While I live in Seattle my day job requires that I drive to Kirkland. In the particular part of Kirkland in which I work finding a decent sit down restaurant to spend my lunch hour can be difficult. With choices such as chain Italian and Mexican restaurants, national fast-food joints and grocery stores, finding a good restaurant is like finding a diamond while panning for gold. I found a diamond in the rough with Noppakao Thai.

The restaurant has a tropical feel. Wood panel walls with decorative trim around the top, hanging lights and a feeling of relaxing in the shade on an island. The kitchen is open to the dining area and you get a good glimpse of all the action behind the counter as you walk through the door. My order was for Eggplant w/ Beef ($6.49). The lunch that arrived was a good-sized portion of tender, thinly sliced beef quickly stir-fried with crisp bell pepper and just cooked eggplant pieces. Noppakao uses Asian eggplant so you get none of the thin mushy slices typically associated with the vegetable. Each bite sized piece was tender to the tooth yet still retained its shape and color. Bathe the strips of beef and ample vegetables in a salty, somewhat spicy brown sauce, dotted with bits of garlic, and you have a great compliment to white rice. However, I did not get the white rice I ordered. Instead brown rice came with my meal and instead of taking it back, the waitress acknowledged she brought the wrong thing without a hint of fixing the problem. I guess every gem must have a flaw.

While I typically don’t frequent Thai restaurants (my choice of Asian cuisine goes Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc) I would say that, for lunch, in Kirkland, this makes an excellent spot in which to relax away from the office with a satisfying meal.