Wendy T.
Yelp
Although a bit pricey, we enjoyed our meal at Ar-Haan-- the food is definitely tasty and beautifully presented with flowers and colorful garnishes. The ambiance has definitely improved from the previous restaurant in this little house with flowers and lamps at each table, modern table seating, nice plates, and the absence of sewer smells. And the service is still just as friendly.
We asked for "no spicy" for all of our dishes (we're wimps!), and the server said that he would just put all our dishes as a Mild spicy... which we thought would be fine until our first dish, the Zesty Glass Noodle (Yum Woon Sen), came out. It was colorful and pretty, but mannnn it was soooo spicy! We managed several bites but I downed the entire carafe of water and my taste buds took a while to recover. I could appreciate that the shrimp was plump and perfectly cooked, but even with things being so spicy, the salad was missing *something* (maybe the sweetness and more acidity of lime?) that other versions of this dish have. When paying the bill, the receipt listed the glass noodles as a Medium spicy instead of Mild, which explained things. A little bummed because we couldn't really eat or enjoy that dish.
Luckily, our other dishes were much less spicy-- the wings were fried nicely without being too oily, and the meat was juicy. The Thai laarb seasoning was unique and tasty!
The pumpkin curry was essentially a red curry sauce with kabocha pumpkin pieces, which were not soft enough and still on the starchy side... but I enjoyed the curry sauce flavor especially with the white rice :)
The Khao Soi was delectably yummy! The sauce was savory but definitely sweet. They were out of short rib, so we got the chicken thigh, which was a little messy to eat. The dish came with a mountain of soft noodles hiding beneath the surface that contrasted well with the crispy noodles that softened a bit after soaking up the flavorful curry. Scrumptious!
Overall, the food gets high marks. A few tweaks on flavor, texture, and getting our spiciness preference right would easily amp that up more. There are tiny parking lots up at the front and in the back. The price and parking are a bit of a hindrance, but we will return to try some other dishes after rotating at some other Thai spots-- definitely worth trying out though!