Popular Thai restaurant to close original location. But a new one is coming
A popular Kansas City area Thai restaurant is opening a spot in downtown Shawnee — and saying goodbye to another.
Thai Orchid will open in the Marigold building at 59th Street and Nieman Road, tentatively in October.
With the arrival of the new spot, Thai Orchid will close its Mission restaurant this fall after more than 35 years of serving customers.
“Downtown Shawnee has been kind of growing over the last seven, eight years, and it went through the redevelopment phase, and now it has a lot of cool stores. We live in Shawnee, so we’ve seen that intersection grow,” owner Jonathan Rojjanasrirat told The Star.
“It just felt like a perfect fit.”
Rojjanasrirat said that, once he talked to the real estate team at the Marigold building, he was sold.
The restaurant will join other popular restaurants and bars in the bustling area: McLain’s, Drastic Measures, Wild Child, District Pour House, Gilda’s Bar de Tapas, Hank’s Garage and more.
While the neighborhood has food options, many are drink-focused. Rojjanasrirat bragged on his new neighbors, but he said he wants to bring a much different concept to downtown Shawnee. He hopes the new Thai Orchid offers an experience that’s unique to the ones in its vicinity.
“We just want to be another option that is a destination,” he said.
Because the spot is about 2 miles from its original location, they’re closing that one down. The old location has a much smaller kitchen and doesn’t have the capacity for some menu items Rojjanasrirat offers in his newer location up north and will bring to the Shawnee spot.
The original Thai Orchid spot opened in 1991 at 6504 Martway St. Rojjanasrirat’s mother, Pranee Thaveesangsakulthai, operated the spot from 2000 until she became sick with cancer in 2017.
Rojjanasrirat purchased the Mission location in 2018 in hopes of carrying on the torch.
Last year, he opened Thai Orchid in the Northland’s Metro North Crossing development at 464 N.W. Legacy Drive, putting his own spin on the original location though keeping the menu “80% the same.”
His wife, Aom Nuttaphat Stonnisgul, is heading up designing the Shawnee location, which Rojjanasrirat said aims to have a “homey” feel. She influenced many of the Thai Orchid’s menu options, too.
The goal is to make Thai Orchid’s menu in the Northland nearly identical to the new one in Shawnee, though the two will have different aesthetics.
The new spot will still feature favorites like the crying tiger garlic fried rice (garlic fried rice with marinated grilled beef, served with nam jim jaew sauce) and tom saap soup (braised beef in spicy and sour broth with Thai herbs, bell peppers and mushrooms), along with new additions such as crispy pork belly (moo krob).
“When you go to your friend’s house to have some food, some gathering, that’s what we’re going for,” Rojjanasrirat said.
“We’re excited to create that and honestly, create a space that is unique not only to Shawnee, but in Kansas City.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 4:46 PM.