We found ourselves liberated from childcare one random weeknight and decided to check out the new Thai restaurant that had replaced what had been our favorite local taco joint. We found a stunningly transformed restaurant with eye-catching food.

A year earlier, this restaurant storefront was home to Taco Edition, a small shop that served some of my favorite tacos like a classic tex-mex style beef and a BLT with bacon. It was a place we even ate take out from during the pandemic, and then one day it was gone. The storefront sits in a strip of Grand Street in Brooklyn with a lot of casual dining options like Best Pizza, Mario’s Pizza, Birdies Fried Chicken, Frango’s Fried Chicken, and Crown Fried Chicken. I was expecting another pizzeria or another chicken shop to open.

I was surprised to see the tiny space renovated into an upscale, sitdown restaurant. Kaew Jao Jorm turned the space into an intimate, and beautiful dining room. The tables are close together, and it has that feeling of old school New York City restaurants that squeezed in as many tables as possible, and then added one more.

The transformation included an amazing decoration of the interior with textiles and chandeliers and paintings and plants and all sorts of elements that create atmosphere.

The interior decoration was theatrical

It felt like we were on a film set, and while the decoration is over the top in many ways, it’s great to be in a place that celebrates something different and unique. Perhaps this is merely the result of the needs internet-era dining. The women at the table next to us were shooting influencer-style videos of the food, and the dishes looked stunning. There are bold colors on the plates, and big flashy dishes like whole fish.

The restaurant’s menu draws inspiration from the 19th century, updated recipes from the King Rama V’s court. That isn’t to say the food is unrecognizable as Thai cuisine, but it’s certainly not your standard Pad Thai. Known as “Royal Thai” cuisine, the foods are far less common in New York City.

We walked right in on a chilly night even though there are just twenty tables. With the stunning visuals of the food, I suspect there will soon be lines.

I took the bait. I had to have hte blue dumplings because they look amazing. They tasted good too

We started with the Cho Muang, purple dumplings delicately decorated like flowers. These are visually stunning, but also had flavor and texture.

We also had the Yom Som O, the Royal Thai pomelo salad. This was absolutely delicious, a combination of sweet and tangy. The flowers didn’t add very much but the flavors of the savory vegetables and the sour citrus was very good. As with the dumplings, it was visually unique as well.

For entrees, we had Pad See Ew Beef and and Panang Curry. The broad noodles and beef of the Pad See Ew was the most common in appearance. But the flavors were strong and unique, more powerful than I expected. And like everything, there was good texture. It was a satisfying dish, but the easiest to skip on a second trip.

The curry tasted as good as it looked

The Panang Neua was seasoned with coconut milk and kaffir lime. This dish arrived looking like something special with the bright red orange sauce contrasting the coconut milk. The decorative flowers added a splash of color.

The restaurant didn’t serve alcohol at the time. I could see that changing over time, but they did serve tea. We ordered a bright red hibiscus berry. It arrived in a pot with plenty for two.

Tea service at Kaew Jao Jorm

Everything here was crafted to be beautiful, ideal for the era of instagram restaurants. What did surprise me though was that the food tasted great as well. They managed to unlock surprising flavors and unexpected textures.

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