Thai food has become extremely popular over the past few years. In Oklahoma, our favorite Thai restaurant is probably Panang—and with 6 locations across the OKC metro (most recently, in Norman and Yukon), it must mean there's something to their success.

Our neighborhood Panang is the South Penn location. It's been there for years—possibly one of the original locations which first opened in 2007.

A few of our favorite dishes that we recommend are: Pad Thai, the quintessential Thai noodle dish; Green Curry Fried Rice (recommended with chicken); Basil Fried Rice (with beef); Squid Salad; Evil Jungle Curry, and Tom Yum and Tom Kha soups.

Most all Thai dishes allow you to choose a meat of chicken, beef, or shrimp; and your choice of how spicy you want your food based on a scale from 1 to 5 (we usually go right in the middle with a 3 for just the right amount).

If you're new to Thai food, Pad Thai is the dish to try. It's the Thai dish, and gives you a great idea of the flavors you can expect from Thai food. Pad Thai is noodles with green onion, egg, and chopped peanuts. But it's the complex oils & spices that really give it its distinctly sweet, spicy, and tangy flavor (served with a slice of lime). We order our Pad Thai with chicken, and if you're ever faced with a choice of noodles, we think the Pad Thai's standard rice noodle is the best.

If you're not so adventurous, Panang's fried rices are fantastic. Our favorites are the Green Curry fried rice with chicken and Basil Fried Rice with beef. Like Pad Thai, they have a mix of vegetables along with those complex Thai flavors. Green Curry Rice is fairly standard (there's no curry sauce as you might expect), but the Basil Rice with beef really hits it out of the park. We love Panang so much, we usually ask for an order of these rices to take home to-go (they're even better after sitting for a night in the fridge).

For the truly adventurous, we love the Squid Salad and Evil Jungle Curry with chicken. Squid Salad is raw/blanched, sliced squid with red & green onions, chiles, lime, and those complex Thai spices too numerous to list here. It's definitely not sushi, but if you're a fan of sushi, you might like this.

The Evil Jungle Curry is a curry based on coconut milk. It's a heavy, oily, creamy dish served with rice, and incredibly good if your stomach can handle something so rich. The Tom Kha soup (another of our favorites) is a coconut milk-based soup that is similar to Evil Jungle Curry. Choose the Tom Yum soup if you'd rather have a more "tomatoey" red soup.

We're not so crazy about Thai desserts, but if you're a fan of Vietnamese milk-teas, you should try Thai Tea. Like other milk teas, it's a combination of tea, heavy milk (such as condensed or coconut milk), and a lot of sugar! Thai Tea has an orange-brown color, and we think (weirdly enough) it has the smoky taste of a campfire. Don't let that turn you off—it's a very interesting flavor, and we love it!

Panang is a restaurant where there are so many good options on the menu, you just can't pick one favorite. It's our go-to restaurant in South OKC, and chances are, you may have one near you!

Find out more about Panag Thai restaurants here...
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