Khao (Street Food Thailand and Bar)

We tried the new Thai restaurant Khao (Street Food Thailand & Bar) on Richmond Road and were pleasantly surprised! We came as a group of 6 (3 adults, 2 teens, and a child) around 3pm. It was moderately busy with a few tables ahead of us, but service was impressively quick. Drinks came out within 10 minutes, and all our dishes followed almost immediately — which shocked us considering many earlier reviews mentioned slower service. Maybe we caught them on a great day!

The food was beautifully presented and tasted amazing. The curry and noodle dishes were especially flavourful, savoury, and authentic — everyone at our table loved what they ordered. The coconut cake dessert was okay, but we appreciated the honesty when we asked for mango sticky rice and they let us know the mangoes were still sour and didn’t want to serve something subpar.

The interior is gorgeous, the wait staff were friendly, and overall the experience felt very authentic. Prices are a little higher for the portion sizes, but the quality makes it worth it. Definitely one of the better Thai spots in Ottawa!

The food is great. I ordered a few dishes with a spice level of 3, and they were definitely spicy. I can’t imagine how hot level 5 would be. I highly recommend this place.

We decided to come on a Tuesday, after suppertime. This was the best decision ever.
We had the fried pork belly and chicken satay as appetizers.
The pork belly was both crispy and juicy. The satay chicken was beautifully spiced (not pictured) and the peanut sauce was rich and flavourful.
For the entrée we had Pad Thai and Salmon Har Mok Baithong. The Pad Thai was one of the best I’ve ever had. The Har Mok was tasty and had just a hint of spiciness. We ordered it with a level 1 spiciness as we weren’t sure what to expect.
Overall this was a definite win. The atmosphere was quiet. The couches were very comfortable.

New favorite Thai place! We have 2 apps and 2 mains. We had the crispy pork belly, what’s was crispy and juicy. The satay chicken were a good size and the satay sauce was incredible! (Not photographed because we ate it before we remembered to take pictures)

The 2 mains were the Har Mok and the Pad Thai. The Har Mok was amazing! Its one of my favorite curries and this was was sooo good. We had it with salmon and the fish was cooked to perfection, flakey and moist. The Pad Thai was sweet and delicious. The noodles had the perfect bounce and the chicken was moist and cooked to perfection.

Definitly cant wait to come again.

I found a metal wire in my food while eating at the Richmond Rd location. I was able to remove it from my mouth before swallowing, but it was a serious food safety issue.

The staff did remake the dish and removed the charge, which I appreciate. However, when I ate the second dish, I felt significant anxiety and stress, constantly worried that I might accidentally bite into something unsafe again. This made it very difficult to enjoy the meal at all.

Even though the issue was addressed, the experience was already compromised. Food safety incidents like this can have a lasting impact on a customer’s sense of trust and comfort.
I’m not blaming any servers or services, servers were very nice and helpful, the back kitchen and food prep should be really improved and this really scared me and my friends.

Went on a Friday night by reserving online. Was quite busy when we got there. Very average food, my pad khi mao which was supposed to be spicy with chilies was overly sweet and a wet dish not stir fried. Noodles used were not the wide ones as mentioned in the menu and was thin rice noodles. Tom yum soup was alright but tart. Holy basil chicken was good but they ran out of eggs for the night so it was missing from the dish. Lemongrass wings were decent too. Overall, an underwhelming experience.