How Charlotte’s first Thai restaurant became part of the city’s heart and soul
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In Dilworth, on East Boulevard near a border shared with South End, Thai Taste exists with not a whole lot to prove. That alone is a comfort, that the restaurant doesn’t lean into or make a show of its 38-year history.
Thai Taste sits the way a lot of Charlotte institutions do — quietly, without posture, without a neon declaration that you’re about to experience something important. If you didn’t know better, you might drive past it. If you did know better, you’d slow down.
Chien Kongkham opened Thai Taste in 1988, in the former office of an armed forces recruiter. She chose Thai food strategically. Americans already understood it more than the cuisine of her native Laos — in many ways similar, but deeper, more umami-driven.
It was still a gamble. Charlotte hadn’t yet learned about lemongrass, and curry wasn’t a lunch default.
“But the first two weeks,” Chien said, “there were people lined up just to get in to see what Thai food was like.”
Thai Taste didn’t arrive to a scene — it helped build one. You can still feel that in the room.
The first thing you notice is how normal everything feels. Not curated-normal. Not reclaimed-wood-and-Edison-bulb normal. Just normal. Tables. Chairs. A laminated menu that reads like it’s been refined by subtraction instead of addition. Nothing trying to be memorable. Which is exactly why it is.
The regulars don’t hesitate. They order like they’re continuing a conversation that started years ago. Spice levels are negotiated with shorthand, on a scale from one to five. One regular, according to Chien’s son, Roger Kongkham, orders level 10 and doesn’t bat an eye.
Those regulars have changed over the years, just like the neighborhood itself. Many have retired and moved away, but they will always come back to Thai Taste when they’re in town, oftentimes bringing their kids and grandkids.
“We have three generations of customers who come for our Thai food,” Chien said.
But for the original customers, it’s back to a town that’s unrecognizable.
The Dilworth-South End border along the railroad back in 1988 was not the safest place; Thai Taste was robbed in its first six months of operations, and someone even came into the dining room and stole a customer’s purse during service. The coin laundry that was next door is now a high-end stationery shop. The offices and high-rises that are popping up and bringing in a younger clientele weren’t yet there to block out the sun.
The loyal customers have helped Thai Taste through some difficult times, including the 2008 financial crisis and the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve been there for the successes, too. At one point, Thai Taste was an empire, expanding to 10 locations across the region, including having an ownership stake in Charlotte’s erstwhile Knife and Fork restaurant.
“Yes, it was a challenge,” Chien said, “And I wonder, I just wonder, how can we do it? How did I do all of that? Well, it took patience. Yes, it was risky, but we really needed to go for it.”
Eventually, all but the original Thai Taste would close, as Chien grew older and wanted to focus all of her energy on the original location so it would sustain for the next generation of ownership.
While the neighborhood has changed over the years, and while Chien and her clientele have grown older, not a lot about the food has changed, remaining much as it has since 1988.
Classic Thai larb wasn’t part of the menu originally because, according to Roger, “We were still teaching people the differences between Thai food and Chinese food back then.”
During a meal at Thai Taste, plates arrive with the quiet confidence of something that has been made the same way for decades — not because it must be, but because it should be.
Pad Thai leans slightly sweet before the heat pulls it back. Tom yum soup doesn’t shout heat but builds it slowly, politely, like a conversation that gets more interesting the longer you stay. Fiery pad krapao, with glossy minced pork and perfumed Thai basil turning somersaults, offers a depth of flavor that feels less like seasoning and more like memory.
With each dish, you realize this place isn’t experimenting. It’s preserving.
You start to understand why places like this last.
Somewhere on the wall, there are photos: Panthers players, local personalities, people who could eat anywhere but came here. It’s the kind of detail that doesn’t try to impress you. It just exists, like proof that the city has been quietly passing through this dining room for years.
Thai Taste isn’t loud about its importance. It doesn’t need to be. It’s trained future restaurateurs. It’s fed office workers before South End had cranes and influencers. It’s survived trends, closures, expansions, contractions and Charlotte’s constant identity shifts. Through all of it, the curry stayed warm.
Restaurants like this don’t become famous. They become dependable. And in a city that changes as quickly as Charlotte, dependability starts to feel like heritage.
You finish your meal and nothing dramatic happens. No grand finale. No chef appearance. Just the check, the soft clatter of plates and that lingering smell of basil and coconut that follows you out the door.
Thai Taste doesn’t try to be one of Charlotte’s best restaurants.
It just keeps being Charlotte.
Thai Taste
Location: 324 East Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28203
Cuisine: Thai
Instagram: @thaitaste.clt
Uniquely Charlotte: Uniquely Charlotte is an Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Charlotte region.
