One cannot live on Lotus of Siam alone.
Lotus is definitely the best Thai restaurant and one of the best restaurants, period, in Las Vegas and beyond, but it can be a tough reservation, it’s always something of a madhouse, and we’ve been waiting for the original location in the Commercial Center to reopen for nearly 10 years and the new venue in Henderson for nearly three, so we look for alternatives. When Blue Orchid opened earlier this year on Las Vegas Blvd. at Cactus Ave. across from South Point, we thought it might fill the bill.
Blue Orchid is the third Las Vegas restaurant from the Cheung family, which opened the first Pin Kaow Thai restaurant 25 years ago on North Rainbow; the second is on Eastern Ave. south of the Beltway. In fact, in 2023, we wrote about it after a brief visit: “We may finally have found a challenger for Lotus of Siam in the Thai restaurant Pin Kaow. We’ve been hearing about it for a long time and our first taste was exceptional.”
So was our first taste of Blue Orchid and its innovative take on classic Thai dishes. Our go-to for quality Thai is always tom yum ($32 for two), prepared tableside with the base broth, all the bowls of fresh ingredients including the shrimp we ordered, and the portable burner. The process was impeccable and the result, well, exquisite would be an understatement.
Our number-two tryout is larb (pronounced “laab,” $18), a Laotian minced-meat salad that’s popular in northeastern Thailand. We’ve had it with pork, chicken, beef, even duck, but we’d never seen a shrimp ceviche larb on a Thai menu. Since we’re ceviche fanatics, we had to try it; in fact, it was what got us interested in Blue Orchid in the first place. It was fine, though nothing like we expected, and we won’t order it again.
Not so for the tamarind sticky ribs ($16), no sir! The next time we want ribs of any kind, we’ll make the drive down to Blue Orchid.
In fact, this is the quality of restaurant to which you want to return again and again to sample everything the fantastic kitchen dishes up. It’s not Lotus, but it comes close enough for our taste.
Our bill came with tax came to $80.