Photograph by Martha Williams
The first bite of Thai food I ever had was at Midtown’s Tamarind restaurant, and it began a love affair. Tamarind—widely credited with introducing Thai fine dining to Atlanta—was opened in 1998 by Chef Nan Niyomkul and her late husband, Charlie Niyomkul. That experience opened the door to a cuisine I now love so much that I cook Thai recipes at home with a wok.
Chef Nan remains a towering figure in Atlanta cuisine with her signature restaurant, Nan Thai Fine Dining, at the corner of 17th and Spring streets. But there’s a new Nan Thai in town, behind the St. Regis hotel in Buckhead, where Chef Nan’s daughter, DeeDee, is walking in her mother’s footsteps. The restaurants have similar names, similar menus, and the same core aesthetic: fine dining, Thai style. DeeDee Niyomkul originally opened the location as Chai Yo Modern Thai. Late last year, she rebranded it as Nan Thai Buckhead and worked with her mother to design the menu. Comparisons are inevitable, but the two restaurants—at their essence—are Nan Thai South and Nan Thai North.
My love affair with Thai food is a long-distance relationship (I’m planning my first visit to Thailand next year), so I get my fix through home-cooked meals and such restaurants as Tum Pok Pok. Since Tamarind, I hadn’t had another Thai fine-dining experience, so with Nan Thai Buckhead freshly opened, it seemed to be an opportune time for a refresher.
The restaurant made a great first impression. We were met at the door by a vivacious hostess and a warm “Sawasdee ka,” the traditional Thai greeting. The decor is Buckhead chic, with dark-tan fabrics and rich, dark wood anchoring the space. On the wall above my table hung a huge Burmese kalaga—an appliqué tapestry with an elephant motif brought from Thailand.
Photograph by Martha Williams
The cocktail we chose was a Chai Talay: vodka, coconut cream, and lemongrass topped with sprigs of Thai basil. It was a perfect drink for a sticky-hot Bangkok (or Atlanta) night, refreshing and not overwhelming. Aside from an oversauced crispy red snapper, the food was conceived with creative flair and well executed. A standout was Tom Kha Lobster Soup (Chef DeeDee used the dish to famously “beat Bobby Flay” on the Food Network show of the same name). The Larb Kai was also a star—it had just the right blend of minced chicken, herbs, onions, and spices. We told our server we wanted enough heat to bring a sweat, and the kitchen delivered.
But it was Chef Nan who inspired my passion for Thai food, and after the meal, I felt compelled to also eat at Nan Thai Fine Dining. Even though it’s been open nearly 25 years, I’d never been there, and I was unprepared for the “experience” I was about to have. Stepping through the front door was like taking a 9,000-mile step to enter a restaurant in the heart of Bangkok. I was immediately greeted by multiple “Sawasdee kas,” and the staff was almost all Thai.
The restaurant has been described as a palace, and it is. The open dining room is two stories high, and the white-and-beige color scheme says “elegance.” At one point, I spilled some fish sauce on the white tablecloth. Once that course was cleared, my server showed up with a white napkin, opened it up, and spread it out to cover the stain.
Photograph by Martha Williams
Photograph by Martha Williams
I started with a Mango Mai Thai: Don Q Rum, triple sec, mango, orange, pineapple, and grenadine. It was as refreshing as the Chai Talay in Buckhead, sweet and fruity with citrusy tones. This version of the larb salad included a section of cabbage on the side (a perfect cooling element for the heat of the dish) and a carrot peel shaped into a flower.
Chef Nan stopped by my table, and I told her I’d eaten my first Thai food at Tamarind. She smiled and thanked me; we chatted for a moment, and then she moved to greet another table before going back to the kitchen. A while later, as I took a succulent bite of slow-braised beef short ribs in green curry (I wanted extra heat, so my server suggested substituting in the green rather than the milder Panang version on the menu), out of the corner of my eye I saw movement to my left. I glanced over and it was Chef Nan, next to me bending down to pick up a small herbal leaf that had fallen on the floor.
I ended the evening as I had started: with mangoes. My server suggested the mango with sticky rice dessert because it’s a seasonal item on the menu. The fruit was sliced and presented in what looked like an abstract goldfish shape, perfectly ripe and served at room temperature to accentuate the flavor. The sticky rice was infused with coconut cream and tinted blue with butterfly peas, a traditional Thai technique to produce a slightly floral flavor.
Photograph by Martha Williams
Both restaurants are excellent. When it comes to mother and daughter, the mango didn’t fall far from the tree. But Nan Thai Fine Dining is more than a meal; it gave me the illusion that I was no longer in Atlanta. It was a shock to my state of culinary nirvana when I walked out and saw Midtown sprawled out before me. Then I turned to my left and smiled. A bright-red tuk tuk was parked in front of the restaurant, as if all I had to do was hail it, and it’d take me any place I wanted to go.
This article appears in our November 2025 issue.
