Editor’s Note: Eating out in Ukraine is a gamble. To bring you honest food reviews, Kyiv Post writers go to restaurants unannounced, pay for their own meals and never accept favors from restaurateurs.
Okay, never mind that this place has the name of a Hawaiian cocktail. It nevertheless serves up some tasty wok-fried food, Thai-style. It’s the closest to authentic Thai food in Ukraine’s capital that the Kyiv Post could find downtown, aside from empty posh restaurants that ask diners whether they reserved a table.
MyThai is located underground in the underpass between the Mandarin Plaza shopping mall and Baseyna Street. You’ll have to turn right (from Mandarin Plaza) along the passage, into a side room. It’s a bit hard, but worthwhile to find.
Don’t be fooled by the meager six-table cafeteria setting. Diners even share the place with a kitchen whose chefs make food fresh right on the spot. The joint offers some of the spiciest Thai-like flavors in Kyiv. With two-course meals below Hr 100, prices are reasonable – two to three times cheaper than Podil’s Sakurakai Thai eatery that the Kyiv Post reviewed on Feb. 11, 2011.
When ordering, make sure to clarify whether you want your food hot or suicide hot.
The Thai salad (Hr 35), for example, comes with a pinch of zest. But if you ask for spicy, the server can provide you with a sauce dish for this and other meals compromised of everything from Thai fish sauce to red hot chili.
Prepared with a base of fish stock and coconut cream, the curry flavored Thai shrimp soup (Hr 49) guarantees you’ll sweat bullets.
The shrimp spring rolls (Hr 39) came in abundance, were crisp to perfection and served with sweet-and-sour sauce, but lacked a hearty filling and traditional spices like coriander root or ginger.
But the stir-fried vegetables and breaded shrimp (Hr 59) had a nice combination of ginger and light soy sauce with red chili pepper rings and were accompanied with a hearty bowl of steamed rice.
The emphasis here is freshness, so expect to wait while the food is prepped. There’s plenty of vegetarian entrees from which to choose, in addition to classic Thai curry and Phad Thai dishes.
4 Baseyna St. (Besarabsky Kvartal underground shopping mall)
Hours: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. (weekdays); 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. (weekends)
Food delivery orders: 281 2746
Non-smoking
English-language menu available
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
