meanwhile, here are the appetizers after being divided —
The shrimp had a tempura “jacket” with that spicy-sweet sauce, and the dumplings were stuffed with “minced chicken, shrimp, crabmeat, onions, carrots, chestnuts, and shiitake mushrooms” with a soy-based sauce rendered both sweet and a little spicy. Both tasted good and, best of all, there were five pieces of each for our party of five.
Pleased with the appetizers, we ordered entrees. I had hopes of expanding their culinary horizons, but they can read a menu and both ordered chicken and waffles.
It was quite a serving, plenty for an adult. The large chicken breast had a tempura coating and the interior meat (which I tried at Michael’s suggestion) was very well cooked, tender and moist. The waffle was an inch and half tall, light, and puffy. The girls dug in happily even before Jun returned with maple syrup.
Nancy once again chose the green curry with vegetables — from this angle hidden under the basil topping —
which she again loved. Michael chose a Chef’s Special, the Volcano Seafood, a mixture of “Shrimp, scallops, New Zealand mussels, and squid, topped with crabmeat, bell peppers, and basil, sautéed in a spicy tangy sauce. Served with steamed vegetables.”
Michael praised it highly, and particularly noted that the seafood, which often gets lost in the complex and spicy Thai seasoning, maintained their individual flavors enhanced rather than drowned (or cauterized) by the delicious sauce.
Out of a sense of duty to my readers I switched from Ka Prow to Spicy Minced Chicken which, like the Volcano Seafood, bore a red pepper on the menu.
This was quite good. As you can see, a fried egg capped the rice — a fried egg makes everything better. The seasoning of this dish was excellent, good enough that I would have loved more of the spicy basil sauce with which to grace the rice, and a quart or two to take home. The various vegetables, Thai peppers, sweet bell pepper, and green beans all added both flavor and texture to the dish.
Once again, Dok Khao impressed each of us. Not only is the food far above average, but the setting and service are exceptional. The staff are well trained and the manager is much in evidence, greeting and making sure all goes well. As is usual, they add 20% for parties of six or more, and they also validate parking. If you want a “nice” Thai dinner, this definitely is the place to go. Give it a try for yourself.
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