Thai Restaurant

Baltimore's first Thai restaurant, appropriately named Thai Restaurant (3316 Greenmount Ave.), has a new owner, Thossaphol Mettawiparee. This is his first involvement with a Thai eatery; his restaurant background includes the now-closed Cafe des Artistes, Peerce's Plantation and Michael's Cafe. The former owner, Tussnee Singparu, had to sell the Thai for health reasons. On the "if it ain't broke" theory, Mettawiparee is keeping the Thai's chef, with his own wife working as sous chef . The menu is the same, and he's using the former owner's recipes for sauces, but he says he's upgraded the ingredients.

My Thai, originally located in Mount Vernon's Park Plaza building, has reopened in The Tack Factory at 1300 Bank St. The new My Thai occupies the nearly 6,000-square-foot space formerly held by another Thai restaurant, Lemongrass, and features exposed brick, a 40-foot bar, dark woods, and a combination of high top communal tables and traditional seating. The restaurant is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Developed by the husband-and-wife team of Brad and Varattaya "Pui" Wales and Jirat Suphrom-In, the original Charles Street restaurant, along with Donna's and Indigma, was destroyed by a fire in December 2010.

A DOZEN years ago the Thai Restaurant was our safety eatery: Every time we ate there, the food seemed delicious, new and fresh. Then we stopped going because other Thai places were popping up around town, and they had different selections we wanted to try. And we never got back to the Thai. Now that the restaurant is under new management, we were glad for a reason to drop back in. Physically, at least, nothing has changed. Same layout of two big rooms facing Greenmount Avenue, the smaller one in back.

Curtis introduces the Quickfire with the absolute worst two words any high schooler has ever used to start an essay: "Throughout history," (insert my inner English major gouging out her eyes here). The challenge? Make a sexy dish using ingredients known for their aphrodisiac qualities. Guest judge is burlesque star Dita Von Teese. The chefs go gaga, even the ones that don't like girls. The six remaining chefs have 30 minutes to create something mouth watering and toe curling.  Within seconds, there are two triumphant crashes as two blenders fall to the floor and shatter.

The news isn't as bleak for foodies as it might seem at first. True, owner/chef Andrew Evans is selling his highly acclaimed Inn at Easton. But he's also planning to open a high-concept Thai restaurant not far away in Easton in late January. He's naming it Thai Ki, and wants to bring a fine-dining sensibility to traditional Thai food. Prices will be significantly lower than at the Inn at Easton, with nothing on the 20-item menu over $15. The restaurant will have a "green concept," he says, and will feature organic meats and fresh, local-when-possible vegetables.

Some restaurants arrive with a fanfare. Stang of Siam just kind of showed up one recent afternoon in Baltimore's Midtown-Belvedere neighborhood. One day it wasn't there, and the next day it was, and within about a week or so, Stang of Siam started filling up every night. That's because word gets around about good food. Standout dishes are easy to find, and diners will tell their friends about a delightfully satisfying entree of deep-fried crispy duck in chili garlic sauce and an exemplary version of Larb Gai, the traditional salad of spicy minced chicken.

THAI RESTAURANT, 3316 Greenmount Ave. Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday. Phone: 889-7303.Baltimore's original Thai Restaurant is arguably its best, providing lightening-fast service whether carrying food out or dining in the pleasant pink room decorated with Thai paintings.The greatest artistry, however, will be found on your plate -- beautifully garnished, crisp-tender combinations of vegetables, meats and spices and none of the heavy, gelatinous sauces that are found in many Chinese restaurants.

My Thai, originally located in Mount Vernon's Park Plaza building, has reopened in The Tack Factory at 1300 Bank St. The new My Thai occupies the nearly 6,000-square-foot space formerly held by another Thai restaurant, Lemongrass, and features exposed brick, a 40-foot bar, dark woods, and a combination of high top communal tables and traditional seating. The restaurant is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Developed by the husband-and-wife team of Brad and Varattaya "Pui" Wales and Jirat Suphrom-In, the original Charles Street restaurant, along with Donna's and Indigma, was destroyed by a fire in December 2010.

