Thai, Vietnamese dishes team up to tasty effect

By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic

A pad Thai dish made with tofu is among the good bets to win over Thai food lovers visiting Siam Palace. The restaurant, run by a Laotian family, offers some Vietnamese dishes on its menu, but it is the Thai segment — with about four dozen selections of noodles, curries, seafood and more — that is most impressive. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser Siam Palace 3404 Wai'alae Ave. 732-7433 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. daily Very good

The Vietnamese part of the menu includes barbecued meat entrées and plate lunches, all served with rice and green salad. The boneless barbecue chicken ($5.95), short ribs ($6.50) and barbecue pork chops ($5.95) also include macaroni salad. Most of the meats are flavorful and simple, while the spicy lemongrass and ginger chicken dishes (each $5.95) pack a more powerful taste punch.

It's the excellent Thai cuisine that I enjoyed most here. Siam Palace's menu is smaller than many of its long-established competitors around town, but the four dozen or so offerings of appetizers, salads, soups, curries, seafood, and noodle and rice dishes are more than enough to suit most people.

Stuffed chicken wings ($6.50) and satay ($6.50; chicken, pork or beef) are two appetizers worth ordering. The wings are deboned and stuffed with ground pork, mushroom, carrot, onion and long rice noodle before being fried to a light, wispy crunch. Served with a sweet chili dipping sauce, these babies are fun finger food. The skewered satay is marinated in yellow curry, grilled, drizzled with coconut milk and served with a peanut dipping sauce. Old standby favorites such as these prove that restaurants don't have to be groundbreaking to be enjoyable.

Three noodle dishes ($6.95 with chicken, beef or pork, $7.50 with shrimp or seafood) are quite good. I prefer to enjoy mildly spiced noodle dishes like these early in the meal, before I delve into anything spicy like the curries. This way, the subtle flavors of bean sprouts, tofu, egg, fish sauce and palm sugar (in the rich and delicious pad Thai), broccoli and black-bean sauce (in the thick noodle pad siew), and oyster sauce and yellow curry (rad na, also made with thick chow fun-type noodles) can be appreciated.

Get the Thai garlic shrimp ($7.95) no matter what. They are juicy little morsels, topped with a generous layer of savory garlic. I counted at least a dozen shrimp on the plate. So good.

The Panang curry ($6.95 with chicken, pork or beef; $7.95 with shrimp or seafood) is a spicy number tasting of kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, green peas and hot chili, in a rich and creamy coconut milk sauce. An order of sticky rice is perfect for sopping up all that sauciness.

Padped ($6.95) is another hot dish, sautéed with fresh Thai basil, tender bamboo shoots, mushrooms and fresh green beans. The chicken on this dish was once again so very juicy, just as the shrimp were.

Everything I tasted here was notable. Siam Palace is the new kid on the block and will impress Thai food lovers.

Restaurants to love

Because Valentine's Day is tomorrow, I want to mention special places where romance comes easily. Whether because of the atmosphere, service, food or other features, you need to visit these places with someone you love (not tomorrow, of course, since they'll all be booked up, but sometime in the future for a special occasion).

• Azul Restaurant (J.W. Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa, Ko Olina, 679-0079) is at the top of my favorite-restaurants list, offering a beautiful and romantic setting with outstanding service and fantastic Mediterranean and Pacific food.
• Sarento's Top of the I (Ilikai Hotel, 1777 Ala Moana, 955-5559) knows how to make you feel special. Great views, superlative service.
• La Mer (Halekulani Hotel, 2199 Kalia Road, 923-2311) offers an oceanfront view and slow and sophisticated seduction in the French mode.
• The Bistro (Century Center, 1750 Kalakaua Ave., third floor, 943-6500) is dark, cozy and elegant, and the food is scrumptious.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.