As lovers of Thai food, my wife Jun and I are constantly in the quest for discovering awesome Thai restaurants. While we frequently ate at Thai Chef in Rockville nearby where we live, is there a go-to Thai restaurant in DC? A few months after we moved to the DC metro area in 2021, we visited Baan Siam in the Mt. Vernon Triangle area. It was a pretty solid meal but I think in retrospect we were pretty tired from a long drive to the restaurant on a Friday evening with huge rush-hour traffic so the restaurant somehow fell off our radar. Last month, I wanted to visit the restaurant again as we were due for some Thai food. Our second visit to Baan Siam in early Saturday evening on a more relaxed schedule following our trip to National Gallery of Art was more memorable.

The food from the female chef Jeeraporn “P’Boom” Poksupthong is not afraid to showcase the Northern Thai region’s culinary tradition. Many of the dishes may look somewhat familiar in concept at other Thai joints, but you wouldn’t find the high level of execution from Baan Siam. For a successful meal at the restaurant, I would recommend looking over seasonal specials where we picked two of the four dishes we shared together. Jun was very appreciative of the spicy-sweet calamari with its wonderful mix of spicy and sweet chili sauce flavor that was quite appetizing, which also applies to the description of crispy lotus root and grilled shrimp salad. One dish that we frequently order at a Thai restaurant to determine its quality is the beloved khao soi with egg noodles and chicken. While we wished Baan Siam had a bit more chili paste-based broth, it was nevertheless delicious with deceptively spicy kick. From the seasonal specials section, we also picked basil fried rice with smoked duck which turned out to be a wise choice as we really enjoyed the way fried rice worked together with duck in chili garlic sauce to reveal an addictively rich dish. If this dish is still on the menu on your visit, I highly recommend you order it.

Getting a reservation at Baan Siam wouldn’t be too difficult given the sizable dining room, but you would still be wise to book in advance for prime-time reservations (the restaurant’s dining area was nearly packed during our early evening visit). There is a full bar with a diverse menu of beers, cocktails (many of them using Southeast Asian ingredients) and wines that you can order to complement the meal. After our revisit, we both agreed that we wished the restaurant were a little closer to our home (the restaurant also offers pick-ups and delivery but our home is outside the delivery zone) so we could visit more often and try other dishes from its expansive menu. In any event, now we know where to get our fix for Thai food when we are in DC. Baan Siam is one of those restaurants where it is extremely difficult to get a bad meal and we look forward to visiting it again in the near future.  

KenScale: 8.0/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.75/10)

Address: 425 I Street NW, Washington, DC 20001

Website: https://www.baansiamdc.com/

Reservation via Tock