komol restaurant

Komol Restaurant
953 E. Sahara Ave, Las Vegas, NV, USA

I have only two stipulations if I am going to be forced into a Las Vegas trip:

1. As many Thunder Down Under shows as possible in the allotted time, and:

2. At least one meal that contains actual food.

The first is easily enough accomplished, but the second requires heading out to the east side, where the cabbies eat. This is a much better side of Vegas than you'll get on the Strip, though it can be difficult to talk people into it if they just want to stay in the casinos sipping Yard Margaritas and losing at Double Diamond.

My paramour and I were in town with some friends who were content with exactly that, so after a couple days of overpriced, complete bullshit meals, I was getting cranky.

I need just one meal off the Strip, ferchrisssakee!!!

We hatched a plan to venture out to the east side for Thai at Lotus of Siam, which we'd heard good things about. Unfortunately, shortly before we were about to leave, our friends decided they wanted to go too! How fun! It'll be an adventure!

And now there was also someone's couple-friends involved, a super-Type-A couple from San Diego. How fun! 🤧

Given that it was Saturday night, and we were now a pack of eight or ten people (my vision's always a little blurry in Vegas), Lotus of Siam was not to be. We showed up and, despite my promise to the hostess that our party would be "awesome," there was still going to be a nearly two-hour wait. I gave my name as "Gargamel," but even that didn't get us in. So, on the recommendation of a local cabbie, we walked over to nearby Komol.

komol restaurant

It was a bait-and-switch, sure, but, especially in Vegas, it could have been much worse. Komol was perfectly charming and super accommodating of our … uhh … boisterous party. The couple from San Diego insisted on ordering for the table; they seemed very nervous about being in this part of town, and it was triggering their control-freakism to a high degree.

So I spent the meal making increasingly inappropriate comments specifically to push their buttons. This made most of the table laugh, though I knew it would probably land me in Hot Water eventually.

komol restaurant

While the menu is decidedly in the realm of your regular everyday Thai place, the food at Komol was delicious and really spicy, the standout being a truly killer larb that I still think about from time to time.

Now, as far as what happens in Vegas staying there, it only took until the very next squabble back home for "the San Diego couple incident" to get thrown back in my face. Why doesn't she ever remember the good things?

Review by Toothy Berserker, June 2014