First restaurant review in years!
Ah, Stapley and the 60. For decades, an intersection in Mesa, Arizona with a theatre, shopping, and restaurants plentiful. For me, where many memories have been made. I still smile thinking about Magneto’s Flying Travel Agency, the redeeming moment of X-men 3: The Last Stand. You know, where Magneto takes the Golden State bridge to bring his army to Alcatraz, realizes the error of his ways, but not the error of routing large amounts of people via levitating bridge, and devotes the rest of his life to being the best goddamned travel agent that you ever did see alongside Professor X.
Oh wait, that’s not what happened? Well, it’s better than whatever actually did happen, which was so garbage that eight years later X-Men: Days of Future Past realized it needed to retcon the original movie series. Which hopefully eight years after that they do it again after the travesty that was X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
But yeah. Lots of movie watching. Lots of moments appreciating art. Lots more moments despairing at the declining quality of art. But who knew, that all of those hours across all of these years was leading up to the best show I’ve ever seen at this lil ol’ intersection Stapley and the 60 in Mesa.
I speak, of course, of the show known as THE BEST THAI MEAL I’VE EVER HAD, to be found at Mae-Khong Thai Tapas & bar.
Despite low quality photographic evidence to the contrary, I assure you that this is an extremely classy looking restaurant, defying the generic strip mall environs it lives in. Very modern look, lots of sleek lines, metals, reclaimed wood, super comfy chairs you can learn very far back on their outdoor dining.
This particular showing was jam packed with over the top action from the very beginning, with plates shooting rapid fire from the kitchen. Our introductory trio :
Tum Kaap was new to me ; a clear + thin broth style soup saturated with flavor. The wonderfully familiar bitter and sour notes of galangal + tamarind in the new context of pork spare ribs, bitter melon and enoki mushrooms. Some people might find annoying having to pick out the bone + inedible lemongrass. Those people are people of low moral fiber, don’t be one of them, work with your food!
Muek Todd might’ve been the sole merely solid performer today; the mint leaves atop the calamari rings suggested a new take, but really, was just a visual garnish. Overall, these were perfectly tasty, fine + inoffensive. Fans of breadier calamari won’t like this, but this is my style.
Todd Ghai was impeccably fried chunks of chicken thigh, perfectly savory, ridiculously crispy skin on, with a slightly sweet, but mild chili sauce on the side. Feels like an action scene in a Marvel movie at this point ; incredible production value, top notch performance, but not necessarily genre breaking or defining. Still, this was my wife’s favorite dish of the day, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Time for Act Two!
Moo Ping Kra looks at my ubiquitous history of ordering chicken satay and sighs sadly at my not having the option of ordering Moo Ping Kra instead. Absolutely incredible pork skewers that were wonderfully charred, and drizzled with somehow thinned condensed coconut milk for little extra pinpoints of restrained sweetness. This was my favorite of our protein focused dishes. The sticky coconut rice on the side was no slouch either, very enjoyable!
Kor Moo Yang is likely the most challenging of these dishes to enjoy. Bountiful pork neck pieces come with even more thorough charring then the Moo Ping Kra. Very large pieces of fat, that are intended to be eaten, intermingle with this chewier cut of pork, making this the most work for your mouth of all these dishes. The chili sauce plays the needed sidekick to cut back some of that richness, and unlike the rest of these dishes, the chili sauce does do some heavy lifting. A beer would work even better, according to the owner. I still very much enjoyed this, but if your jaw needs a relaxing day, this isn’t the dish to order.
Kao Pad Bpu is the bite that inspired me to return to the land of rambling long form writing. Even Uncle Roger would take a bite of this and not come up with anything to quibble over or even anything funny to say- he would just pause, take another bite, than another, than another, faster and faster and faster until the food has disappeared, Nigel forgets his act and his exaggerated accent, and just says wow, this is fucking good. Because it is. I adored this dish. Besides standing perfectly well on its own with wonderfully fragrant, very un-greasy fried rice, the pile of crab + eggs stands alongside so you know you didn’t get ripped off on this. A tiny ramekin of fish sauce with birds eye chili accompanies this dish as well for you umami + salt bomb lovers out there.
Alas, all good things come to an end. A sweet, but not too sweet ending here :
Khao Neeo Mamuang appears in the finale, as it should where the villains of Hunger and Doubt have been defeated beyond all doubt, and killed off like Sean Bean always is, yet rarely as satisfyingly as at the show known as THE BEST THAI MEAL NAM HAS EVER HAD aka lunch at Mae-Khong. The somehow thinned and sweetness-restrained condensed coconut milk returns in its most plentiful and strongest showing, enveloping those fresh chunks of mango and sticky rice in a warm hug that says I love you, even though I don’t even know you. I generally hate dessert, but even those who live in perpetual fear of cavities like me will appreciate this dish. Try it, and look like this :
Okay, the show is over. The audience has clapped as the credits roll. Most have left the theater. But I’m still there in my mind, unable to leave my chair, replaying what I’ve just witnessed. Without hyperbole, this meal really has been the most enjoyable Thai meal I’ve had in my thirty eight years on this planet.
Value hunters won’t find a place here; this is at a higher price point per person than I’m accustomed to at a Thai restaurant, and I didn’t have anything that I would consider spicy. We ordered with a bit of reckless abandon, and the two of us hit $90, but I would say you should expect to spend around $30/per person here.
Relatively uncommon dishes for Arizona make a showing that I fully intend to return for, if I can summon the willpower to not re-order the dishes I just had. As much as we enjoyed having the patio to ourselves, the long term health of this restaurant depends on it being packed, as I imagine the outrageous rents probably levied next to the movie theater. I genuinely hope anyone reading this considers taking a trip here, I really, really loved this place.
On a final side note/plug, I’ve never met Akkshaya Gopalakrishnan but I owe them a deep debt; showed up here due to a random post on Arizona Asian Foodies Facebook group:
Alrighty, thanks for (optimistically) reading this far. Make plans to eat at Mae-Khong Thai Tapas and Bar as soon as you can!
If you liked this enough, please like my review at the linked places where the review is at if you have the time: