Nari

General Notes

Situated in the Hotel Kabuki, Nari is an upscale Thai restaurant. Apparently, they earned a Michelin star recently. I can tell that a lot of thought was put into the preparation of the dishes, but the flavors are just ... not for me. It isn't that they're bad, they just aren't my favorite. They did give us a table for 2 seated 90 degrees from each other, which was pretty grand.

Dishes Tasted

• ★★☆☆ crab curry -- dungeoness crab in spicy southern curry with betel leaf & garlic noodles. The garlic noodles are meh and don't really pair that well with the curry; I'd prefer rice. Again, the fact that a deep fried crab is put INTO the curry is silly. The crab itself is good, but not particularly noteworthy. Not worth the $75 for sure.
• ★★★☆ gaeng bumbai aubergine -- crispy eggplant in spicy bumbai curry with basil & crispy shallots. Each component itself is pretty good (the eggplant was maybe slightly undercooked), but putting deep-fried eggplant INTO the curry is just silly.
• ★★★★ caramelized fish sauce cabbage -- wok-tossed cabbage in fish sauce & garlic. Weird that this would be my favorite dish of the night but it was SO GOOD. Regardless of what else you get, definitely get this.
• ★★☆☆ miang pla -- whole branzino, diced & fried, tossed with lemongrass, ginger, peanut, & chili served with assorted greens to wrap. Decent flavor + accompaniments, the preparation of fish (diced + fried) was just alright.
• ★☆☆☆ chili jam clams -- littlenec clams in namprik pao with thai basil, served with rice. Decent flavor; I personally found the sauce to be a bit too thick for my taste, and a somewhat weird pairing with clams.
• ★★☆☆ yum sum-o -- citrus salad in a fish sauce + lime dressing topped with herbs, chili, & peantuts. Decent, vibrant, pretty good flavors