All Thai-ed Up: Galanga Thai House
In Mexico, the word “Thai” is still too often deployed as a kind of vague shorthand for anything remotely Asian. Years ago I encountered a “Thai-style” salad dressed with yogurt — dairy being almost absent from the cuisines of Southeast Asia — while another fashionable Polanco spot scattered soy sauce indiscriminately through dishes that had little to do with Thailand.
Ana & Eleazar and Kaffir lime. Photo courtesy Galanga
Which is why Galanga Thai House, which opened in 2015 and which I wrote about shortly after, remains such a pleasure. In those ten years, the restaurant has evolved from a serious and deeply personal expression of Thai cooking into one of the city’s most ambitious dining rooms. Chef Somsri Raksamran — AKA Ana — and her locally-sourced husband Eleazar have since earned mention in the Michelin Guide, moved into a magnificently restored Porfirian mansion, and expanded the menu into territory that feels almost “Royal Thai”: elaborate, ceremonious, visually meticulous and occasionally delightfully excessive.
The core virtues, however, remain intact. Galanga still understands that Thai cuisine depends not on generic “Asian” flavoring but on precision: the perfume of holy basil, the citrusy lift of makrut lime leaf, the bite of galangal, the correct use of lemongrass with its prized pale stalk, the balancing of sweet, sour, salty and chile heat. Many ingredients are still cultivated by the couple themselves on their farm in Hidalgo, allowing the kitchen to avoid the compromises that plague so many international restaurants here.
Classic dishes continue to appear — som tum (green papaya salad that should be eaten fiery hot and will be done so on request), larb (chopped, condimented meat), hand-pounded curries and excellent pad thai — but the menu has become far more expansive and theatrical. There are delicate Thai Royal Dumplings shaped almost like jewelry; foie gras miang kham wrapped in betel leaf with toasted coconut and palm sugar caramel; oysters with ikura and fermented fish sauce; and gaeng kua hoi, a lush yellow curry from Southern Thailand with grilled scallops, salmon roe and noodles. A duck panaeng curry arrives rich with cumin and peanuts, while a massive Phuket-style mud crab is paired with jasmine rice or traditional kanom jeen noodles. Even humble khao soi (the northern noodles) is rendered in an unusually luxurious fashion.
At times the menu can verge on the ornate, and prices have climbed into the realm of special-occasion dining — some dishes rival the cost of top-tier restaurants in New York or London. Yet Galanga rarely feels cynical or merely fashionable. The elaboration grows out of genuine knowledge and affection for Thai culinary traditions rather than from empty spectacle.
Galanga’s magnifiscent patio
The setting contributes to the sense of occasion. Housed in a beautifully restored Porfirian mansion, the restaurant now feels worlds away from the casual “Thai house” it once was. One comes not simply to eat curry noodles or grilled seafood, but to surrender to a kind of Bangkok-inflected fantasy transplanted, improbably and rather glamorously, into Mexico City.
Prices average about $1500 per person.
The Galanga team also operates a sister restaurant nearby, Kiin Thai-Viet Eatery which is more down to earth price-wise and offers both Thau and Vietnamese dishes. See our review.
Galanga Thai House
Monterrey 204, Roma View map
Open Monday - Saturday, 1-11 p.m., Sunday until 6
