One of the best salads we’ve had this year is on the menu at this tiny Thai place. A plate of watercress, fried to feathery lightness and doused in limey dressing, proves this isn’t your average pad Thai house. The rest of the menu offers more good things from the fryer: shrimp flatbread with cucumber sauce; a crisp fish cake laced with curry; a fried cut of salmon with ginger sauce. The dining room is more elegant than its strip-mall setting would suggest, with wooden menus adorned with carved elephants and ornate fabrics on the wall.
Also good: Spring rolls; steamed shrimp-and-pork dumplings; green-papaya salad; fried bay scallops with basil and red peppers.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
