Thai restaurant Dok Khao, an eatery that will serve coffee, tea and dessert starting at 11 a.m. and authentic Thai dishes for lunch and dinner, is expected to open in Chevy Chase Lake in the early spring, according to Porntipa Pattanamekar, co-founder of Pattana Restaurant Group, which owns the chain.
“I’m really excited to bring Dok Khao to more people,” Pattanamekar told Bethesda Today Wednesday.
The eatery at 8551 Connecticut Ave. will be the restaurant group’s second location in Maryland and its first in Montgomery County. Dok Khao has one other Maryland location in Columbia and another in Woodbridge, Virginia, and the restaurant group plans to open another Dok Khao in Alexandria, Virginia in the spring.
According to Pattanamekar, the Virginia-based restaurant group hopes to complete construction at its Chevy Chase site by the end of March but has not set an opening date as it awaits local inspections.
Once completed, diners can expect to enter an “English garden” with chandeliers and greenery and flowers decorating the restaurant, Pattanamekar said. There will also be a fountain at the center of the dining room.
The restaurant will offer an all-day menu from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Dishes include Lychee Duck Curry, dumplings, crab Rangoon, Drunken Noodles and Siam chicken. For dessert, Dok Khao will offer a wide array of options including Thai tea crème brulee, lychee cheesecake and sweet sticky rice and mango, a Thai classic. The menu also will include children’s options.
In addition, diners can choose from a variety of non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks, boba teas and specialty coffee drinks to lycheetinis and ginger cosmos.
Pattanamekar said she wants Dok Khao to feel like a “second kitchen” for residents living in the Chevy Chase area and around the county and was excited for diners to try its food.
Opening the restaurant in Chevy Chase is like returning to her “first home,” Pattanamekar said, referring to the first restaurant she opened in the area in downtown Silver Spring. Pattanamekar opened Thai At Silver Spring at 912 Ellsworth Drive 20 years ago and has since opened two other Thai At restaurants in Laurel and Gambrills, Maryland.
Other restaurants operated by the restaurant group include Sense of Thai, which has two locations in Virginia and a forthcoming location in Bethesda’s Westbard Square development, and Tiki Thai, which has two locations in Virginia. Pattanamekar said the Westbard location is likely to open in late 2025.
