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RAVENSWOOD — Anna’s Thai Kitchen has been a long time coming for owner Anna Ong.
Ong always has loved to cook and owned a restaurant about 20 years ago, but she closed it to get a degree in accounting. While she was great at her job as a corporate comptroller, she didn’t feel passionate about it, she said. She missed having a restaurant and coming up with recipes in the kitchen.
Ong opened Anna’s Thai’s Kitchen last month alongside her daughter, manager Catherine Ong. The restaurant is in the former location of Nami Sushi Bar, 1828 W. Montrose Ave., which closed in 2020.
“I wanted the place to feel like my home because this is my retirement,” Ong said. “This is something I wanted to do for me and my kid’s future. I want people to come in and feel at home.”
Credit: Alex V. Hernandez/Block Club ChicagoAnna Ong designed the menu, which is like a greatest hits of her family’s most popular recipes that she learned from her mother growing up. She likes to tweak recipes and experiment with flavors, like creating a tangy, mayo-based dipping sauce for her popular crab rangoon wontons.
“It’s a little bit special and not like anyone else’s,” she said.
The satay chicken is marinated, grilled and served on skewers alongside fresh cucumber salad and a savory homemade peanut sauce. The marinade is a secret recipe, Catherine Ong said.
Another popular starter is the Thai firecracker shrimp, which is marinated, wrapped in rice paper and fried until golden brown and crispy. It’s served alongside homemade sweet and sour dipping sauce.
Anna Ong joked that if every popular Thai dish she knows how to cook was on the menu, it would look like a phone book and customers would spend all day searching through it.
“I love to do what I do, and when people eat and enjoy my cooking it brings me happiness. That’s the secret seasoning, making it from the bottom of my heart,” Anna Ong said.
Credit: Alex V. Hernandez/Block Club ChicagoThe restaurant is an extension of how Anna Ong has always cooked for family and friends, even when she didn’t have a restaurant, Catherine Ong said.
When Catherine Ong has friends over to her family’s house, her mother nearly always asks if they’re hungry before heading into the kitchen to whip something up, Catherine Ong said.
“That’s how my mom treats everyone. She loves to cook for them and asking them to try new stuff,” Catherine Ong said.
Anna’s Thai is open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4-9 p.m. Wednesday-Monday. Its delivery zone is between Foster, Racine, Addision and Western avenues.
Credit: Alex V. Hernandez/Block Club ChicagoListen to “It’s All Good: A Block Club Chicago Podcast” here:
