Asia Market Thai Lao Food review

Yum! Such delicious and authentic Thai food in Houston. I have tried many Thai restaurants in the city, but Asia Market truly stands out. First of all, its a hole in the wall type of market/restaurant. It is very small looking from the outside. The parking is a bit tight as well. I happened to drop by for dinner on a whim, simply because I was hanging out in the Heights earlier in the afternoon. Otherwise, this place is too far from where I live. Bummer! Well back to the food.. My sister and I ordered Thai tea, vegetarian pad kee mao (noodle dish), vegetarian curry puff (appetizer) and green curry with rice. All of the dishes were tasty and brimming with flavour.. very home-made cooking style. The pad kee mao had large chunks of vegetables.. such as cabbage, carrot and water spinach. It was loaded with vegetables and spices. The flat wide rice noodles were soft and cooked nicely. My only complaint is that the food was spicier than I would have liked. Next time around, I would be cautious of the spice level and have them tone down the heat. I would also ask for a little less oil on the noodles as my stomach tends to dislike greasy food. The vegetarian curry puff was fantastic. This is an item that is hard to find in Houston. Think of an empanada brimming with thick stewed curry! I am sure that the potato and chicken curry puff is nice as well. The green curry had a home-made taste and I could tell that the spices were all pounded and made fresh in the curry, no spice pastes or anything. The Thai tea was refreshing, fragrant and out of this world. The sweetened iced beverage was exactly what my taste-buds needed when chowing down on hot food.The menu also contains Laotian food which I might try next time around. Their are a few interesting items that I have never tried before. The fact that a market is connected with the restaurant is also what I enjoyed. After having dinner, I wandered around and grabbed a few food ingredients from the many shelves. Their is even a fridge containing fresh herbs and hard to find ingredients. I was a happy camper as I love cooking Asian cuisine and identified ingredients such as galangal, kaffir lime leaves and pandan in the fridge aisle of the market. In summary, Asia Market is a great place to checkout if in the Heights. The food truly takes you away to another part of the world. Support local business and try it for yourself!