BATTLE GROUND’S Keo Thai Restaurant is owned by Keo and Nang Khounphachansy, pictured here. The restaurant is located in The Gardner Center, near Battle Ground Cinema. Photo courtesy of FH Browne.
THE INTERIOR of Battle Ground’s Keo Thai Restaurant includes a Buddha and graceful vases filled with flowers. Photo courtesy of FH Browne.
For 20 years, Keo and Nang Khounphachansy were like ships passing in the night. Both worked for electronic firms, but Keo worked at night and Nang during the day, so they’d often wave at each other as one was heading home and the other was heading to work.
“It was awful,” says Nang, “we almost literally never saw each other.”
But Nang and Keo had a shared dream that they began to live in 2006 when they went into business for themselves, buying a small restaurant in The Gardner Center.
“We spent a lot of time testing recipes, if it didn’t work we threw it out, but I was always a good cook and Keo learned fast, now he’s quite a good cook,” Nang said.
After months of testing and perfecting her own sauces, noodle dishes, curries and other Thai dishes, they opened Keo Thai Restaurant, and because of her diligence and the care they put into their food, they have steadily gained a dedicated cadre of customers who enjoy the tranquil atmosphere, attentive service and wide variety of delicious Thai foods.
Definitely a family restaurant, Keo Thai is small and intimate. Nang, Keo and their son Sonny, and their love of the community and their customers are the key ingredients to their success. When she was younger, daughter Alida also helped in the restaurant but has left the family restaurant business.
“I love this place, it’s like my home,” says Nang. “Although Keo and I haven’t had a vacation in seven years, I just love coming here every day. We are both so happy now working together and providing the best food we can to our customers.”
The dining room is relaxed and calm and feels more like a quiet courtyard than the inside of a restaurant with it’s folding screens, decorative urns filled with brilliant blossoms of Oriental lilies and Thai artwork on the walls. The restaurant seats about 50 and with loyal customers is often nearly filled during the prime dining hours. There is talk of perhaps putting tables outside in the future as well.
Many of their dishes are stir-fried (designated by the word “Pad” on the menu), and they do serve the ubiquitous that many think is the essence of Thai cooking, Pad Thai. But, they also offer a Pad Baa Mee (stir-fried yaki soba noodles with chicken, broccoli, baby bok choi, onions and carrots), and about a dozen other “Pad” noodle dishes using beef, pork, squid, scallops, prawns, or tofu, all of which can be flavored with hot, mild or medium curries, coconut milk, fresh vegetables, oyster sauce, hot chili sauce, lemon grass, and other varieties of spices, curries and Thai pastes.
“Everything we serve here is fresh, made from scratch, and the best local products we can find,” says Nang. “We worked very hard to perfect our peanut, chili, and teriyaki sauces, and the yellow, green, red, Mussaman and Paneng curries, as well as our appetizers and soups, so they reflect pure Thai cooking and our family.”
Even ubiquitous rice, the base of Asian cooking, is offered in several varieties including steamed or stir-fried, and in brown, white or sticky varieties. The brown rice consists of four kinds of brown rice that are mixed together. Keo has several tasty Thai soups on the menu including a spicy, but very refreshing Tom Yum (medium-hot), and the milder Tom Kha Kai, as well as a spicy hot and sour seafood soup, Po Tak.
Their appetizer spring rolls (Pohpia Tod) are made with transparent noodles, egg and assorted vegetables, in the wheat paper packages and served with a sweet chili sauce. The salad rolls (Pohpia Sot) are made with fresh shredded lettuce, cilantro and rice noodles with a choice of chicken, shrimp or tofu, are wrapped in soft rice paper and gently fried and are served with a house-made peanut sauce.
A favorite appetizer is the Thai Combo – two salad rolls, two spring rolls, and two BBQ chicken sticks, all of which can be deliciously dipped in the chili or peanut sauce. The most popular noodle dish is the somewhat spicy but very tasty Pad Kee Mao, hot and spicy rice noodles, in fresh garlic and pepper with chicken, egg, fresh tomato, broccoli, baby bok choi, carrots, onions and fresh basil leaves.
Other dishes loved by their customers include the Teriyaki chicken salad, the deep fried fish in sweet and sour sauce (Pla Tod Rad Phik) the mildly spicy Pad Po Tak, a seafood combo of shrimp, fish, green mussels, scallops and squid sautéed in red curry paste with vegetables and fresh basil.
Unlike many Asian restaurants, dessert at Keo Thai is a special treat including their unique mango over rice offering, a warm fragrant and scrumptious rectangle of sticky rice topped with a half fresh and perfectly ripe mango, and Keo’s own hand-made coconut ice cream, all drizzled with a not-too sweet coconut glaze.
Keo Thai has very affordable lunch specials for $6.95, that include curries, stir fried, and teriyaki dishes and much of their regular menu as well. They also offer take-out of all of their menu items.
Keo Thai is open from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. each Tues., Wed., and Thurs. and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on Fridays and noon-9 p.m. on Saturdays and noon-8 p.m. on Sundays.
The restaurant is in The Gardner Center, across the parking lot from Battle Ground Cinema at 1800 SW 9th Ave. Suite 101, Battle Ground. Reach the restaurant by phone at (360) 666-6269 and visit the website www.keothaicuisine.com for more information.
