Having seen quite a few people give Kwan Kitchen high marks for Thai cuisine in this part of the SGV, I had been meaning to check it out for a while and with an out of town friend looking to get lunch in the area, off we went.
Let me start by saying: I'm not trying to call anyone else's tastes into question here but bottomline, our party was underwhelmed. Maybe we didn't order the right dishes but the mark of a good restaurant is that all the dishes should be "right" and in this case, 3/4 of our meal was surprisingly average, at best. Maybe I went in with too-high expectations but I don't think that's the case here. But let's go from best to worst:
- Fried chicken wings: The crunch on here was immaculate and the chicken was juicy. However, we found this a bit underseasoned. The sweet, sticky sauce was really needed to punch up the flavor here. 7.5/10
- Papaya salad: Thoroughly average and for "medium spicy" this wasn't remotely spicy at all. But it was fine. 6.5/10.
- Pad see ew: It's a staple and perhaps kind of generic and boring but it shouldn't taste generic but in this case, it did. Like, an instantly forgettable plate of rice noodles that are mostly sweet. 6/10
- Yellow curry with chicken: This was the real disappointment. Totally underseasoned and with overcooked, dry breast meat. It was such a tepid curry which isn't what you'd ever want a good curry to be. 4/10
Maybe I'd be tempted to give this place a second shot — I've yet to find any Thai on this side of town worth talking about — but overall, we found this to be rather mid. My apologies to those of you who swear by this place.
by soulsides
Dining and Cooking