If Portland’s Thai food scene wasn’t exemplary enough, January saw an impressive expansion with the opening of two restaurants: one returning and one brand-new. The first, in early January, was the welcome reopening of Yui, a beloved mom-and-daughter spot with a tight, focused menu of Thai staples and rarely seen dishes. After a few itinerant years as a pop-up, Yui has settled into a spacious dining hall on SE Belmont Street, formerly home to sushi and ramen restaurant Musashi’s.  

Chalunthorn “Yui” Schaeffer built a service career at New York restaurants like Bar Masa—part of the Michelin-starred restaurant group from famed chef Masa Takayama—before moving to the Portland area. It was here that she founded her eponymous Thai restaurant in August 2020, focusing on takeout as a response to COVID before opening for full service. From its inception, Yui has been a family operation: Her mother, Ta Triamchainon, trained Schaeffer and her staff on the family recipes they ate when Schaeffer was growing up in Bangkok. However, the original Yui closed in 2023 when its lease ended, and Yui spent the last few years popping up on Tuesdays at Alberta Street wine bar Bonne Chance. Right after the new year, Schaeffer reopened the restaurant in its new Southeast location.

Much of the menu at this new Yui will be familiar, with staples like pad kee mao and pad see ew, an array of curries, and noodle soups like tom yum and tom kha. However, the menu leans away from the ubiquitous “pick-a-protein” model of other shops, with most dishes coming with an option of just two—for instance, massaman curry comes with a choice of tofu or braised beef, while the pad thai is offered with chicken or shrimp. A few less common items dot the menu, like sakoo, tapioca dumplings with sweet radish and soy, as well as non-Thai dishes like pork and shrimp shumai. The fixtures are supported by a list of specials, with the opening January menu focusing on Northern Thailand, especially the district of Chiang Mai—coincidentally the same regional inspiration as Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom’s newly opened OK Chicken and Khao Soi. In fact, one early favorite among customers and staff is Yui’s take on the coconut noodle soup of Northern Thailand. Schaeffer says she and her mom developed the recipe together, but it was expert-approved. “One of our chefs is from Chiang Mai, and he confirmed that our khao soi tastes just like what he would eat back home,” Schaeffer says. “That meant so much to us and made us incredibly proud.”