Thai restaurant date in Dongseongno, Daegu: pad thai at Thai Yami

There are so many good restaurants in Dongseongno, Daegu, that I'm always stuck deciding where to eat. This time I was craving Thai food, so I headed to Thai Yami, a Thai restaurant in Dongseongno. When you think of Thai food, dishes like pad thai, tom yum goong, and Thai fried rice come to mind — but this time I wanted something simple that still captured the real flavor of Thai cuisine, so I ordered pad thai and kai phrai (Thai-style fried egg).

Where is Thai Yami, and is there parking?

Thai Yami is a spot to enjoy Thai food on Gyeongsanggamyeong-gil in Jung-gu, Dongseongno, Daegu. Arriving at the restaurant, you could really feel the Thai-restaurant vibe even from a distance in Dongseongno, which made it easy to find. Made me miss Thailand, haha.

Dongseongno draws a lot of people out shopping or on dates, and with so many good restaurants around, picking where to eat is half the fun. Thai food especially has a flavor all its own, different from typical Korean or Western food, so it's the kind of place I turn to when I want something exotic. Parking in the building gets you 90 minutes free, by the way.

Thai Yami's lunch set and menu prices

For the lunch set, you can get kai phrai plus pad thai for around ₩30,000. They also had a variety of other dishes, like pho and stir-fried crab curry.

Stepping inside, there was that distinctly exotic atmosphere Thai restaurants tend to have. Overall it felt comfortable and easy to eat in — good for a meal with friends, and just as good for a couple's date in Dongseongno.

On this visit we ordered three things: pad thai, kai phrai, and fresh orange juice.

Fresh-squeezed orange juice at Thai Yami

Thai Yami has fresh-squeezed orange juice. You know how when you travel to Thailand you drink a lot of fresh orange juice? They have that here too. It was fresher and tastier than expected, so I finished the whole glass.

Sharing pad thai and kai phrai between two

Pad thai is basically a must-order any time I go to a Thai restaurant. It has a charm all its own, different from pho, and it's the dish I crave whenever I'm in the mood for Thai food. And the kai phrai we ordered alongside it wasn't something I'd tried often, so I was curious. Ordering both together was nice because it let us pair a noodle dish with something in a completely different style.

And the kai phrai we ordered alongside — being a different kind of dish from pad thai, the combination worked really well together. You could taste that distinct Thai flavor, and switching back and forth with the pad thai kept things from getting monotonous. Eating pad thai, then kai phrai, then back to pad thai again, each flavor came through more clearly. Rather than ordering just one dish, if you're visiting as a pair, I'd say ordering two dishes to share is a good move. With Thai food especially, it feels more fun to try a little of several things than to eat a lot of just one.

How does Thai Yami's pad thai taste?

We started with the pad thai. It's a relatively familiar dish even among Thai food, so it's often recommended to people trying Thai cuisine for the first time. The chewy noodles paired well with the sauce, and that sweet-and-sour tang is the classic charm of pad thai. Taking a bite, the seasoning had soaked into the noodles nicely, so it didn't feel like just plain noodles — everything came together harmoniously.

Is Thai Yami a good date spot in Dongseongno?

Dongseongno is great for combining a meal with shopping or a café stop, which is why so many people come here on dates. We had our meal at Thai Yami and then spent time wandering the area afterward — eating something other than our usual food felt like a nice change of pace. If you're the type who's always eating meat or Korean or Western food in Dongseongno and craving something a little different, Thai food seems like a solid choice. There were familiar dishes like pad thai alongside things I'd never seen before, so browsing the menu was fun in itself.