{"id":402735,"date":"2026-08-10T17:44:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/402735\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T17:44:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:44:58","slug":"thai-soon-closing-in-richardson-most-difficult-decision-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/402735\/","title":{"rendered":"Thai Soon closing in Richardson: ‘Most difficult decision of my life’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"After<\/p>\n

After nearly 40 years as a\u00a0Thai food pioneer in Dallas-Fort Worth, Thai Soon is closing. Soon Chanchaisri (left) started the restaurant in the 1980s in Dallas and passed it to her daughter Ararin “Irean” Wongchingchai.<\/p>\n

Juan Figueroa\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Thai Soon will serve its last plates of plates of pad Thai, red curry and basil fried rice<\/a> in Richardson, then close after dinner on Aug. 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Owner Ararin \u201cIrean\u201d Wongchingchai said shuttering the restaurant her mom started nearly 40 years ago was \u201cthe most difficult decision of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She fretted for months that she is quitting on her mother\u2019s legacy, but she doesn\u2019t see an alternative. Thai Soon isn\u2019t profitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Ararin<\/p>\n

Ararin “Irean”\u00a0Wongchingchai answers a phone order from a customer at Thai Soon in Richardson. As the owner of a struggling restaurant, she is now the only cook, server and cashier left.<\/p>\n

Juan Figueroa\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

The restaurant started on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue in 1987. It was named after Wongchingchai\u2019s mother, Soon Chanchaisri, who worked in its kitchen for years before she retired and devoted herself to cooking at the Buddhist Temple of Dallas. The family moved Thai Soon to\u00a0Coit Road, near Belt Line, in Richardson, where it has served generous portions of food from a small storefront for 26 years.<\/p>\n

The restaurant struggled, Wongchingchai told\u00a0The Dallas Morning News\u00a0in February. Wongchingchai isn\u2019t selling enough food to make rent, and she owes $10,000 to the landlord. To save money, she\u2019s the sole cook and server in the kitchen and has but one employee, a dishwasher. Wongchingchai hoped to partner with a new investor or restaurateur who could offer ideas of how to balance her finances, and she\u00a0traveled to Thailand this summer to discuss the business with friends and family and ask for help.<\/p>\n

A buyer never materialized. Wongchingchai, a single mother of three, is overwhelmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just me, running everything,\u201d she said in February 2026. That\u2019s still true six months later.<\/p>\n

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She tried to make changes at Thai Soon to bring in more money, but after working six days a week, she said she felt exhausted and confused about what to do next.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy numbers are consistent, but they\u2019re not growing,\u201d she said. \u201cThe landlord said, ‘How are you going to make that change? ‘\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She sighed. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to make that change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

Red curry with chicken is one of Thai Soon’s specialties.<\/p>\n

Juan Figueroa\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t raise prices, even as the cost of ingredients went up<\/a>. \u201cI didn\u2019t want my customers to have to worry to eat here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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She sighed again. \u201cThat was a dumb business move,\u201d she said. She also questioned whether raising each dish a few bucks would have saved the restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my business,\u201d she said, \u201cand it didn\u2019t feel right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Irean<\/p>\n

Irean Wongchingchai prepares pad see ew with shrimp on the wok at her restaurant Thai Soon in Richardson.<\/p>\n

Juan Figueroa\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Wongchingchai believes she might need to file for bankruptcy after the restaurant closes in late August. There\u2019s a chance she opens a catering kitchen someday, but she also struggles to dream up what could be next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no dream. This is it; this was my life,\u201d she said. \u201cI was born in it, I grew up in it. Going forward? I have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Thai Soon is at 101 S. Coit Road, Suite 401, Richardson. Open for lunch and dinner. The restaurant is usually closed Sundays, but it will be open seven days a week until its closure on Aug. 23, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nearly 40 years as a\u00a0Thai food pioneer in Dallas-Fort Worth, Thai Soon is closing. Soon Chanchaisri (left)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161,87998,89729,121870,89307,89275],"class_list":["post-402735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-east-dallas","tag-tp-economic-snapshot","tag-tp-restaurants","tag-tp-richardson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}