Saturday, January 27, 2018

Ocha FTW Thai ~ North Richland Hills, TX


Latest visit: Feb 2018

First visit: Jan 2018

There was a time when finding a good Thai restaurant in Northeast Tarrant was quite a challenge. Think back 15 years ago. Back then we liked Thai Chili (Southlake - now in Roanoke), Top Thai (NRH - long closed), Thai Rice (Grapevine - now Thai Riverside), and Bangkok Cuisine (Haltom City - still around, but new owners). And Sweet Basil had yet to get the new owners that transformed them to a 5 star place.

Now it seems all one has to do is go outside... and turn right.

Which brings us to Ocha FTW, the latter appellation added to distinguish itself from a similarly named restaurant in Denton. This isn't our first encounter with the restaurant setting. According to the RJG archives (yes, deep in the labyrinths of the Earth, a virtual time machine), we tried a place called D. Asian almost exactly 6 years ago. It wasn't bad at all, but not enough to get us to add to the rotation.

Ocha FTW is good enough to add to the regular Thai rotation. We were very impressed with our first visit. For the RJG, having Pad Kra Pow on the menu, exactly as it should be, is an all-time first for DFW! Ground chicken or pork, basil leaves, and a fried egg. I didn't have to alter one thing. And of course I get it Thai Hot! It was really quite excellent as the natural flavor of basil juxtaposes against the spice mixture, all soaked up with the ground chicken. And it was blazing spicy, almost to the point where I might consider 4 stars instead next time (aghast!). The flash fried egg was a bit on the smaller side (i.e. not the giant double egg of Thai Hut), but that's not a complaint at all. Mrs. RJG went for the ginger chicken, and was also giving a thumbs up. We started with an appetizer of butterfly shrimp. Their variation is a lightly breaded jumbo shrimp, very much like a Southern Cooking place might offer up. It too was delicious.

It's BYOB in the grand tradition of DFW Thai restaurants, so more savings there. They'll provide wine glasses, no problem.

Ocha FTW is at the intersection of Rufe Snow and Glenview in the deep south of NRH. It sits next to a convenience store. The surroundings are pleasant, and they do provide mood lighting at night, so it doesn't have that 7-Eleven glare that can often ruin the dining experience.

We'll be back.

1/27/18 (new entry); 2/10/18

2 comments:

Cowboy fan, burger junkie, GodFather of Tech said...

Good to hear. I moved from the NRH area to Waxahachie and we are starving (pun intended) for a decent Thai place.

I have settled on one close to work, Simply Asia, as my replacement for Sweet Basil.

Enjoy your posts, check the site at least once a week.

RJG said...

Thanks Cowboy Fan. I had wondered you'd gone - been a long time! Are you still blogging about burgers?

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