Siam House, Cleveland Park, Washington, DC

Nancy and I were taking life easy at home on a Saturday night and decided to get carryout again, this time from Siam House, the tiny restaurant at 3520 Connecticut, right by the Cleveland Park Fire Station. I’d never tried it before, but it has a couple of certificates on the wall certifying that it was named “Best Thai Restaurant” in 2022 and 2023 by readers of the City Paper (young, in-town readership) and also by the readers of the Washingtonian magazine, whose readership tilts somewhat older and more suburban readers. Good sign.

It was almost 7:00 pm when I put in our online order — Wild Chicken (with tomatoes, bell peppers, fresh peppers and bamboo shoots in red curry sauce) for Nancy, and Pad Kaa Naa (chinese broccoli in black bean sauce) for me. Nancy chose Medium Spicy for her dish, which was marked as hot with a chili pepper on the menu. Since mine had no chili pepper, I ordered it Very Spicy. I entered the order and the pick-up time came up as 8:03 pm. That told me that they’re busy, and the precision of the time suggested to my ever-optimistic spirit that they had things under control.

I showed up at 8:10, the place was jammed, and the food was not ready. This was an annoyance, as there was no place to sit in the crowded noisy restaurant. Patience is a virtue, however, and I have a fair amount, and I earn lesson #1: don’t order from Siam House on a Saturday. The food was ready at 8:35, and harried but happy, I hungrily headed home.

Nancy thoroughly enjoyed her Wild Chicken, and remarked almost immediately, “These cooked tomatoes are good!” Indeed, she enjoyed all of the vegetables and also praised the sauce.

I ordered the Pad Kaa Naa, pork with Chinese broccoli in black bean sauce. I’m not a big fan of “regular” broccoli (but see here). I do, however, love the more bitter broccoli rabe, especially with pork or Italian sausage, and I’m a fan of the further bitterness of Chinese broccoli. The leaves of all three broccolis are especially flavorful. And I fondly remember many lunches at Full Kee with Jim Oliver, Nelson Thayer, and Jonathan Wroblewski, in which we would get bowls of their delicious soup and a platter of Chinese broccoli sautéed with garlic. Ah, where are the meals of yesteryear?

This would have been a fine dish had I not ordered it “very spicy.” The extra spice seems to have been achieved by just adding some EZ Thai or other powder onto the dish rather than thoughtfully kicking it up a notch. Sigh! I suppose it was my own fault for trying to change the nature of the dish, although when I cook pork and broccoli rabe with an Italian recipe, the dish eagerly welcomes crushed red peppers. Maybe I should try Siam House again with something marked with a red chile. Tell me about your experience there.

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