Thai restaurant in Daegu: shrimp and pork pad thai at Thai Yami

Our plan is to take a day off once each quarter and enjoy a little escape. Today, we’re traveling to Daegu! Daegu, a foodie travel destination! Among all the delicious places to eat when you come to Daegu, we visited Thai Yami, which people say has great Thai food.

Finding Thai Yami near Gyodong Market

It is located near Gyodong Market. We took the subway to Jungangno Station and walked through the jewelry alley, and there was Thai Yami! To be honest, the neighborhood felt a little unfamiliar during the day, but I hear it gets absolutely packed at night.

• 105, 1F, 222 Gyeongsanggamyeong-gil, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea (대구 중구 경상감영길 222 1층 105호)
• Tue–Sun 11:30–22:00
• Break time 15:00–17:30 / last order 21:00
• Regularly closed every Monday
• One hour of free parking at Jungang-ro Hyundai Sun & Vill
• Get a small pho coupon when you review after following Naver notifications

Thai Yami on the red sign—so cute.

A softly lit interior like a brunch restaurant

There are bar seats and tables. It would be great for a date or a get-together. The clean, softly lit atmosphere is just right for lunch. Rather than the Thai or Southeast Asian feeling we usually picture, it feels more like a brunch restaurant. We went for a late lunch, and everyone had just finished eating and left, so we were lucky enough to snap photos of the interior.

Kai Phrai and pad thai lunch set

Kai Phrai plus one main dish is ₩2,000 off. Since the lunch set gives you a ₩2,000 discount, I recommend the set if you go during the day! We ordered the Kai Phrai and pad thai set too.

Kai Phrai ₩21,000, pad thai ₩13,000, orange juice ₩5,000. They sell draft beer too, so daytime drinks would be nice, but we passed that day haha. They have every kind of alcohol—draft beer, highballs, Asahi draft beer cans, even soju and beer—so you can enjoy whatever suits your taste. It works equally well as a restaurant or a bar! Would Thai food go with soju? I don’t know about that haha.

Kai Phrai, only sold at Thai Yami

Kai Phrai with a light sprinkle of cheese. I love Thai food, but it was my first time trying Kai Phrai. That makes sense, since it is a menu item sold only at Thai Yami! It is fried chicken served with salad.

You do not mix it together; just eat it with the sprouts. The tangy salad dressing is a perfect match for the chicken. It is fresh-tasting and nicely balanced with protein too.

The chicken is plump and goes so well with the crisp salad. What a fitting salad alongside rich Thai food, pairing beautifully with the chicken’s flavor. It seems like a balsamic-style sauce; the sauce-soaked parts are tasty, but even the chicken on its own is seasoned and delicious.

Pad thai with lemon and ground peanuts

Pad thai ₩13,000. I absolutely loved that it came with both shrimp and meat~~

Lemon completes the flavor of pad thai. In my opinion. Squeeze in lots of lemon, then mix, mix, mix in all the ground peanuts too. There are bean sprouts, meat, and shrimp all in there.

The noodles are fairly thick, but not too heavy. They are soaked through with the pad thai sauce, giving them a sweet flavor. It is fun to pick up the meat with the crunchy bean sprouts and egg.

Wrap up a shrimp and eat it together, and it reminds you of the pad thai you had in Thailand. This pad thai has lots of tamarind fragrance and a subtle peanut flavor. It tastes more genuinely Thai than that ketchup-tasting pad thai I accidentally bought in Thailand hahaha.

Fresh-squeezed orange juice, nice and refreshing

Fresh-squeezed orange juice ₩5,000. I ordered it because it was unusual to see orange juice on the menu. It had the tangy-sweet orange juice flavor we know, but because it was freshly squeezed, it tasted like real orange rather than sugar, and went down refreshingly on a hot day.

We said we would have a light brunch, then scraped every last bit off the plates. Now I am curious about the nasi goreng and pu phat phong curry too. When you are craving Thai food in Daegu, Thai Yami.