dining out |
FAST-CASUAL THAI FOOD?
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At the new Binto Thai restaurant in Bonita Springs, Thai food gets the fastcasual treatment. And our critic says: Why not? | BY JEAN LE BOEUF
felt a brief disconnect walking into Binto Thai. The Bonita Springs restaurant looked like a juice bar or a homier version of Chipotle. A chalkboard of daily specials hung on the left wall, listing curries and soups and something called “heavenly beef.” It overlooked a handful of simple tables and a counter lined with bottles of fish sauce and samples of soft drinks. Behind that counter, a masked cook appeared and disappeared behind sizzling clouds of steam. I couldn’t see what he or she was doing, but I could smell it: garlic, ginger, the tingle of chili peppers. My mouth watered. I began to connect the dots. Fast-casual Thai food? My interest had been piqued, as had my appetite. A server in a mask and face shield emerged from the kitchen, holding menus in her gloved hands, smiling brightly with her eyes. “Are you two here for dine-in or takeout?” she asked my friend and me. I looked around at the empty dining room, then glanced at the tables outside simmering in the soggy afternoon heat. I shrugged at my friend. She shrugged back. Our way of saying, “Eh. Why the heck not?” We chose to dine in, for the first time in a very long time. “Welcome to Binto Thai,” the server said. Binto opened in late February, back when the world seemed slightly less terrifying. The restaurant bills itself
BINTO THAI 28811 S. Tamiami Trail, No. 4, Bonita Springs • Opened: late February • Price: Average dinner entree is less than $15 • Call: 239-676-8683 • Web: bintothai.com • Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5-8 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon-3 p.m., 5-8 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday • Etc.: Beer and wine served; online ordering for takeout; delivery via Grubhub
as a Thai-style “street food cafe,” a subtle distinction that shows in dishes of tom sum salad made with crunchy matchsticks of papaya; in rich kow soi, a curried noodle soup from northern Thailand; and in a dessert of silky mango and sticky rice laced with coconut cream. If you’ve grown accustomed to the same handful of Thai dishes (I’m guilty of ordering far too many rounds of pad thai and panang curry as my takeout standards), then Binto is a delicious way to expand your Thailand horizons. Or don’t. My pad thai was wonderful, its tender noodles fragrant with scallions and tangy lime. My panang curry (listen, some habits are hard to break) was great, too, the slight heat of its chilies softened by lush coconut milk. From there, I expanded, with that tom sum salad bursting with juicy tomatoes and the soft crunch of peanuts,
with tom kha soup bright with galangal, with orders of garlic-ginger rice and of savory, comforting pad see ew crafted with broad noodles and soysauce laden gravy. Binto offers a classic Thai iced tea clouded with sweet plumes of condensed milk. Lunch meals start with the soup of the day and little vegetablestuffed egg rolls. And every Binto meal ought to start with the aforementioned “heavenly beef,” strips of flank steak sauteed till their outsides are chewycrisp, their insides marvelously tender. Binto serves this ½-pound nest of meat with a side of its rice-vinegar slaw. It’s a killer combination that takes you far away from this world, if only for a few bites. Our dishes came out quickly, as did a later takeout order. While the restaurant has a fast-casual setup, our server took care of us just as a sit-down server would, refilling drinks, clearing plates, bringing boxes for leftovers. Fast-casual restaurants have been the fastest growing sector of the restaurant industry in recent years. In the age of COVID-19, they appear to have cemented their place in our collective palates, promising convenience and food that’s a step up from paperwrapped burgers and fries. We’re used to fast-casual sandwich joints, fast-casual burrito spots, even fast-casual sushi. Why not fast-casual Thai food? Especially if it’s as good as Binto Thai.
Jean Le Boeuf is the pseudonym used by a local food lover who dines at restaurants anonymously and without warning, with meals paid for by The News-Press and Naples Daily News. Follow the critic at facebook.com/jeanleboeufswfl or @JeanLeBoeuf on Twitter and Instagram.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA PARENT & CHILD » NOVEMBER 2020 » 23
