Six weeks after its target opening, Claire and Art Jilandharn’s new restaurant, Thai Dishes, opened its doors in the old Pacific Rim space in Burlington this week. The 80-seat space at 161 Church Street has been entirely rearranged and renovated; bathrooms have been moved, and everything’s been glazed with a fresh coat of bright paint.
Like the duo’s other establishments (Royal Orchid Thai Restaurant in Montpelier and Sabai Sabai Thai Cuisine in Middlebury), the new restaurant slings authentic Thai cuisine — salads such as larb (ground chicken, pork, beef or tofu in a spicy lime dressing) and crisp, spicy salads made with shredded green papaya or banana blossom.
House specialties include favorites familiar to Sabai Sabai patrons: Kao Soi (chicken and noodle coconut curry) and massaman curries, as well as roasted-duck curry, duck with basil and, during daytime hours, nearly 20 lunchbox-style specials ranging from curries to soups to simple stir-fries.
Thai Dishes is open daily for lunch and dinner and will feature weekday lunch specials, such as barbecue pork with papaya salad and sticky rice, roasted pork with rice and soup, or pork-leg stew. “Every day we will have something special for lunch,” Jilandharn says.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Thai on Church”
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2014.
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My partner and I tried Thai Dishes last night and over all, they did a great job for a restaurant that’s only been open for 4 days. The vegetables in our stir fries were undercooked, but the flavors were great. We didn’t find out that they don’t yet have their alcohol license and it’s BYOB until after we’d been seated and were ready to order, so we didn’t bring our own wine. Perhaps they could benefit from some signage out front until they do get that squared away. Over all, we’ll probably give them a few weeks to get settled before going again, but we will be back.