Bangkok Dee Thai

Beef noodle soup (pho) at Bangkok Dee Thai.

A taste of Bangkok in Dallas

Story by TINA-TIEN NGUYEN | Photography by KATHY TRAN

THE AROMA OF SPICES FILLS THE ROOM. The sizzling sounds of homemade cooking drift straight to your table.

For 10 years, Bangkok Dee Thai Cuisine has served authentic Thai dishes, and the legacy continues with new co-owners — and longtime servers in the restaurant — Wijittra “Vicky” Kamol and Potchanee “Polly” Boonwangrae.

“We’ve been here so long that some customers still think of us as servers,” Kamol laughs. “I don’t mind, though, because we both enjoy working with each other so much. I know her (Boonwangrae) as my best friend now since we’ve been here together since the beginning.”

Kamol and Boonwangrae say the only way to keep the restaurant authentic is to cook the food from scratch themselves.

“It’s hard to find someone who will know the true, authentic taste of Thailand,” Boonwangrae says. “We are very passionate about cooking, eating and serving good Thai

Red curry and fried egg rolls at Bangkok Dee Thai.

food to the customers, so we prefer to do it all here.” Boonwangrae believes that in order to keep the restaurant true to the Thai taste, the food they serve has to be spicy.

“Thai people eat spicy, strong flavor(s), so we don’t offer too many mild flavorings,” Kamol says. “We use real, fresh Thai ingredients, so everything is going to be spicier than most places.”

To keep things as authentic as possible, some of the recipes even come from their family members.

One of Bangkok Dee’s standout dishes is “Thai Boat Noodle Soup” — it takes half a day just to make the soup base.

“Not every Thai place has it,” Boonwangrae says. “We are one of the few in the DFW (area) that offers it, as it’s not easy to make. But it’s a very popular dish in Thailand, so of course we wanted to bring it here.” Some of the restaurant’s ingredients are sourced from Thailand — either shipped to the U.S. or carried back from the country. For example, the noodles imported from Thailand are Dragonfly Noodle and ITC Thailand; the rice and curry paste and seasonings are from Mae Ploy.

Desserts also include Thailand’s famous mango sticky rice, which Kamol and Boonwangrae import from Thailand whenever mango is in season.

“It’s very sweet and fresh whenever we cook it,” Kamol says.

Boonwangrae and Kamol have been serving return customers for almost a decade, so they know some orders by heart.

“I know this one customer that has been coming here since I started, and I’m still serving him,” she says. “Some customers that were young when we started are now married and have babies themselves.”

Throughout their years of working together, the co-owners have built a strong bond with one another.

“She is like my sister,” Kamol says. “Our babies are about the same age, and we are going through life together. Up until the last week of our pregnancies, we were still here serving guests. We enjoy working together and having our babies play together. I am so lucky to own a business with her and to have a best friend by my side.”

Boonwangrae agrees: “Yes, it was destiny for us.”