Kyle Nabilcy
Khao soi comes Luang Prabang style.
Launched first as a mobile kitchen and then retooled in August 2020 to become the dining half of The Bur Oak club on Winnebago Street, Ahan — the project of chef Jamie Hoang and partner Chuckie Brown — is novel. There are examples of restaurants hosted inside other businesses in Madison’s recent past (like the defunct combo of Cortadito Express inside the old Cardinal Bar, or Hot ‘n’ Spicy doing gangbusters inside the Viet Hoa market since 2018) but Ahan found success in a year when the club that houses it wasn’t even open.
The restaurant’s name means “food” in Lao, as if customers are being exhorted to EAT, EAT, EAT, like a flashing neon diner sign in an old Warner Brothers cartoon.
While the restaurant’s Instagram shows gorgeous pictures of traditionally plated food, service is still almost entirely in takeout containers, even for dine-in. For summer rolls or a heap of noodles, this isn’t much of a liability. But the sorrow of splashing a bunch of khao soi broth through the slats of a picnic table while you inexpertly pour it — that stings.
The khao soi, a soup that is perhaps more commonly found with a coconut curry base, is made at Ahan with a clear chicken broth in the Luang Prabang style of northern Laos. Ground pork, thin rice noodles, and a selection of vegetables commonly found alongside pho are mixed in, with crispy puffed rice for garnish. The soup alternates alluringly between tomato-sweet and chili oil-spicy, and presents almost like a southeast Asian minestrone.
For now, you’ll have to pour and mix the ingredients into a single-use bowl yourself, but Hoang says she hopes to have indoor dining with fully plated servings in the front area (currently just a waiting area for takeout orders) by mid-August.
Over the last year, I’ve frequently enjoyed the drunken noodles and breathlessly recommended them to friends. Fat, slippery noodles with a straightforward mix of both soft and slightly crunchy vegetables, this dish inspired a noodley revelation. Ahan offers an “extra noodles” upcharge, and it is absolutely the right choice.
The same is true for the red curry udon with its tangle of sturdy, pleasantly chewy noodles. A blast of heat from the chili flake makes this a dish to warm you up in the winter or cool you off on a sweaty summer afternoon. Sweet coconut notes provide a calming counterbalance to the spice. It was a joy to eat. Nationally, the pandemic year in dining saw a broadening of the so-called Chicken Sandwich Wars, and this summer Ahan has introduced one in its own particular idiom. Crunching through a halo of fluffy tempura-like batter, you find marinated chicken thigh (Ahan loves dark meat chicken like I love dark meat chicken) topped with seasoned mayo, market-fresh tomato and lettuce. There’s a little zip of heat, but nothing breathtaking. Just a finely crafted fried chicken sandwich. It’s available only on Sundays and Wednesdays as a special for now.
An appetizer section of crunchy and salty treats pairs most directly with the clubby nature of the Bur Oak. Summer rolls (think soft, not fried) are meatless but both beautiful and substantial, with loads of fresh veggies. Lao egg rolls, meanwhile, are crisp and savory. Pork dumplings bear the delightful kiss of an aggressive pan-searing. Get some — or heck, all — of these appetizers and enjoy a show.
There is bún and more noodle dishes, additional soups like a more familiar pho and tom yum, as well as a superb house-made Panang curry sausage with bits of crispy rice; the sausage delivers some real heat. For a tiny kitchen, there’s a lot of creativity spinning out of it. Gorgeous little dessert jellies called khanom chan change colors and flavors from month to month; you have to see them in person to appreciate them fully.
If there was one misstep, it was the salted limeade. It may be a traditional summer favorite, but I found it unpleasantly pungent and salty with only a faint aroma of lime to justify the name. No matter, there are other drinks at the bar.
Hoang has serious kitchen chops but there’s something personal about Ahan. It’s the kind of simple but thoughtful comfort food you’d get from a family member, always with the encouragement to eat, eat, eat.
Ahan
2262 Winnebago St.; 608-867-4001
11 am-9 pm Tues.-Sun.
$6-$23
ahanmadison.com, IG: @ahanmadison
