Tuk Tuk Thai

Tuk Tuk Thai — “pronounced Took Took” — is a women- and family-owned Thai restaurant with a full bar on 135th Street in south Overland Park, opened around 2019 by Nicole Brizendine to fulfil her sister’s dream of owning a restaurant. The name comes from the three-wheeled motorcycle taxis the family rode around Chiang Mai on a vacation; the menu is built on pad Thai, gaprow, a Thai roasted duck with shiitake and bok choy, a “freestyle” fried flounder, Thai and Lao-style papaya salads, and a full curry and stir-fry board with vegetarian and tofu options throughout. It was a Best Thai Restaurant finalist in The Pitch’s Best of KC 2025.

Description

Tuk Tuk Thai is a storefront on the north side of 135th Street a few blocks east of Antioch, in the strip near the Blue Valley Recreation sports complex — “not far from Blue Valley Recreation Sports Complex, so come and see us,” as its own About page puts it — and, per a customer review the restaurant republishes, next door to Jumbo Noodles.¹² The official site frames it as “casual dining inspired by the streets of Thailand”: “the kitchen focuses on authentic food that locals can return to, while the dining room keeps things easygoing,” with happy-hour bites, a full bar, and rooms for birthdays, showers and retirement parties.²³

The menu is long. Appetizers run from crab rangoon (the restaurant is candid that there is no crab in them), fresh and crispy rolls, dumplings and satay to a house Thai spicy sausage and two styles of wings; the salad section is where the northeast-Thai cooking shows — laab, a mint beef salad, a seafood salad, tiger cry grilled steak, yum woon sen glass-noodle salad and a papaya salad offered “Thai or Lao style.”⁴ Chef specialties are the restaurant’s signatures: gaprow (basil stir-fry with a fried egg), the Tuk Tuk Thai Roasted Duck with shiitake and baby bok choy in ginger-garlic sauce, gang pet ped yang (roasted duck in red curry with pineapple), a Freestyle Fried Fish of crispy flounder in basil, red curry or sam rod sweet-and-sour sauce, and a pad Thai woonsen wrapped in an egg crêpe with crispy shrimp.⁴ Below that sit eight stir-fries, five curries, seven fried rices (including tom yum and gaprow versions and a pineapple fried rice), six noodle dishes, a kids’ menu and bubble tea.⁴ Nicole Brizendine names pad Thai as the top seller and the appetizer sampler as the way most first-timers start.³

Ownership and history

Nicole Brizendine told VoyageKC in November 2024 that “the story of Tuk Tuk Thai begins as I am trying to fulfill my sister’s dream of owning a restaurant. She immigrated here and brought me to state. My sister works so hard to help send me off to college. So it began 5 year ago that we both took the journey.”³ That places the opening around 2019; the restaurant’s Yelp listing and ordering-platform assets date from 2020–21, and Brizendine says of the early years only, “It has not been a smooth ride, but we survived Covid.”³⁵ The sister — the co-owner — is not named in any published source.

The name is a family story: on a vacation in Thailand when Brizendine’s son was about nine, the family took a tuk tuk for sightseeing in Chiang Mai “and he loved it so much that we ended up renting it for all day.”³ The About page describes the business as “a women and family owned restaurant.”¹ Brizendine reports “Kansas City Favorites” wins in 2023 and 2024 for Thai restaurant and lunch spot and a Nextdoor neighborhood-favorite award; the restaurant’s Instagram extends the streak to 2025.³⁶ Pitch readers made it a Best Thai Restaurant finalist in 2025, a category won by Baramee Thai Bistro.⁷

Links

• Website: https://tuktukthaikc.com/
• About: https://tuktukthaikc.com/about
• Menu / online ordering (first-party): https://order.tuktukthaikc.com/order
• Catering: https://tuktukthaikc.com/catering · Parties: https://tuktukthaikc.com/party
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuktukthaikc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tuktukthaikc/
• VoyageKC interview (2024): https://voyagekc.com/interview/meet-nicole-brizendine-of-tuk-tuk-thai/

Menu

Last verified: 2026-08-28 · Source: the restaurant’s own online-ordering site (order.tuktukthaikc.com) · Confidence: High. ”+” marks a base price that rises with protein choice; most stir-fries, curries, rice and noodle dishes offer vegetable and tofu versions.⁴

Appetizers

• Fresh Spring Rolls (3, chicken or veggie) ($9.25) · Crispy Egg Rolls (3) ($9.25) · Crispy Tofu with crushed-peanut sauce ($8.95) · Dumplings (6; chicken, pork or veggie) ($9.95) · Crab Rangoons (8; “no crabmeat”) ($10.95) · Chicken Satay (4) ($12.95) · Thai Spicy Sausage ($12.95) · Tuk Tuk Thai Wings (5) in basil-garlic sauce ($13.95) · Crispy Spicy Wings (5) ($13.95) · Appetizers Sampler ($18.95) · Veggie Appetizers Sampler ($18.95)

