Restaurant Week lunch #2: Khe-Yo

This year, I could only afford two Restaurant Week lunches, but that's ok.  I enjoyed them both quite a bit.  I've already reported on Park Avenue Winter, now I'll tell you about my lunch at Tribeca's Khe-Yo.

When I'm choosing RW meals, I try to choose restaurants I've never been to, or cuisines I rarely eat (it's not often I go to Italian restaurants for RW, since I try those all the time anyway).  When I was doing a search on the website this year, I was intrigued by a spot serving food from Laos.  Clearly, I have never eaten a Laotian meal before, and when I looked at their menu, my interest was piqued.  And when I was talking it up to a co-worker chum, she thought it sounded fun, too, so we took a long lunch last week and gave Khe-Yo a try.

Conveniently located from my office, Khe-Yo is a quick subway ride away and in a very cute little spot.  It's mainly wood and teak, with lots of brick and plants around.  The staff is very pleasant and the ambiance is kind of funky.  There weren't a lot of people in the space having lunch, so it was pretty quiet, as well.  They have a very nice drink menu, as well as their RW menu, with lots of non-alcoholic options.  My co-worker chum and I both got the house-made tamarind ginger soda, which was DELICIOUS.  I could drink that smokey-sweet-sour-fizzy beverage at every meal from now on.

I kept going back and forth over what I wanted to order - I try not to have similar flavors in my meal.  I asked our server which first course she would recommend and, naturally, she said she likes them all, which was kind of no help.  I finally decided to get the crispy pig face buns; my other thought was getting the pork belly wonton soup, but since I'd had pork belly guacamole at a cool Mexican place recently, I opted for the bao.  I'm ever so glad I did.  It was so good!  The buns were pillowy soft, the pork cheek was flavorful, the pickled cucumber (but isn't that just a pickle?!) was yummy and that sauce was delicious.  It was a tamarind-based sauce, I think, and it tasted great with the pork and the bun.  I may have been dunking things in the sauce whether or not I was supposed to.

Since I had pork in my first course, I decided to get the glass noodles and crab for my second course (I want to go back and try the oxtail coconut curry soup, which was my other top choice).  This was also soooooo good.  And very filling - I didn't even finish it, so that means I got two meals out of one RW outing!  Bonus!  Anyway, the glass noodles were wok-fried, so they had even more of a chew than usual.  The crab was very lightly dressed in a vinegary sauce and there were also bean sprouts and baby bok choy pieces to enjoy.  I will admit to removing the pieces of jalapeno from my plate - I don't mind the flavor of it, but I don't like to eat them.  They blow out my taste buds (even though I try new foods, my palate is still basically from Ohio).  The mixtures of textures and temperatures was grand and this was a terrific choice.  Plus, it tasted good reheated!

My co-worker chum and I decided not to pay extra for dessert, since we had to get back to the office.  But we had a delightful lunch at Khe-Yo and I'm looking forward to going back and trying other dishes now that I know how yummy the food is.  Their cocktail menu is also calling my name, so thumbs up for Khe-Yo.  Now that I feel so adventurous, having tried food from Laos, I'm trying to figure out other unknown (to me) cuisines that I can try during the summer version of RW...