The chef of the Baan Thai restaurant is a native Thai. Frankly speaking, this tipped the scales as I vacillated thinking where to spend the evening.

There is a glass of special black whiskey standing on the table beside the entrance — to pacify Buddha, and relaxing eastern music, dim light creating an atmosphere of intimacy, and hospitable waiters — to pacify patrons.

My companion and I took a cozy table in the farthest, third, room of the restaurant, and took time feasting our eyes on the interior. The first thing we noticed were mirrors everywhere and the mirrored walls. It seemed to me, the idea was to create the impression of an oceanic surface reflecting tables, chairs and people. Then we noticed a set of charming and very homely cupboards and shelves made of red wood that gave a feel of being at a friend's place. As we explored the sculptures of an eastern goddess and Thai dancers, the waiter put a platter-full of rice-chips with sweet chili and peanut sauce on our table — a traditional Thai starter (there is no bread in Thai cuisine).

My desire was to taste something very, very traditional, like, for example, the famous traditional Thai soup — a spicy hot broth with prawns ($9). In the menu, the broth was marked with two pepper signs, which, according to the restaurant's system of notations, means "strongly spiced". The soup arrived in a tureen equipped with a heating system and the size of the prawns was truly impressive — they definitely didn't come from a Moscow supermarket!

Maybe it was not quite correct to revert to starters after soup, but this consideration did not prevent me from satisfying my curiosity and tasting the hot and crispy Por pia thod (Thai style vegetable spring rolls), $8 — also a very typical Thai cuisine dish.

Now it was time for me to make a decision — to choose a dish from either the seafood, poultry, meats, curries, vegetables, rice or noodle section.

A person with a good appetite could, of course, view the latter two sections as ‘garnishes,' but I must say they separately qualify for excellent dishes. My special praise goes to Khao phad siam, Baan Thai special rice, midly spiced ($8) and Guey tiew phad khee mao, stir fried rice noodles with chicken, pork and chillies ($10).

Baan Thai cooks are great experts in preparing chicken. My Kai thod krathieum prik thai (Tender cubes of chicken, stir fried in curry paste, $13) allowed me to turn my habitual European taste into an exotic eastern one. Chu chee koong (King prawns stir fried in curry paste and coconut milk garnished with kaffir leaves, $18), which we also tasted, was simply really good. As we were told, the giant prawns are imported from Thailand, just like the spices whose various combinations give their dishes the special flavors.

My companion is very keen on green curry. For his taste the restaurant had Kaeng kieo wan (a spicy green curry lamb, $15). Incidentally, the latter dish has three variations - with chicken, lamb and beef.

As it came to dessert, we ordered another strictly Thai dish — Lyches with ice-cream ($7). Lyches are yellow fruits with a big bone, which grow in Thailand. Describing them is not that easy, they slightly resemble a medium-sized plum. One thing was clear, though — the dish is very tasty.

As far as drinks go, I would recommend trying Thai beer. Be sure to taste coffee with lemon ($2) — a great drink, especially in view of approaching summer season.

BAAN THAI
11 Bol. Dorogomilovskaya
Metro: Kievskaya
Tel: 240-0597