Customer Rating: 
Summary: I ate at the restaurant!
Comment: My husband and I honeymooned in Hawaii last summer and I chose Keo's as one of the restaurants that I wanted to eat at (we both had chances!). The food was some of the best Thai I've ever had. The service was great, the atmosphere was unique and I would love to go there again upon returning to Oahu. I recommend the curries and the Thai spring roll appetizer-YUM! My husband would recommend the seafood recipes. Enjoy!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not 100% Authentic, But Very Good
Comment: This cookbook is frequently used in my kitchen. I've probably attempted about 1/2 the recipes in the book over the past 7 or more years. Whereas a lot of these dishes do come with Kheo's personal (Lao) touches, these recipes are very good. Skip the garnish section. Quality food doesn't need a carrot rose in order to taste great.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Keo's cookbook
Comment: is more about Brand (Keo's) commercialization, placement and reinforcement than cooking.
I found the recipe's un-authentic, over-prepared and stunningly presented in pictures. None of this was useful in building my skill in the cooking of authentic Thai dishes.
Worse, I still envy the beautiful dish presentations that are beyond my resources to plate to the family table.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An excellent collection of Classic Thai Recipes
Comment: This book has been in our house library of cookbooks since its first release in 1986. What seemed like incredibly exotic recipes at the time have become much more commonplace as Thai restaurants spread and thrive: Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Musamun Curry, Pad Thai, etc. While not a lot of historical or regional background information is presented, for those wanting to cook favorite Thai dishes at home this is quite a useful collection. Most dishes are not that complicated to prepare as long as all of the ingredients have been assembled--and unlike at a restaurant, one is able to control the spiciness of the dishes exactly to one's taste.
The book is beautifully photographed and delightful to browse through. I would recommend it to most cooking enthusiasts looking for a good overview of Thai cuisine that can be prepared at home.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Recipes - Little Background
Comment: This book would be an excellent addition to the library of an intermediate to advanced Thai chef. Keo's Thai Cuisine is an wonderful resource and contains many excellent recipes. However, it's main draw back is that it provides little cultural context for these recipes. Thus, the book is more or less a "recipe catalog" which would make it difficult for a beginner to get this book and "run with it." I know from experience. This was the first book I bought dealing with Thai cooking. I selected Keo's Thai Cuisine because it was physically very attractive (lots of beautiful color photographs are included) and because it contained many of the recipes I was interested in making. Previously, I had extensive background in cooking Japanese and Chinese cuisine, and I expected that it would be very easy for me to learn Thai. However, although I was successfully able to copy some of the easier recipes, I found myself hard pressed to make some of the more advanced recipes. The problem was that I was unfamiliar with many of the ingredients. Although a short (5 page) glossary is included that lists most Thai ingredients, many of the ingredients go by multiple names (which were not included) which made it difficult for me to find the supplies I needed. After I had read additional books and had about 3 months experience cooking basic Thai foods, I had the background necessary to make the most of the recipes in Keo's. Now Keo's is one of my favorite cookbooks.Overall, the book contains 96 total recipes, 51 of which are entree-like, all of which are delicious. Color photographs are included for most dishes, although some are somewhat stylized. Although all of the recipes I have tried have been excellent, I have had a very hard time making my dishes look like the photographs. This is a minor point (because they taste great), but I usually don't have this trouble with other cookbooks, and it has always left me wondering if I'm doing things "right," or if the photographs were made using a different recipe.