The Sesum brothers, owners of several Japanese restaurants in the area, have made a success of their places by offering good food at good prices in a pleasant setting; by hiring staff who are exceptionally friendly and competent; and by dispensing with many of the rituals and traditions that might be off-putting to American tastes. Oh, yes: And by making their restaurants half-Thai. The new Sushi-San / Thai Jai Dee in Canton is the latest of these hybrids. Kam Sesum, the middle of the three brothers, opened it after working in his younger brother's Towson restaurant for several years.

The first Thai restaurant I went to was so good that over the years I've been reluctant to experiment with any other, especially when I'm not working. That's why I may be the only person in Baltimore who loves Thai food, but up until last week hadn't been to Thai Landing, which some aficionados consider the best Thai restaurant in town.Let's call it a tie, no pun intended. At its best, Thai Landing offers elegant food, although it advertises itself as having "home-style cooking." Very little on the menu costs over $10; it's one of the best bargains around.

Some restaurants arrive with a fanfare. Stang of Siam just kind of showed up one recent afternoon in Baltimore's Midtown-Belvedere neighborhood. One day it wasn't there, and the next day it was, and within about a week or so, Stang of Siam started filling up every night. That's because word gets around about good food. Standout dishes are easy to find, and diners will tell their friends about a delightfully satisfying entree of deep-fried crispy duck in chili garlic sauce and an exemplary version of Larb Gai, the traditional salad of spicy minced chicken.

There's probably a reason why you don't see many commentaries on restaurants that specialize in buffets. Sheer numbers of dishes prevent a truly thorough tasting of all that some buffets provide. Multiple visits and multiple meal expenses and multiple pages of copy still might not do the job. On the other hand, certain buffet eateries deserve their 15 minutes of fame. Among them is Chen Hibachi Buffet in the Golden Triangle Center, Ellicott City. This pleasantly appointed restaurant where Panda Buffet used to be is actually a second edition of that restaurant.

At least for today, I think Thai Yum is Baltimore's best Thai restaurant. Word will soon spread, and Thai Yum might not be ready for a sudden crush. When we visited, Penny Chungsakoon appeared to be working the line herself. There are unresolved service issues. Please be patient with it. This is the restaurant that used to be known as Ten-O-Six, from its street number on Light Street. When Tom and Penny Chungsakoon opened it back in 1999, the Federal Hill restaurant worked with an innovative menu that was half fusion (with exotic or then rarely seen ingredients such as wild boar, sweetbreads and ostrich)

Late spring seems to bring a disproportionate number of restaurant openings and closings. Is a fiscal year drawing to a close? Keep your eyes and ears open. There's very big news on the Eastern Shore, with the arrival of celebrity chef Mark Salter at the Robert Morris Inn in Oxford. You might remember the British born Salter from his highly regarded 17-year stretch as executive chef at the Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels. This move reunites him with Ian Fleming, Perry Cabin's former manager.

The dual restaurant space at 1300 Bank St. near Little Italy always struck me as odd. When it opened, it had a Thai restaurant, Lemongrass, and a pan-Asian restaurant, Tsunami, so close together that they shared a kitchen. Lemongrass took off, but its sister restaurant didn't - probably because it was perceived as simply a more expensive version of the first place. The new owners of the restaurants (who also own Red Star in Fells Point) have taken a different approach. They have turned the pan-Asian restaurant into Diablita Cantina, a casual Mexican place that's a step up from the usual tacos-and-fajitas factory.

The news isn't as bleak for foodies as it might seem at first. True, owner/chef Andrew Evans is selling his highly acclaimed Inn at Easton. But he's also planning to open a high-concept Thai restaurant not far away in Easton in late January. He's naming it Thai Ki, and wants to bring a fine-dining sensibility to traditional Thai food. Prices will be significantly lower than at the Inn at Easton, with nothing on the 20-item menu over $15. The restaurant will have a "green concept," he says, and will feature organic meats and fresh, local-when-possible vegetables.

In the city, Thai curried chicken comes in red, yellow or green. An order usually constitutes an impossibly small box of clumpy white rice and a container of meat and vegetables in a coconut-flavored broth. Here's a sampling of the dish from four local Thai restaurants. Ban Thai 340 N. Charles St. -- 410-727-0125 Hours --11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday While the yellow curried chicken, $14.65, was the most expensive of the four we sampled, the plastic carton of chicken strips, potato wedges, onion slices and sauce was twice the size.