kBird — Restaurant in Little Rock

Portion sizes are terrible on Thursday night. If you order for 2, they will give you serving size for 1. Waste of 40 dollars on Thursday night. Overcooked sticky rice that was so hard, had to soak it in sauce to be edible. Tried the next day for lunch just to double check, and the $12 dollar lunch is acceptable for portion sizes, but ultimately left disappointed. You can make prepackaged green curry for about 1/3rd the price that tastes the same if not better. Wanted to love based on other reviews and seriously craving authentic Asian food, but honestly nothing special. Still a decent Thai place for Little Rock, but a far cry from being a place to recommend. I gave 1 stars because ultimately both times I ate here I ended up leaving disappointed and felt ripped off. It's good enough to try, but not at the premium cost for mediocre food that you can get better from prepackaged curry. They use way too much fish sauce on most of their dishes so keep that in mind. If you're not accustomed to real Thai food you might like it. This is basically a restaurant for people who don't know what real Thai food tastes like. It's good if you don't know what it's supposed to taste like.

Another thing is they "sell out" quick due to not having enough food to cook. They have enough for maybe 20-30 orders. Not sure why they do this, but I can only guess fake scarcity to justify the overpriced dishes. Had a ton of potential, but ultimately falls way short. They wont go out of business with their terrible service of three people in the kitchen and long wait times, simply because their costs are low and their food is overpriced. Sadly disappointed. Might go again if...

kBird is my favorite restaurant in Little Rock and hands down the best, most authentic Thai food I've eaten in our state. Proprietor Richard Glasgow is a total geek about Thailand, ready to strike up a conversation about the culture, the food, the regional beauty, or his latest of his frequent visits to the country.

kBird doesn't compromise on authentic ingredients, doesn't dumb down the flavors for an American palate, and doesn't hold back on the heat. The menu changes depending on the season and the availability of ingredients. Although the pad thai is certainly nice, I recommend skipping it in favor of kBird's other dishes. Try the crunchy, tangy green papaya salad, or the bold pad phrik king, or the flavorful curries. If he's serving up the pad gra pow, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

The place itself is little more than a hole in the wall, but has an open, welcoming, communal feeling about it. The aroma of the open kitchen is usually enough to get you salivating, and Thai spice trays adorn every table, in case the heat isn't insane enough for you.

Finally, this is not a fast food joint. Glasgow prepares every meal to order by hand, but every bite is worth the wait. If you're in a hurry, call ahead and place your order; their menu is always available on their Facebook page. But if you've got some time, it's always fun to...

If my wife didn't like it so much, I'd probably go with a two star, max. She thought it was a little expensive for what it was, too. $19 for a set menu. You could come for a twelve plate meal on Friday night for $45 or so per person. They don't serve alcohol, but you can bring your own; they have jars you can use. The regulars obviously knew this. The floor was sticky on the way to the bathroom, always off-putting.

We arrived right about 6, they're open 5-8pm Thursdays. We both chose the salmon over the pork. Maybe my tastebuds were off a bit. I didn't think anything was too flavorful. Everything except the soup was served at roughly room temperature. The soup was nicely spicy. The corn and mango (I think) we're okay with a sweet sauce that helped. They'd been cooked quite a while earlier and were chewy. The salmon had a decent sauce that tasted much better the next day. The sweet rice with mango sliced was fine for dessert, just not a wow for me, almost too sweet with the syrup.

I'd like to try again for lunch to see if the pad Thai and papaya salad are as good...