One of my last great group restaurant meals was in February. All the essential elements for a swell time were present: a long, loaded table occupied by interesting, (often) hilarious people; a nearly empty dining room that afforded us the company of the owners, who treated us like their own; an array of some 13 astonishing dishes, paired with about half as many BYO wines (the likes of which I’ll probably never taste again).
When they moved to Chicago in 2001, Srisawangpan cooked in a handful of Thai restaurants but quickly found an enduring job as a server at the Peninsula, where he’s worked for 18 years, even as Korakot and Inon launched the first incarnation of the restaurant. He moonlighted in his off hours, and while he’s been off from the hotel after the shutdown, he’s been helping in the kitchen at In-On full time. But the soul of the food comes from his mother-in-law. Initially, In-On nominally represented the food of central Thailand—Bangkok and its surroundings—then started offering dishes rooted in the north, south, and northeastern Isan region of Thailand. The menu is all over the map.
In recent weeks the family have been test running for regulars a few off-menu items that they cook for themselves, a few of which are going permanent. Rivaling the aforementioned larb fritter for your home bar-snack consideration, mok nor mai are steamed banana leaf packets stuffed with pork belly, sour bamboo shoots, and snappy, pebble-sized hed phor mushrooms, all fragrant with an herbal mix of dill, lime leaf, and cha om. A ferociously spicy southern Thai squash and bamboo curry, gaeng tai pla, thicker than customary, with a depth of flavor you’d never guess was built on a salty base of fermented fish innards if you didn’t know it already, will make occasional appearances. And you can balance your overfiring synapses with a thin, particularly sweet rendition of the five-spiced egg and pork belly stew kai pa lo.
4641 N. Broadway 773-944-0114inonthaichicago.com
