Street to Kitchen — Restaurant in Houston

My partner and I tried a new date night spot for Thai food on 03/09/24, and Street to Kitchen was easily the best culinary experience that I've had in Houston.

We ordered the Kanom Jib (small plate), the Massaman Curry (with chicken), the Crispy Pork Belly, the Beef Cheek Noodles (special), and the stir fried Green Beans. We also ordered the Straight to Spicy Hell (marg) and the STK Old Fashioned.

Starting with the drinks, the old fashioned was standard but very good with the tobacco bitters rounding the drink nicely. The straight to spicy hell marg was one of the spicier margs I've ever had, but I found it to be very enjoyable, otherwise balanced, and fitting for the dining experience.

For the smaller plates, the Kanom Jib stood out and will earnestly be remembered. The shiitake and pork work very well together for a lively, savory filling. The dumplings themselves were well constructed, and the sauce delivered a brightness that made the dish perfect. As for the green beans, these were herbal and garlicky, crisp, and perhaps a tad heavy, but an enjoyable dish nonetheless.

The big plates included a Massaman Curry which was the absolute best curry I've had, ever. It was complex. It was sweet. It was so spicy that I was sweating through every bite, and we ate the entire thing. Please, order this curry. The Beef Cheek & Noodles were the star of the night, however. This dish had beef cheeks that fell apart instantly on the fork. The protein flavor with the sauce is a version of savory that I can't quite describe - it was both light and heavy at the same time, it was spicy but balanced, I think it was perfect and hope that STK decides to make it a menu item. The noodles worked very well as a base for this dish. Finally, the Crispy Pork Belly. This dish was the least interesting of the night. The pork was very good and very crispy, possibly a tad too far in the salty direction but the dipping sauce fixed any such sins. This dish had no spice whatsoever, and I'm very grateful that we had it to help bring the spice level of our palates back down to a manageable level. The only actual wrinkle in our food was that the sticky rice served with this dish became too difficult to eat quite quickly as it became a single monolithic block.

The service was perfect. We had an older gentleman - I missed his name - but he was very helpful with dish selection, knowledgeable, and attentive without being smothering. I had dropped my chopsticks onto the floor and received a new pair without asking or waiving for attention in

I was disappointed given the accolades. I had a fantastic foodie weekend (Musaafer, Lombardi’s) heading into tonight. Positives: I was stoked to get a seat at the bar. And I liked the personalized touches (Breakfast at Tiffany’s? poster, “Icee” machine for frozen drinks). Profoundly negative: Several of the dishes are too spicy for even foodies who have eaten Thai in Thailand and Astoria Queens NY. Now, they do offer several spice levels and give a spiel warning the diner that they run spicy, however I argue any foodie would choose “medium” spice the first time based on FOMO. The foodie couple next to me and I ordered the same dish drunken noodles “medium”. We got our dishes at the same time and on first bites, simutaneously starting coughing and choking on the over spice. Underneath, I could taste the fine noodles and aroma at the end, but it was drowned out by the choking level of spice. This then led to a weird upsell from the bartenders with jasmine rice, a mitigating liquor, and in the couples case their blander $100 steak. Not cool at all. Any James Beard winner (albeit “best of Texas” not nationally) and Michelin nominee (albeit not starred) should know better: yes keep your style and the spice warning but if the dish needs the rice and drink to make it palatable, include them as part of the dish! The great David Chang was known for torturing vegetarians by having all meat dishes at Momofuku originally but this is totally different and frankly a fail. Neither I nor the couple next to me could take more than a few bites of our noodles. To add insult to injury, the bartender J said “maybe you needed to be broken in like a horse”. Yes, he actually said that to someone who spent almost a $100 on Thai food (btw google price rating of $$ is wrong… this is $50-100). Mixed: appetizers and drink and food presentation. I found their version of Satay to be classic enough and excellent. I also enjoyed the taste and originality of the runny eggs dish with fish sauce over salad. I grant them taste should be their focus here but someone needs to teach them how to present the dishes better though I don’t think the lighting helps. The Thai frozen tea was tasty for a chilled whiskey drink- I give them creativity for the resort glass with umbrella but strangely doesn’t match. Weird stuff: First memorable thing when I sat at the bar was the lady manager(?) was doing something on her laptop and thought I was there for her staff meeting (“oh you want to dine”?) Second, I found the bartenders (J and T) to be offputtingly arrogant and belittling (examples above)—not at all what I expect from a Michelin Bib Gourmand— and this negatively affected my enjoyment.

I guess the people who will enjoy this place would be like the species of bird known to eat capsaicin flowers because they have no spice receptors. First time I’ve found an Eater “essential”...

Unapologetically... disappointing.

We were so excited to dine here again post James Beard win, as we tried this restaurant about a year ago and loved everything! It was small but the food and service were impeccable. I reserved online over a month in advance and showed up right on time. The restaurant is in a shady shopping center, and the restaurant is tiny, maybe 30 total seats. The problem with this is they now pack you in like sardines, so much so that people knock stuff off your table trying to take a seat at their table. When seated next to the front door, it is HOT because people are constantly coming and going, allowing the full strength of the Texas heat and sun permeate the entire space. It was HOT in there.

We had a server who just did not care to take the diner's experiences into account. We've dined at the finest restaurants around the world, as well as skanky street food and more. When we originally went to this restaurant pre-James Beard, they were so wonderful in explaining the food, the heat levels, etc. For example, the drunken noodles. We would get them with a mild spice, and then the chef and her husband gave us some of the spicy chili flakes on the side to accommodate the different spice levels within our table (like what comes with the Pad Thai). Now, the server just scoffed at me and said, "nope. This is how chef makes it. We cannot give you any sauces or spices on the side." We then inquired at the spice level for the different curries. His response, "well it's all relative, right? What's spicy to you may not be spicy to me." Yeah, NO KIDDING. But also, when someone is paying for your product, you could have a little better explanation for things. It's not what you say, it's how you say it. We dined on a weekend, and the printed paper menu shows various weekend specials-- truffle/crab curry, fish, etc. Almost all the specials didn't exist. We asked about the special Okra dish, and our gem of a server's answer was, "Yeahhh. No. The chef's husband is in marketing and he though that would be a good bait item for our guests, but we never have it." Are you kidding? They have a printed paper menu, so not difficult/expensive to update fairly regularly. The icing on the cake was when they let you know there will be a 22% service charge added to all tabs and then they ask you for an additional tip at the end of the meal. A tip that would go to our oh-so-helpful server.

Overall, the food was good but the Front of the House truly ruined this experience. We just expected better... or at least as good as it was pre-James Beard win. Seems like they may have gotten a big ego to go along...