Kansas City spot is expanding into JoCo: ‘Extremely authentic, chic Thai restaurant’

Eight years after opening Thai House on Holmes Road, owners Doug and Penny Mufuka are expanding with two new Johnson County restaurants.

Their KC Thai, described as an “extremely authentic, chic Thai restaurant,” softly opened two weeks ago at 12250 W. 135th St., Overland Park, in the former Mai Thai spot.

“They closed and the landlord contacted us. I really like that area; it’s a nice neighborhood with some adventurous diners. So we’ve added a few more authentic items,” said Doug Mufuka.

KC Thai has Thai House menu items, along with some “extremely authentic” dishes such as Yen Ta Fo soup with fish balls, crispy wonton skin and pink-colored fermented red bean curd sauce; Gaprow Pork Belly (pork belly minced in basil sauce); and Moo Tod & Sticky Rice (fried ground pork and garlic).

Customers are mostly ordering to-go but some customers are dining in, filling four or five tables during lunch and dinner. KC Thai also offers delivery and curbside delivery.

Penny grew up on a rice farm in Phichit, Thailand, immigrating to the United States in the mid-1990s with only $800 and speaking not a word of English. She spent one day at her uncle’s chicken farm in Baltimore before deciding it wasn’t for her.

She had connections in Kansas City, and got a job as a dishwasher at a local Thai restaurant. She was one of the first in and last to leave each day, impressing the owner who increased her responsibilities.

”Coming here as she did, she was not going to waste the opportunity,” Doug said.

In 2013, they married and opened Thai House at 9938 Holmes Road.

The couple also are opening Bamboo Penny’s, an upscale version of Thai House, in Leawood’s Park Place, with a tiki bar on the rooftop. With the addition of the new KC Thai, they’ve pushed Bamboo Penny’s opening back to April.

This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.