Kong’s Thai Bistro – Davenport, IA

I was back in my hometown with D.Rough for the Thanksgiving holiday. My Uncle J had stopped by my folks’ house and recommended a new Thai restaurant in downtown Davenport. I thought it was odd since my uncle isn’t very adventurous when it comes to eating. So I thought, heck yes, we’re going there. What’s really funny is I posted something on Facebook about going to a Thai place for dinner and someone suggested going to Kong’s – that was a sure sign it was good, right?

It’s a quaint little place at the base of the Brady Street hill – made famous (or so we think) by the annual Bix7 race. Nevermind – you don’t care. The place has brick walls and nice and tasteful modern looking décor. My sister Notmomsfavorite went with us, since I have recently tricked her into liking Thai food. The menu has a lot of delicious sounding Thai dishes as well as a couple of Vietnamese dishes as well (Pho, mainly).

I decided on the Pad Ped with chicken and D.Rough got Kang Masaman curry with chicken. I also, of course, got fresh spring rolls. My uncle didn’t order anything except a Pepsi (all he wanted was just one Pepsi – sorry about the ST reference there), but he was fine with watching us shovel food into our mouths, thankfully.

The spring rolls came out pretty quickly and were pretty standard. Nothing majorly flashy. Sorry there isn’t a photo – we were starving and I didn’t remember to take a photo until after we had cleaned the plate.

The main dishes came out shortly after that. My sister got Pad Thai, so I didn’t think it warranted a photo. She liked hers just fine.

D.Rough’s curry was quite good. I really liked it. It wasn’t terribly spicy, but it was still flavorful. Lots of chicken and vegetables. I always think we could use a giant bucket of rice with most curries and this wasn’t any different, but maybe D.Rough is better about rationing her rice than I am. It also seemed a bit on the oily side as the orange layer on the top demonstrates. I’m not sure if it was some sort of chili oil, or if it was just greasy, but it was more visually odd than flavor-wise. Very minor detail though.


My Pad Ped was good. Not life-changing, but still really good. I asked for it spicy and like many places, they didn’t believe me, so they brought out a small bowl of chili peppers for me to kick up the spice level. I’m not really a fan of adding it afterwards since you get various concentrated spots and other weak spots, but I understand their concern. The flavor of the dark brown sauce was great with the peppers, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and green beans.

Overall, the food at Kong’s is pretty good. I still like a couple of local Thai places better in the Quad Cities, but I’d come back here again.


Top 5 things about Kong’s
1. Kang Masaman curry
2. Pad Ped
3. Fresh Spring rolls
4. Super nice staff and owner (we share the same name – which is odd)
5. I never get to hang with my Uncle J! I loved it! (Also, they have Pepsi products –which means DEW)

Bottom 5 things
1. Spice level could have been kicked way up
2. It didn’t seem very busy at all, but we heard local college students go there to drink between classes during the day
3. I think the hype had me let down when it was all over and done with – even though it was perfectly fine
4. Never enough rice for my taste
5. Parking isn’t awesome during the day, though there is a large parking lot across the busy Brady Street

Kong’s Thai Bistro
512 N Brady Street
Davenport, IA
563-514-7896
www.qctimes.com/go/kongs