Kin Khao Restaurant in Athlone

When wifey and I first moved to Athlone we lamented the fact that, while there are loads of wonderfully fresh meats, breads and vegetables to be had in the area, we anticipated a certain lack of selection when dining out.

A year or so after we moved to Athlone a local man opened up, of all things, a Thai restaurant. Having recently returned from Thailand we were extremely skeptical.

The restaurant is located on the old part of town and repainted an older restaurant a friendly sunshine and red colour. It turns out the owners are a Thai woman and her Irish husband and they go to great lengths to ensure the freshness of their ingredients and integrity of their recipes.

Quite frankly, at our first dining experience, we were plain astonished. Kin Khao may be the best Thai food we have had outside of Thailand – and we’re well used to the quality Thai restaurants in our native San Francisco area.

We took the visiting 15-year-old Vietnamese boy to lunch on Sunday for Kin Khao’s lunch special: a very reasonable 2-course lunch for €9.95. Wifey ordered her usual pad thai (because when she doesn’t, as much as she might enjoy her food, she always wondered whether she would have been more satisfied with the pad thai), I ordered some sort of spicy lamb stir-fry and the 15-year-old vietnamese boy ordered a green chicken curry.

We were curious, given that the 15-year-old vietnamese boy is well accostomed to Thai cuisine, what he would think. His frank, “this is really good,” after a few bites of his curry seemed high praise indeed. I have to admit the lamb dish I had (new to me) was nothing short of amazing. Wifey’s pad thai was definately up to the excellent standard that we have come to expect from Kin Khao and the owner stopped by for a friendly chat during our meal.

Superlative Thai food and Irish hospitality, what could be better?

Apparently, we’re not the only ones who think so, the Irish Independent (a national paper) just voted Kin Khao best Thai food in Ireland for the second time this year.

Come on the town!