Jin: Chicago Thai That Escaped Argyle

Chicago is not short on places to find Thai cuisine, and our neighborhood is no exception, but we have the added cultural center of Argyle Street, a enclave of Vietnamese and Thai.  On Argyle, you'll find a dozen different restaurants from that corner of the world, offering a number of different variations.  We’ve enjoyed meals at Thai Pastry and many others on different occasions, but for the blog, we wanted to try something new.  Enter Jin, a new Thai place in Edgewater (livin' on the edge!) on Broadway.  It had been open for a few months, so this seemed like as good a time as any to try it, because it was a really hot day and we didn't have enough energy to venture very far from home.

Drinks

The menu offered Thai iced tea and Thai coffee, but Beth went with regular old iced tea and Neil was again pedestrian with his choice of water.  The iced tea was not your usual watered down stuff at most restaurants.  It had a nice, clean flavor with a bit of nuttiness and citrus.  Since we were here on a hot day for lunch, we hadn’t thought too much about booze, but the place is BYOB, which is a nice option.  However, given its name, we wish there were lots of yummy gin drinks on the menu.

Food

We started with the Angel Wings, which were chicken wings stuffed with glass noodles, cabbage, carrots and minced chicken meat and served with a sweet chili dipping sauce.  Given the fact that these quickly disappeared from the plate, I guess you could say they were pretty tasty.  The flavors came together nicely and the peppery seasoning in the wings was a nice foil for the sweet dipping sauce.  Beth hadn’t had wings like these since her long gone New Orleans days with Miss Hay’s Chicken Wings, which are still on the menu at NOLA.  

Angel Wings

For entrees, Beth ordered Rad Na Krapraw, which were wide, flat rice noodles served with chicken, basil, mushroom, bamboo, shoots, string beans, broccoli and bell pepper.  Over this dish was a chili-garlic gravy with plenty of fresh basil.  The dish was well balanced with just enough heat to make things interesting.   

Rad Na Krapraw

Neil had the BBQ Pork Bowl, which featured marinated pork , hard boiled eggs, cucumber and a special sweet house sauce served over rice and garnished with two kinds of sesame seeds and scallions.  The predominant flavors in the sauce seemed to be orange and soy.  The sauce mixed together wonderfully with the rice and the pork was great dipped in the sauce.  The hard boiled egg was a nice touch and added some different texture and flavor to the dish.

BBQ Pork Bowl

 

Overall

The meal was great and the service was attentive.   The restaurant isn’t large, but it’s comfortable and offers a relaxing respite from the busy flow of pedestrians and traffic on Broadway.  The place was clean, affordable and offered appealing, fresh cuisine.  Their web site says they offer weekday lunch specials, which are no doubt a good deal.  Even if you miss out on the specials, a trip to Jin will not break the bank.  For those days when you just want to relax at home, they also offer carry out or delivery.

Foreign Factor

5 out of 10.  The décor and overall atmosphere was that of any contemporary restaurant.  The menu was very accessible with good descriptions of items.

What We Learned

We learned that Thai is good, any time any place.  The freshness of the cuisine is always appealing, whether you’re seeking a light summer meal or some hearty comfort food on a cold winter’s night.  Also, there is a large enough Thai population in Chicago to warrant a consulate.  The Thai population seems to be centered in north Chicago, and several Thai Buddhist temples are located here.  Immigrants from Thailand were sparse before the mid 1960s, but the Vietnam War increased the number of Thai coming to the US and Chicago.  Now they (and their cuisine) make up a nice part of the modern city scene.

More

As we mentioned, there are no shortages of Thai restaurants in Chicago.  Metromix offers these recommendations.

The public tv station even has a list of their top five Thai restaurants in Chicago.