New SLO County restaurant is reinventing Thai cuisine with fusion flavors
A new Thai restaurant is reinventing Southeast Asian cuisine in San Luis Obispo County.
Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen, 420 Quintana Road in Morro Bay, reimagines Thai food by cooking up a menu packed with flavors from around the world.
“We put a different spin on a bunch of things,” restaurant co-owner Tom Poonsopin told The Tribune.
He and his wife, Supika Poonsopin, created Infused to provide diners with meals filled with fusion flavors.
Classic Thai cuisine is served alongside Thai-infused American, Indian, Japanese and Korean dishes.
For example, there’s a chili-marinated burger topped with a fried egg and crispy sweet basil. A curry roti appetizer is served with a yellow curry dipping sauce and pan-fried Thai pancakes.
Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen also offers a spicy udon dish featuring sautéed Japanese-style noodles cooked with chili, basil and garlic and bell peppers.
The last thing Tom Poonsopin wanted his new Thai restaurant to be was boring.
“I go to a lot of Thai restaurants in the area (and) it’s kind of similar menu,” he said. “There’s not a lot of differentiation.”
At Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen, the couple is experimenting with Thai cuisine to cook up creative yet delicious dishes, Poonsopin said.
New Thai restaurant opens in SLO County
Tom Poonsopin grew up eating and working at Thai restaurants in San Luis Obispo County.
“My family’s been doing Thai restaurants since I’ve been born,” he said.
After graduating from Cal Poly with an engineering degree, he moved to Los Angeles. He met his wife there while she was working at a Thai eatery.
Together, the couple began to envision opening a restaurant in SLO County that served a more diverse selection of Thai flavors.
“The area in general was missing our type of fusion menu that we wanted to offer,“ he said. “Most of the Thai restaurants here are kind of more or less on the same playing field. So we wanted to come in at a different angle.”
Supika Poonsopin started recipe testing some ideas at home. Soon her friends were calling on her to open a restaurant serving up those reinvented dishes.
On Feb. 21, the Poonsopins opened the doors to Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen.
What’s Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen like?
Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen features a simple, clean aesthetic filled with wooden chairs and tables.
The casual restaurant seats 48 people, with visitors able to order takeout or dine-in dishes from the counter near the entrance.
About eight months after Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen opened its door, Tom Poonsopin said business has been up and down — nothing that the restaurant’s location in a strip mall just off Highway 1 can be easy to miss.
“We’re trying to get more customers, more exposure, because we know that we’re in kind of a hole-in-the-wall spot,” Tom said.
Although some local diners may be scared to try reimagined dishes that stray from typical Thai menu offerings, Tom Poonsopin said the restaurant is a “hidden gem.”
“I know once you try it, you’ll get hooked,” he said.
What’s on the menu at Morro Bay eatery?
The menu at Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen offers a number of Thai favorites, including pad Thai and pad see ew, as well as less traditional options.
The Japanese-style chicken tonkatsu curry bowl comes with a crispy chicken breast, Thai yellow curry, potatoes, carrots and rice.
“It’s a home-run hitter,” Poonsopin said.
The restaurant also offers authentic Thai entrées that are hard to find elsewhere in SLO County, Poonsopin said, such as the khao soi, an egg noodle soup served in a curry broth with red onions, pickled mustard, chili oil and fried wontons.
“We wanted to tinker and experiment with some of these (dishes),” he said. “So that we wouldn’t get too bored of eating the same Thai food over and over.”
Even the rice served at the Morro Bay restaurant looks a little different. The grains are stained dark blue due to the organic Thai butterfly pea flour that’s mixed in during the cooking process.
Tom Poonsopin suggested first-time patrons try the khao soi noodle soup, the yellow curry fried chicken sando or the chili basil burger. His wife recommended anything on the menu that features the Thai yellow curry.
Infused also serves mango sticky rice for dessert and a range of Thai teas, beers, soft drinks and sake.
Appetizers cost $8 to $12, while prices for main dishes range from $16 to $18.
When is Morro Bay Thai restaurant open?
Infused Thai Fusion Kitchen is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and noon to 3 p.m. and 4:30 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The restaurant is closed on Mondays.
