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Siam Lotus Cuisine rated "Excellent" by Zagat best of surveys.
Best of Philly 2004 Best Thai Restaurant
Food,Ethnic,Thai
After a multi-year hiatus, Siam Lotus has reopened as a well-designed spot on a stretch of Spring Garden populated with shooting galleries and gun stores. The mieng caam appetizer (a lettuce leaf topped with dried shrimp, coconut, ginger, chilies and lime
Siam Lotus Review in Philadelphia Inquirer
By: Craig LaBan
Philadelphia Inquirer
Published: Sunday, April 11, 2004
Anyone heading to Spring Garden Street to browse the pistols at Colosimo's or shoot a few rounds at the range around the corner is in for a happy surprise.
Siam Lotus has bloomed like an exotic flower against the gunmetal-gray backdrop of Firearms Row, pulsing from its narrow storefront with tones of fuchsia and celadon.
Meanwhile, new owner Hiran Yii has given the dining room a contemporary look. A gorgeous multicolored quilt of Thai silk cushions lines one wall, muting the noise and warming the room with a rainbow blush. Elegant orchids dangle from a distressed-frame mirror above a long leather banquette.
A late-night DJ beckons to the young crowds from the burgeoning Loft District to the south and Northern Liberties a few blocks east. But more than half of Siam Lotus' clientele are former customers, Nanakorn says. And after several meals here, I see why they're back.
With the exception of Kamol Phutlek's somewhat frenchified Nan in University City, Philadelphia's Thai restaurants are fairly weak. But Nanakorn presents Thai cuisine in all of its dynamic vibrance: a sweet kiss of creamy coconut here, a twang of tamarind there, a zip of lime, and a confident kick of chile spice.
The essence of Thai cooking is summed up in one bite of the mieng caam, a picnic dish that cradles a swirl of flavors in leaves of romaine lettuce. Each leaf is mounded with toasted shredded coconut, dried shrimp, peanuts, and a tiny wedge of lime tipped with a crimson dot of incendiary chile. When you roll it up and chew it, the fresh greenery gives way to a sweet crunch, then a roasted nuttiness, sea flavors, and a refreshing squirt of citrus that tingles with a trail of heat.
Much of the menu is familiar, and some of the standards are less than great. I found the pad thai too sweet and the spring rolls a little greasy. The shrimp cakes were rubbery. And the kitchen overcooked the squid, whether deep-fried in rings or stuffed whole with peppery pork filling.
But for the most part, dishes were carefully crafted with sharp flavors and good ingredients.
The chicken satay was sublimely tender, permeated with a char-grilled curry marinade that found a perfect balm in a tamarind peanut sauce. The tom ka kai (chicken soup) was not just sweet with coconut milk, but gingery with galangal and sour with lime.
Two cold salads were among my favorite dishes. The nam tok is a plate of crunchy greens topped with sliced filet mignon whose grilled edges are crusty with a garlicky oyster-sauce marinade. A spicy sour vinaigrette with piquant crumbled ground pork made the nest of cold glass noodles in the sai roong impossible to stop eating.
At lunch, Nanakorn serves a "drunkard-style" stir-fried rice called kow pahd kee mow whose assertive heat is said to cure a hangover. The hearty dish, filled with plump shrimp and fistfuls of aromatic basil, is a restorative wake-up even for teetotalers.
Dinner offers a wide selection of coconut milk-based curry entrees made with chicken, beef or shrimp. I loved virtually all of them, from the mild, creamy orange masamun studded with roasted peanuts and potatoes to the panang curry rife with kefir lime and the fiery red curry served with sliced roast duck and cubes of sweet pineapple bursting with juice.
But Nanakorn's greatest talent is her way with seafood. Her deep-fried snapper, or pla lad prig, is a thing of beauty. Its vibrant red tail curls up from the plate over a mysteriously complex, dark slick of hot-and-sour garlic sauce scattered with basil. At $16.95, it's also a real deal.
Thick slices of mahi-mahi are meaty enough to stand up to the pungent, brothy yellow curry in the kang leung. For something slightly milder, the chu chee cod special tops a pair of crisp fillets with a red chile cream ribboned with strands of fried lime leaf.
But if it's authentic Thai spice you want, Siam Lotus' chile-packed pahd talay seafood medley has enough firepower to give Colosimo's a run for its money. Diners should be licensed and registered before being allowed to eat it.
I opted for the version with a three-chile-pepper heat rating (out of a possible five), since our perky, 90-pound Thai waitress recommended it. ("I don't really like it spicy," she explained.)
The brimming bowl of seafood was thick with a puree of peppers and garlic that was more a pomade than a sauce. The mere smell of its capsaicin tickled my nose, and the pain was pleasurable. At first.
But soon, every mussel, shrimp, squid and morsel of crab felt like another coal stoking a roaring furnace. By the time our waitress returned to ask if the dish was spicy enough, I was wearing a headdress of sweat-soaked napkins.
"Perfect!" I whimpered.
Oh, yes, the Thais know spicy.
But they also know sweet. And the sticky rice Siam Lotus serves for dessert brings soothing comfort to the taste buds. With its layer of coconut custard, it is surprisingly addictive for such a heavy dish. The taro pearls, reminiscent of sweetened potato gnocchi and served bobbing in warm coconut milk, are another delight.
Nanakorn's cream caramel is exceptionally creamy, with a burnt-sugar sauce so dark that it is the caramel equivalent of extra-bitter chocolate.
Yet nothing cools the meal's chile fire quite like a scoop of homemade ice cream, floral with the tropical pulp of jackfruit or snowy with tender chunks of coconut.
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