Thai Paradise serves up Thai and Chinese food in new restaurant on West Union Street.
There’s a new Thai restaurant in town.
Thai Paradise, 102 W. Union St., opened its doors on Oct. 17. This is the second location of the restaurant — the original is located in Pickerington.
“A fortunate series of events came about,” said Beth Simon, manager of Thai Paradise. “We knew a guy who had a building and we were looking to expand. We knew we would never be just the one store. We think big.”
The first location was taken over by current owner Po Syvilayrazk in 2008. The restaurant was originally a “mom and pop” shop that served strictly Thai food. Syvilayrazk, with help from a chef at the restaurant who had recipes from a variety of other countries, added a full Chinese menu.
“We wanted to bring more of a variety of a crowd in,” Simon said. Many customers who come in are more comfortable with the Chinese offerings, so this allows them to get them into the restaurant and eventually try the Thai menu as well.
Syvilayrazk had formerly been a manager at a sushi restaurant in Columbus where he worked with Simon who also served multiple kinds of cuisine.
“We realized we could fit in here,” Simon said. “We knew there’s the typical Chinese restaurant here, but we aren’t one. We knew we could complement (the Asian food scene in Athens) without coming in and trying to be the big, bossy new kids on the block. What makes us unique is our commitment to freshness, consistency and traditionalism.”
Simon said her favorite item on the menu is the drunken noodle, which is a classic Thai dish called pad kee mao that is traditionally known as a good food to eat when you’re drinking, or a cure for a hangover. The drunken noodle consists of wide rice noodles with bell peppers, garlic, onions and basil leaves and is served with either chicken, beef, pork or shrimp.
“It literally means food to eat when you get drunk,” Simon said. “You can’t stop eating it.”
The house favorite item is himmapan chicken, which is a lightly-battered and fried chicken breast tossed with bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and cashews in a garlic chili sauce. The lunch portion is $7.95 and the dinner portion is $10.95.
In general, the Thai selections range from $6.95 to $13.95 and the Chinese selections from $6.95 to $14.95. Both have lunch and dinner-sized options. Other menu items include soups ranging from $2.50 to $7.75, noodles and curries from $6.95 to $12.25 and seafood from $12.95 to $15.95.
The store currently has about 16 employees.
The restaurant is currently working on getting its liquor license. However, Simon said that diners are able to bring in their own beer, wine or liquor to have with their meal and the restaurant will pour it for them free of charge.
“The scene of the restaurant was really awesome,” said Evan Cherchiglia, a senior studying general business and accounting. “When the food came, it had a really great presentation and everything looked fantastic. It’s definitely the best Thai in Athens.”
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