When Chanita Chayaluk set out to open Taan, her Chicago restaurant and wine bar, she harbored a clear and ambitious vision: to showcase Thai cuisine in a different light. Reflecting on the local landscape, she noted that the first major wave of Thai immigration to Chicago took place in the 1970s, and a significant portion of the Thai food available in the city still feels anchored to that era. When Taan opened its doors in September, its menu broke away from expected tropes, offering dishes such as miang, a Northern Thai delicacy made with fermented tea leaves, and a whole, deep-fried fish coated in a rich fish-sauce caramel.
However, operating a modern independent restaurant in the Midwest comes with its own unique cultural hurdles, chief among them being the pervasive ethos of local hospitality. According to Chayaluk, the prevailing regional culture of being "Midwest nice" often translates into a compulsive need to overaccommodate and appease the masses. During the early days of service at Taan, this dynamic manifested as a flood of frequent requests from guests asking for ingredient substitutions or customized alterations based on personal preferences and dietary restrictions.
The operational toll was immediate and severe. Chayaluk explains that these constant modifications slowed down service speeds, creating a bottleneck that ultimately compromised not just the kitchen’s efficiency, but the overall guest experience. Operating with a compact kitchen and a lean staff made it difficult to keep up with the demands. At times, the customization requests made the boutique establishment feel less like a destination for intentional dining and more like an assembly-line fast-casual joint. The breaking point arrived when a guest placed an order for green curry mussels, but requested the dish "without the mussels."
Faced with the erosion of her kitchen’s workflow and the dilution of her culinary vision, Chayaluk implemented a strict, limited substitution policy at Taan. She took to social media to clarify the restaurant’s stance, emphasizing that foundational ingredients like fish sauce and shrimp paste are the very fabric that defines Thai cuisine. Consequently, these essential components could no longer be removed from any dishes that naturally include them.
This struggle is part of a broader, increasingly tense tug-of-war playing out across the contemporary restaurant industry. Roughly a decade ago, menu substitution culture was generally frowned upon by culinary professionals and widely derided in food media as poor etiquette. In recent years, however, restaurants report that the practice has bubbled back up in full force, driven by a convergence of cultural and operational factors.
A swirl of distinct forces has helped foster this climate of entitlement. The rise of fast-casual "slop bowl" and customizable lunch spots has primed consumers to expect an exhaustive level of personalization with every order. Meanwhile, the mainstream popularity of philosophies championed in books like Unreasonable Hospitality has reinforced an intensified "customer is always right" mentality. Compounding the pressure is the omnipresence of food influencers and online reviewers, who have made any perceived slight—including a restaurant declining to honor a specific dietary preference—ripe for an immediate, viral social media takedown. Coupled with the brutal economic reality that keeping a restaurant afloat in the current climate is exceptionally difficult, many operators have simply given in, caving to hyper-specific requests or drastically altering their menus altogether, a trend evidenced by the broader phenomenon of the "great de-spicification" of dishes in major metropolitan areas.
Yet, even as many establishments capitulate to mounting consumer pressures, a resilient faction of independent restaurants is standing its ground. Alongside Taan in Chicago, venues like Ha’s Snack Bar in New York—which proudly announces in its Instagram bio that everything on its menu contains fish sauce—are doubling down on their commitment to uncompromised cooking.
A similar friction has emerged at Lom Wong in Phoenix, Arizona, where chef-owners Yotaka "Sunny" Martin and Alex Martin have seen modification requests spike following a wave of national acclaim. Last year, Yotaka Martin was recognized by the James Beard Foundation, and in August, the restaurant earned a prestigious Michelin Bib Gourmand designation.
According to Alex Martin, the influx of new diners brought a noticeable shift in expectations. Guests began picking dishes apart, asking for modifications, or expressing confusion over the restaurant’s service style, particularly because Lom Wong does not course its menu in a traditional European fashion. Alex Martin notes that there is a deeply entrenched European distinction of what an award-winning restaurant is supposed to look like, leading people to incorrectly equate Michelin and James Beard recognition with the formal atmosphere of a white-tablecloth establishment. The co-owners quickly made their position clear, establishing that Lom Wong has never operated that way and never will.
In response to the shifting tide, Lom Wong followed Taan’s lead by taking to social media to reset diner expectations. The restaurant explicitly stated that it would not make substitutions simply to make a dish more familiar to Western palates, and warned diners that certain preparations might intentionally diverge from conventional expectations—such as beef featuring natural gristle or fish being served whole.
Alex Martin credits his co-owner and chef as the driving force behind this philosophy. He notes that Sunny Martin serves as their guiding light of cultural context, constantly evaluating whether altering a particular component of a dish would compromise its culinary integrity. While Lom Wong permits minor adjustments—such as serving mango salad with shrimp on the side—they firmly draw the line at removing core ingredients like beef or shrimp paste from dishes where they are structurally necessary.
Chayaluk has adopted a parallel strategy at Taan to accommodate genuine dietary needs without sacrificing the integrity of the menu. The restaurant maintains a dedicated vegan, gluten-free option—currently a fried rice dish—that functions as a reliable catchall for diners who cannot consume other items on the menu. Chayaluk emphasizes that this dish is carefully engineered to be genuinely satisfying and substantial rather than treated as a mere afterthought or a hollow appetizer substitution.
At both Taan and Lom Wong, front-of-house and back-of-house staff are actively encouraged to uphold these boundaries. Both Chayaluk and Alex Martin emphasize that these firm policies are just as crucial for protecting their employees’ peace of mind and mental well-being as they are for ensuring strict quality control for the diners.
While implementing these boundaries has occasionally sparked minor backlash, the proactive approach of setting expectations before the meal—bolstered by upfront social media messaging—has largely been received well by the dining public. Alex Martin explains that the most effective approach has been addressing guests with empathy and clarity. Staff frame the policy by kindly explaining to diners that the restaurant deeply respects their personal preferences, but that those preferences belong strictly to the individual, ultimately steering them toward existing menu items that naturally align with their dietary needs.
