Khao Tiew is a buzzy restaurant in West Portal that’s filled most nights of the week with big cackling groups of friends catching up. The dining room is decked out in 70s Thai ads and movie posters, and the menu is made up of spins on Thai classics. For the most part, Khao Tiew does a great job. Tom yum soup here is a creamy hotpot dish with appropriately bouncy calamari and shrimp and mushrooms. Their version of panang curry is thinner than others, but is rich with a zing of lime, served with sous vide duck breast. But other Khao-Tiew-ified dishes, like the deep-fried papaya salad, feel like they’re overcomplicating an already good thing. Execution is sometimes an issue, like the khao soi, which misses the mark with overcooked egg noodles and has us scrounging for another squeeze of lime. Still, it’s worth going out of your way to come here, if only for the excellent hotpot.