Nalinh Market in Irving is a Gem of Laotian and Thai Home-Cooking

Flying under the radar, Nalinh Market has been serving Laotian and Thai fare for over a decade. For those in the know, this hole-in-the-wall kitchen is a source of some of the most authentic plates in Dallas.

The market opened with just a couple of tables in the dining area, but as word spread, more were added. Now the space is divided into two distinct areas: kitchen on the left, market on the right.
Walking across tile floors to Formica tables and self-serve silverware and menus, it’s evident you’re here for the food over the atmosphere. However, the charm and informality only add to the experience. Grab a table on the right with a direct view into the kitchen. From there, you can watch the staff prepare each of your dishes over Bunsen burner stoves.

Traditional dishes of Thailand and Laos are the focus of the menu. Every plate is made-to-order and brought out of the kitchen piping hot. It's about as close as you can get to a street food experience in the Dallas area.

From pages of stir fries, noodles, hot and cold salads, sauces, soups and curries, you can make your meal as adventurous as you’d like. It would be a disservice for us not to come back and try the peek gai (marinated chicken wings), paht kapao (stir fry holy basil) and tom yum (spicy sour soup).

You won't find many of the dishes here on other Thai menus around the city, so this an ideal place to branch out and try something new. We chose to get our hands on a few favorites of the region: green papaya salad, pad Thai and mango sticky rice.

The green papaya salad was a necessary choice to curb one of our last 100-degree days. Chilled and crisp, this dish is widely considered the national dish of Laos, made with shredded, unripe papaya, tomato and peanuts. Chilis, fish sauce, lime juice, garlic and shrimp paste are blended together to create a well-balanced sauce that is tangy, spicy and sweet. Next out of the kitchen was the pad Thai. You know the drill. Rice noodles, whatever protein you’re partial to, mung bean sprouts, egg, onion, toasted peanuts and a fresh quarter of lime. If your taste buds are capable, a pile of dried chilis can be requested to heat things up. The tamarind sauce was light but packed with sweet and savory notes. Generous amounts of crispy tofu, fresh lime and crunchy peanuts made each forkful the ideal mix of textures.
Browsing the dessert menu, you’ll find the options have become limited over the years with only the mango sticky rice remaining. Not that that’s a bad thing, anyway. The circular mound of rice is cooked flawlessly and drenched in sweetened coconut milk. Paired with it are silky and ripe mango slices. A slight language barrier lost our mango in translation as they were out, but the rice on its own was something to savor each bite of.

Nalinh Market has served as a bridge to the Thai and Laotian communities of Dallas with its aisles of ingredients and home-cooked dishes. No matter the season, there is something to try to balance the temperature or expand the range of your taste buds.

Nalinh keeps things old school with a cash-only policy, but if you find yourself scrounging your wallet or pockets for spare coins, you can use Zelle or Venmo.

Nalinh Market, 1716 E. State Highway 356, Irving. Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.