Khao House’s flavour not lost in move to the Good Will Attention to detail remains consistent at downtown club By: Alison Gillmor Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 3, 2019 Last Modified: 9:06 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 3, 2019 Updates

Opinion

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This article was published 02/04/2019 (2096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After starting out in a pleasantly creaky old home on Sherbrook Street, Khao House has moved to the Good Will Social Club. Going from a small, almost domestic dining room to the corner of a downtown club has brought both a change of vibe and a slightly adjusted menu.

Some Laotian specialties, such as laab, are no longer available. The concise but considered menu retains its focus on Asian comfort food with several noodle-based dishes, along with some small offerings that make for good bar snacks.

Fortunately, the original Khao House’s attention to detail also remains, with lots of clear, strong, nicely balanced flavours.

As stand-alone snacks or starters, the little spring rolls are exquisite, the pork filling packed with flavour and the wrappers fried tenderly crisp. (There’s also a vegetable option.) Kalapao steamed buns are also good, the pale, soft, slightly sweet dough stuffed with evocative flavours of roasted eggplant, mushroom and miso or pork, egg and wood ear mushroom, both versions served with incendiary chili oil on the side.

The green papaya salad is thin-cut and crisp, its refreshing fruit undertones spiked with chilis.

Pork miso ramen is good. The curly egg noodles might not be as good as you’d find at some specialty soup shops, but the broth is rich and hot with chili oil, served with pork shoulder that’s pull-apart tender and a perfect soft-boiled egg. A vegetarian ramen is also good, featuring big chunks of marinated tofu and a heap of greens in a creamy sesame broth.

The crunchy fried chicken is finished with a drizzle of gochujang — an intense fermented chili paste — a little mayo and a spoon of tobiko. These strong flavours are offset by a base of herby and fragrant jasmine rice.

The naum khao salad features cured sour pork, delicate in texture and taste, with balls of rice fried to nutty brownness, along with cilantro, veg and peanuts, but it could have used more dressing to bind all these elements together.

The banh mi is terrifically tasty, a six- or 12-inch baguette layered with tocino pork — garlicky, sweet and just a little chewy — crisp pickled veg, herbs and mayo. There’s also a vegetarian option using spiced cauliflower.

I was really hoping to try the house-made pandan ice cream, but it was sold out on two tries.

Khao House offers soft drinks and Winnipeg’s own Prism kombucha, the sampled Prairie Wildflower subtle and crisply dry. When it comes to alcoholic drinks, you’ve got the Good Will bar.

Khao House occupies a corner of the Good Will tucked away from the stage, with a few counter seats and one small table facing out toward Portage Ave. There’s also a big communal table available in the middle section heading toward the club, where university students are often working at their computers and the decor involves old band posters.

For patrons dropping by later in the evening, there might be live music going on, but the early hours are often quieter and laid-back. One evening when we visited, the featured event was a Winnipeg Public Library live podcast, with some of our city’s librarians getting super passionate (but not super loud — they’re librarians after all) about books. Now, that’s a nice capper to a good meal.

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca

Alison Gillmor
Writer

Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto’s York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992.

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