The Pad Thai at Malai. (Entree Dallas)
Their happy hour does, in fact, make people happy. Their superlative concept has not gone unnoticed. Delectable desserts and burgers at brunch are a few of their highlights, and the soups, entrees, appetizers and decor have found approval from beyond Dallas’s borders. Malai Kitchen is everything one could expect from a nice, well-reviewed restaurant in a gentrified, popular part of the city.
What it far exceeds, though, is what most have come to expect from a restaurant that serves Southeastern Asian fare.
“We try to be everyone’s neighborhood restaurant, but we’re not everyone’s typical neighborhood Thai restaurant,” says Yasmin Wages, who co-owns Malai Thai-Vietnamese kitchen with her husband (and head chef) Braden Wages. “The quality of the food, the quality of the ingredients that we use, and the passion that our staff has for what they do really set us apart.”
Clearly, people have taken notice.
A year after opening in West Village, the praise Malai has received is the result of the Wages’ all-encompassing dining philosophy – one that includes deep consideration not only for the food they serve, but everything it entails.
“Our philosophy is to offer a full experience with this cuisine. In Dallas, we found that you couldn’t really get a full, great Southeast Asian experience anywhere – there was always an element that was missing. So what we wanted to do was take the cuisine to the next level and really give it the respect it deserves, and provide a great wine list that really pairs well with the food, a great cocktail menu with handcrafted cocktails, and exceptional service,” says Yasmin. “Our guys, our staff, they really help set us apart from every other restaurant. They can help break down barriers that people might have with the cuisine and answer the questions that people have always wanted to ask.”
Though it’s a restaurant that serves Thai and Vietnamese, the dishes themselves are not necessarily Thai-Vietnamese fusion at Malai. Instead, they often take a ‘traditionally-inspired’ approach to each of the cuisines independently; while they have Banh Mi and Pad Thai on the menu, for example, those offerings are representative of the Vietnamese and Thai versions of those dishes – there is no effort to fuse the two together and make the Banh Mi more Thai and the Pad Thai more Vietnamese. Despite their geographical proximity and even some common ingredients, Malai lets each region’s representative dishes shine without overbearing ‘interpretation.’
The open Kitchen at Malai helps to encourage the lively atmosphere the Wages strive to create.
“While there is some crossover with the herbs and spices, the defining element between the two is that the Vietnamese cuisine really focuses more on the freshness aspect – it really highlights the quality and freshness of the herbs, whereas Thai cuisine is a little heavier and focuses more on spices,” says Yasmin. “Vietnamese food typically isn’t going to have, you know, a spice level associated with it. Whereas with Thai cuisine we always offer a spice level.”
Asked to describe her two favorite specific regional offerings, Wages is quick to respond with two standards.
“One of my favorite Vietnamese dishes would be the Beef Pho – we serve beef or chicken, but I’m partial to beef. It simmers for at least six hours every day, and we use marrow bones to do it. It has a lot of flavor and just enough fat in it to round it out. We use thinly sliced tenderloin as the meat for the soup, so the meat itself is tender and has a lot of flavor. It’s just a really elegant, healthy dish – we serve it for brunch just because it’s a really good hangover dish,” she says with a laugh. “And with Thai, all of our curries are great. We make our own curry paste from scratch, which is very rare; typically it’s more common to find canned or processed curry paste. We actually muddle all of the ingredients in the back and we make it, so it just has more depth and flavor than most. I think the dish is called the Iron Pot Chicken Curry is one of our classics – it’s a green curry with chicken and vegetables served with rice.”
But it’s not just the entrees that are getting buzz at Malai – the specialty cocktail list, developed by Jason Kosmos (who consulted for Bolsa and Neighborhood Services, as well) is an assortment of creative and refreshing inventions that was conveniently documented on Wednesday’s City of Ate, and provides them all for $5 during happy hour.
And then there’s desserts. The Wages take as much pride in the quality of the food at the end of the meal as they do the rest of it, that much they make clear. Their final courses allow for more interpretation than they take with the rest of the offerings, typically to the great appreciation of their customers.
The Coconut Creme Pie at Malai. (Entree Dallas)
“We have great desserts. All of them are made fresh here, in-house from scratch. We took a little bit more liberty with our desserts – we maintained some of the ingredients that are familiar to the cuisine but kind of veered a little bit more away from what’s classic. For example, a classic Thai dessert is Mango with Sweet Sticky Rice; we put a little rice crispy treat right in the middle to add some texture to it. And then we have another phenomenal dessert which is our Coconut Crème Pie. It’s a coconut macaroon crust and comes with a tamarind caramel sauce – it has been very, very popular,” says Wages. “And then we also have a really good Banana Pot de Crème – another classic dessert is a fried banana, so rather than doing a fried banana we just do a banana and made it more pudding.”
At Malai, they seem to pursue a centered creativity; their food is creative without losing sight of what it’s meant to be, and isn’t interpretive to the point of being unintelligible. They serve Thai and Vietnamese food – aside from the desserts, it won’t be mistaken for anything else – and they work to make it the best version of it they possibly can. Whether it’s the cocktail at the beginning, the Coconut Crème Pie at the end, they work to make it the best neighborhood restaurant their customers have ever been to – even if your own neighborhood happens to be miles away.
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For more information, visit Malai at malaikitchen.com
