Comfort food from Thailand and matcha are the specialties of the family-owned Nalak Thai that opened in the Fair Oaks area.
Nalak Thai had its soft opening in December at the Fairfax Court shopping center (11270A James Swart Circle) near Fairfax City limits. The space formerly hosted U-SA Thai.
Samantha Lin, who owns Nalak Thai with her mother and brother, told FFXnow that the restaurant uses her mother’s food recipes and her own matcha recipes she has been working on. She said the response from the community has been “10 times what we expected.”
“This is our third restaurant, and for this third one, we wanted to be a little more intentional, so we wanted to focus on what we really miss from home,” said Lin. “Being from Thailand, it was the street food. We don’t get to go back as often as we wanted to.”
The family also owns Linjee Thai in Lincolnia, just outside Alexandria City’s limits, and Thai Palace in Waldorf, Maryland.
Lin says her favorite dish from Nalak Thai is the udon drunken noodles, and her brother’s favorite is the tom yum mama. Other highlights of the menu, according its owner, are the Thai sausage appetizer, papaya salad, khai mun gai and khao soi noodles.
The menu also includes varieties of stir-fries, fried rice, noodle soups and Thai signatures like pad thai, pad see ew and drunken noodles. Lin says the crispy chicken is another favorite option for customizing entrees.
For beverages, Nalak Thai offers its own rendition of Japanese matcha drinks hand-whisked with premium matcha and flavors like black sesame, tiramisu cream and Biscoff. Lin developed her own matcha recipes at home while she was limiting caffeine during her pregnancy.
“We experimented for about a year. We had almost everybody taste test it that we could find, and they loved it,” said Lin. “So we wanted to launch here and see how the community would like it too.”
Lin says Nalak Thai will bring home-cooked Thai food to diners, especially younger generations, that may not cook it at home.
“It only takes one generation to lose a language so we’re just trying to keep it alive,” said Lin. “We want to be their standing point where they can come to us and get a homecooked meal that they would get in Thailand that they’re craving, as well as something to keep them going during the day, which is the matcha.”
Nalak Thai is considering a grand opening and a raffle when the weather gets warmer. Dine-in service, takeout and delivery are available at the restaurant, which is open from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily.