Salads

• Laab Salad — chicken, pork or beef with herbs and roasted rice powder ($14.95+) · Chicken Peanut Salad ($14.95+) · Papaya Salad — Thai or Lao style ($14.95+) · Tiger Cry Beef ($14.95+) · Mint Beef Salad ($15.95+) · Yum Woon Sen glass-noodle salad ($15.95+) · Tuk Tuk Thai Seafood Salad ($19.95+)
• Lunch versions: Mint Beef ($14.95), Chicken Peanut ($13.95), Laab ($14.95+), Seafood ($20.95)

Chef specialties

• Gaprow — chopped chicken, pork or beef, bell pepper, garlic, basil, fried egg ($18.95+) · Pad Thai Woonsen Crispy Shrimp ($22.95+) · Yellow Curry Seafood Stir Fry ($24.95+) · Freestyle Fried Fish — crispy flounder, choice of basil, red curry or sam rod sauce ($24.95+) · Seafood Pad Thai ($24.95+) · Gaprow Seafood ($24.95+) · Tuk Tuk Thai Roasted Duck — shiitake, baby bok choy, ginger-garlic sauce ($25.95+) · Gang Pet Ped Yang — roasted duck in red curry with pineapple, tomato, basil ($25.95+)

Stir-fry ($17.95+ each)

• Cashew · Basil · Garlic Lover · Ginger · Vegetable · Sweet & Sour · Spicy Jalapeño · Spicy Green Beans

Curry ($17.95+ each, with steamed rice)

• Massaman · Panang · Green · Yellow · Red

Rice

• House Fried Rice · Basil Fried Rice · Yellow Curry Fried Rice · Tom Yum Fried Rice · Gaprow Fried Rice ($17.95+ each) · Pineapple Fried Rice — cashews, raisins ($19.95+) · Crab Fried Rice — real crab meat ($25.95+)

Noodles

• Phad Thai (“our signature dish”) · Phad Kee Mow (drunken noodle) · Phad See Eaw · Yellow Sen Mee Noodles · Green Curry Thai Lo Mein ($17.95+ each) · Laad Naar — rice noodles in gravy ($18.95+)

Kids, sides, drinks

• Kid’s Chicken Fried Rice / Pad See Ew / Chicken Noodle Soup / Chicken Satay ($12.95) · Kid’s Beef Noodle Soup ($13.95)
• Steamed Rice ($3.50+) · Steamed Vegetables ($6.00)
• Bubble Tea — mango, coconut, taro, watermelon, honeydew, Thai tea ($11.25+) · Thai Iced Tea ($6.00) · Thai Iced Coffee ($6.00) · Soft drinks / iced tea / hot tea ($3.50)

Sources

Footnotes

1. Tuk Tuk Thai — official website, “About us.” Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “a women and family owned restaurant in Overland Park, KS (pronounced Took Took)”; tuk tuk definition; signature dishes Thai Roasted Duck, Gaprow, Freestyle Fried Fish; “not far from Blue Valley Recreation Sports Complex”; phone (913) 291-0106; email tuktukthaikc@gmail.com; Awards section. ↩ ↩²

2. Tuk Tuk Thai — official website, home page. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “Casual dining inspired by the streets of Thailand”; named after the mini taxi; favorites Crab Rangoon, Gaprow, Crispy Egg Rolls; happy hour, dine-in, carryout, delivery; catering and party pages; SpotOn ordering link; address 8351 W 135th St, Overland Park, KS 66223; republished Yelp reviews including “next door to Jumbo Noodles” and “the owners and waitresses went out of their way.” ↩ ↩²

3. “Meet Nicole Brizendine of Tuk Tuk Thai,” VoyageKC, 2024-11-04 — Confirms: sister’s dream, immigration, college support, “5 year ago”; Chiang Mai tuk tuk story with her son; pad Thai most popular, roasted duck, gaprow, crispy garlic shrimp; “we survived Covid”; south Overland Park address and phone; “authentic Thai food with full bar, lunch and dinner”; Kansas City Favorites 2023 and 2024 (Thai restaurant and lunch spot); Nextdoor favorite; Instagram tuktukthaikc, Facebook Tuk Tuk Thai. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Tuk Tuk Thai — first-party online ordering (Menufy). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “We are OPEN for Dine-In!”; phone; address; business hours Mon–Thu 11–9, Fri–Sat 11–10, Sun 11–9; every item and price in the Menu section. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Yelp — “Tuk Tuk Thai, 8351 W 135th St, Overland Park” (listing title dated June 2026; page not fetchable) — Confirms: active listing, 153 reviews as of June 2026; listing metadata dates to January 2021. Provisional. ↩

6. Tuk Tuk Thai KC (@tuktukthaikc), Instagram (profile not fetchable; bio via search index) — Confirms: “voted as KC favorites in 2023, 2024 and 2025.” Provisional. ↩

7. The Pitch — Best of KC 2025 results portal, “Best Thai Restaurant.” Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Tuk Tuk Thai among “Other finalists.” ↩