Cuisine: The area’s best, most authentic Thai cooking, with made-to-order dishes that reproduce the fresh, full-bodied flavors of Thailand’s popular market stalls.

Mood: Owners Ladavan and Suchart Srigatesook recently hauled their woks across the parking lot to the space that housed Taverna Kefi. It doesn’t yet feel like home—Kefi’s tabletop olive-oil bottles are now filled with fish sauce—but it’s several times bigger.

Best for: Thai-food purists who complain about Western-tailored dishes that are too sweet and not spicy enough.

Best dishes: A pungent papaya salad; a kind of frittata of crispy mussels; the area’s best pad Thai; lard na, a stir-fry of broad noodles with broccoli; drunken noodles; Panang curry with pork; Floating Market Soup—sweet, sour, hot, and rich; hot-and-sour squid salad with celery; a grilled half chicken with sticky rice and tamarind sauce.

Insider tips: The heavily fortified soups, the heart of the menu, hold up surprisingly well in takeout.

Service: ••

Open daily for lunch and dinner. Inexpensive.

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