Inexpensive counter-service restaurant across from the Houston Greyhound station serves delicious, authentic Thai dishes.

2111 Fannin St Ste 109, Houston, TX 77002
(832) 548-1604
Website
11am–9:30pm, 7 days a week

On multiple trips to Cali Sandwich, we kept catching Nara Express in our peripheral vision: a Thai restaurant under the same roof as a Texaco and an auto repair shop in a building across from the Greyhound bus terminal. It must be good, right? After we eventually paid a visit to check it out for ourselves, we learned this is the midtown outlet of Nara Thai, a local chain with three other restaurants in Houston, Humble, and Baytown. After finding sufficient parking in their lot, we made our way into the bright orange dining room, ordered a few tempting menu items and Thai iced teas, and had a seat beneath fluorescent lighting at a brushed-metal table. A few short minutes later, our dishes began appearing before us.

Larb gai ($7.95): This is a cold dish featuring ground chicken, cilantro, onions, carrots, and (iceberg) lettuce in a lime dressing. We asked for it “spicy” at the register, and found that the dish was pleasantly picante but not overwhelming. We both enjoyed the combination of the bright, spicy, acidic dressing with the chicken and crisp, raw vegetables. While the menu advertises this as a “lettuce wrap,” this is not something you can actually pick up with your hands and manipulate to your mouth. We would call it a salad, and we enjoyed it very much.

Green curry with tofu ($8.95): At Nara, after you choose from their various entrees and curries, you get to select your protein from a list of assorted meats, seafoods, and vegetarian options, including “mock duck,” but we decided to give the tofu a spin. The dish emerged from the kitchen, green and creamy with coconut milk steeping a generous portion of fried tofu, crisp green beans, and slices of a small eggplant (tasty, if a bit seedy). Again, we asked for the dish “hot,” but it did not blow away our taste buds. The curry was nicely-seasoned, and we would order it again.

Fresh rolls ($4.95): These are similar to the cold summer rolls available at many Vietnamese restaurants, and are filled with chicken, shrimp, and vegetables. Truthfully we were a little disappointed with these; the filling was too heavy on the iceberg lettuce, to the detriment of the overall flavor, and the dipping sauce was excessively sweet to our taste. However, all the ingredients were fresh and of good quality, so if iceberg lettuce is your thing and you have a sweet tooth, go for it.

Thai iced tea ($3.50): Nara’s iced tea is served in a big glass with a ton of milk on top, and it was enjoyable to stir the contents with our straws and watch psychedelic patterns form. Unfortunately, that was the best part about the tea; we both found it to be lacking in well-defined tea flavor, and a bit too sweet.

On the whole, we were impressed by Nara Express, particularly with the entrees we ordered. While you can’t walk through midtown Houston without practically tripping over a primo bánh mì, a solid dish of Thai food is a harder to come by, and the roughened surroundings add to its character.