Q: What is a good Thai restaurant on Cape Cod?
A: Bangkok Cuisine in Orleans is widely considered the best Thai restaurant on Cape Cod. Known for flavorful curries, crispy spring rolls, and standout dishes like Bangkok Duck, it's a gem that’s especially electric when you’re ready to dig into their favorite plates.
Q: Where is Bangkok Cuisine in Orleans?
A: Bangkok Cuisine on Route 6A in Orleans offers authentic Thai dishes, from Chicken Pad Thai to Masaman Curry, all served in a casual, friendly setting that locals and visitors both rave about.
Q: Is Bangkok Cuisine in Orleans open year-round?
A: Yes, Bangkok Cuisine is open year-round in Orleans, MA, making it a reliable option for Thai food even in the Cape Cod off-season.
On The Table Tonight at Bangkok Cuisine:
- Singh: Thai beer
- Chicken Pad Thai: famous stir-fried Thai rice noodle dish with egg, scallion, bean sprout, topped with ground peanut
- Yellow Curry with Chicken: onion, bell pepper, pineapple, tomato, carrots and potato
- Masaman Curry with Beef: onion, bell pepper, tomato, potato, carrots and peanut
- Bangkok Duck: crispy half boneless duck with Tamarind sauce
It Can Be A Foot Race
We parked across the street in an open lot and had to play Frogger across the four lanes of traffic on 6A before we could put our names in at the bar. I left my co-diners behind like I was catching a Huey out of Cambodia in '71. Huffing across the packed parking lot to the canopied entrance, I saw another crowd pouring in the door ahead of me and it took all of the inner Arthur Fonzerelli I could summon to not sprint ahead and hip-check a petite Filipino woman to the pavement. “She was leading a party of six, do you have any idea what that would have done to my wait-time, your honor?!”
We fought our way to the 2 open bar seats and, for my sins, I gave my formerly abandoned brothers the stools. We cooled off with a round of Singha. It was more refreshing than I remember. And went down fast. We cracked the second like it owed us money - or that’s what the look one of the servers gave us when we flicked the caps at him. Lucky for us all, our table had just opened up.
Good news here, we were dropped into the atrium dining room to the right of the bar. Note: choice spot. The sky-high beautiful bent glass window-walls-into-ceiling panels aired the place out and kept the sight-volume of the other diners down to a din - a claustrophobic hell avoided.
We were there to eat what a good friend and restauranteur called her “favorite food on the Lower Cape.” Steep. Bold. Now, could Bangkok Cuisine been the best Thai food in Orleans? Sure. Only? Maybe! Do I pretend that my tablemates and I were all on the prowl for a new favorite place? I do not. There are too many contenders and seeking to issue a crown … well that’d just be silly.
But! Do we always want to add more restaurant names and endlessly enjoyable dishes to our off-season list, especially now, as the off-season slow rolls to close? We most definitely do, So then …
I’m sure the rules have been made clear to a large portion of your contingent by whomever raised you, but for the uninitiated: when you’re out at a specialty spot, you naturally have to sample the standard before you go off into the wilds of House Specials or Fusion.
- Pizza Spot: Cheese Slice
- Burger Spot: Single Patty Cheeseburger
- Chinese: Pork Fried Rice
- Mexican: Tacos
- Italian: Spaghetti & Meatballs. Chicken Parm would also be an acceptable answer.
- Thai: Pad Thai
Glad we’re on the same page.
For The Table
Pad Thai with Chicken
It landed hot and quick, like a jab. And it’s delicious - as delicious as a cheese slice with a crust that pushes back at you, as an al pastor taco sliced off the spit with pineapple, and this dish in front of us was practically something from a roadside stall outside of Chiang Mai They’re not reinventing the wheel here, but it is round, smooth, and when it picks up speed, you’d better be wearing a helmet. I also appreciate a dish that makes good use of sprouts because I see them as nothing special as a taste vehicle but a very strong textural play. Weave in a little chicken and rice … Are you gonna eat the rest of that?
Filling, substantive, incredibly flavorful, a joyful cluster of bites. It was a win. So now, my dear friends and co-conspiritors, we are ready to step into the lab and formulate a few deviations from standard.
The bell sounded Round Three (of Twelve) in our heated battle with the cases of Singha piled in some refrigerator back behind those swinging doors. It was when those sweating bottles arrived at our table that we realized our neighboring table tenants had started finding their way to the commuter shuttle and back to the parking lots from whence they came. Including that slippery Filipino with her half dozen in tow. As I sat back with my cold beer, I took pleasure in my life’s post. All was right again here, my timing, just an hour or so ago, seemed eccentric, evem terminally retarded. But now I see it was perfect. We were seated late, and maybe of the last, but now we were treated to a world of our own.
It was through these grinning lids that I spotted our dishes emerging from the kitchen, two wait staff full of arms and a third holding apart the swinging doors. We shared a look, as infantrymen do, then cradled our bottles, and took the moment to enjoy the anticipation of rich fullness, which certainly seem to have us in mind by the looks of things.
Entrees
A tasty scallion-laden rice bed with beef. The carrot and cucumber did most of the heavy lifting needed to pop color from the plate. A good order for the mustachioed in your life; there is nothing to unwittingly store and surprise you later.
Yellow Curry with Chicken
White rice’s platonic dream, this curry was served stacked to the lip with chunky bell peppers, onion, and potato. The peanut that dressed the top was excellent but never connected with the rice in quite the same way the chicken, the onion, or, especially, the pepper would - simply native to the order of things. Inevitable. This was no one’s fault; a larger order of white rice was the only fault here. But we were in no mood to point fingers.
Bangkok Duck
Clearly the star of the show, the duck was served on a plate that itself was likely taken from a shelf someone maybe needed a stepladder to reach. This is the kind of dish you have 20 of in the back, not 120. It was with this care that a home was made for this irresistible boneless feast. Not one for fruit mingling with my savories, the way the pineapple fit in was different, and quite good.
The Final Turn
Known for putting my meals away at a good clip - not necessarily indigestion level (anymore), but certainly ahead of the pack enough to cut your drift - today I was apparently moving slower even than it seemed. The duck was improbably tender and I was covetous so, after I offered it around, I’d find myself in a position to make a show of casually, even absentmindedly, doling out a friendly portion while secretly guarding the goods like a man who’s seen scarcity. It was wonderful and I knew I’d eat it again, but I needed to savor the duck now … those fat scallion cylinders, and even, yes, the pineapple.
My hallucinogenically slow-motion and my pals’ bottomless gut for Thai beer gave us the opportunity to watch the place change shape as the seats emptied. And there we sat, in the atrium, like monks in a food temple after last-call.
After we barked at a busboy for attempting to remove our empties from the table, which we wanted there as an altar to our gluttony, the kitchen staff, those that would bother to pass through our sightlines, were more uneasy than impatient. Unfortunately this did nothing to bully our fatbodies to the door so we were soon presented the bill, unprompted.
Bless them, while they didn’t make a practice of it, they let us each leave with a newly opened Singha. I do think they could have waited for us to reach the street before turning off the parking lot lights though. At this time of the night it was as vacuous as a vacant amphitheater. It was also late and the car wasn’t close. It’s only for the beer that I could forgive them. And I do.
•••••
Do you have a favorite year-round restaurant that we should feature before the world opens for the season?
Have you put away a 24 rack of Singha with your blood siblings?
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