Updated Thai food and a killer roti
Khao Hom is a newish Thai restaurant in Hayward which has been getting great reviews. I found it when looking for “date” restaurants nearby and was excited to give it a try on a Saturday evening in August. It was good, but ultimately disappointing and I don’t think we’ll hurry back – though I wouldn’t say “no” if someone else suggested it.
My first disappointment was with the seating. Khao Hom has two dining rooms, a pretty nice one that would make a good setting for a date, and a more casual one that screamed “weekday lunch”. Even though this was a Saturday evening, that’s where we, and the rest of the patrons, were seated. We did go relatively early – the place got full by the time we left, but the other dining room was no opened.
I was particularly bummed because from my seat all I got was a view of the kitchen door – not what I’d say “romantic”.
Khao Hom’s menu includes classic as well as modernized versions of typical Thai dishes. We weren’t super hungry so we forewent appetizers and went directly into our entrees.
We started with Roti Gai Tod ($22). This consisted of fried chicken, a roti, a mound of rice, yellow curry sauce and a sweet and sour sauce. The fried chicken was good, though nothing extraordinary. The meat was fairly moist but the breading was too thick. I preferred it with the sweet and sour sauce than with the yellow curry.
The yellow curry, however, was very good – though in the sense that yellow curry is really good, this wasn’t a specially good yellow curry. The roti, on the other hand, was delicious. It was very flaky, tasty in itself and very oily. It went great with the curry. We ended up getting two more, including one to go ($3.50)
Our second dish – we shared them – was Short Rib Massaman ($27). The massive piece of meat looked more like a shank than a short rib -for one, it wasn’t short at all, but it was just as good. The beef was tender, if fatty, and very flavorful. The massaman curry was also tasty, perhaps a little different from others but not enough that I can pinpoint the reason. It must the first massaman curry in which the potatoes were not partly raw. In all I enjoyed it, though I’m not sure if I enjoyed it enough to merit the price. I did have some of he meat leftover for the next day, however.
For dessert, we had the stuffed roti ($12). This was a roti stuffed with a banana and served with grapes and berries under a chocolate sauce. It was OK. The rotti is a bit salty and I’m not sure whether I liked this or not. The fruit was fresh and the sauce was ok. I don’t think I’d order it again.
We only had a soda with dinner ($3.50).
Service was very good. When I told the waiter I wanted another roti to go, he took my leftover yellow curry and added more to it to take home. Indeed, the fact that they have rotis on the side is a big plus for me. I might go back and just order the yellow curry (albeit the one from the street food menu) and a bunch of rotis.
Khao Hom also serves breakfast, and the reviews for that are fairly good, so we might try it sometime.
Khao Hom
Foothill Boulevard
Hayward, CA
(510) 926-428922545
Daily 9 AM - 3 PM, 5-9 PM
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