November 4-10, 2004

food

Spot the Difference

THAI GREEN, HURRY: Crowded it ain't, but Chaleo's verdant dining-room offers well-executed curries, soups and specials to its clued-in customers. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Chaleo takes up a corner that's been kind to Thai restaurants past.

by Elisa Ludwig

It was a relief to hear that, when the well-regarded East of Amara closed, the city would not be losing a precious Thai restaurant—its Fifth and Bainbridge space would, in fact, house a brand-new Thai restaurant. But while Chaleo, a very respectable replacement, has inherited its dining room and kitchen equipment, it has not quite inherited East of Amara's steady audience. In one of those inexplicable mysteries of Philadelphia dining, Chaleo is getting slept on. When I mentioned it to a friend, she said, "Oh, is that the Thai place where the other Thai place used to be?"

Unlike the sad, abandoned Crawdaddy's building across the street, this is not a particularly doomed location. It's actually a busy corner, just steps away from South Street, which can always use another reliable eatery to accommodate its parades of partiers. To be fair, EOA had four years to build its reputation, and Chaleo, it seems, is still working out the whole image thing. The problem is not so much a bad image as a lack of one. (It doesn't help that the menus are erroneously stamped with the name "Charleo.") Without anything that, at the very least, visually distinguishes this restaurant from its predecessor, Chaleo is going to be forever known as the Thai place where the other Thai place used to be.

On the other hand, it's not like we needed other diners to validate what was an undeniably enjoyable dining experience for all. For our first course we sampled a special lamb satay, which came with both peanut sauce and a finely diced cucumber relish. The lean, coriander-scented meat was a nice alternative to the usual chicken on a stick. We were also impressed with the tom ka gai, chicken and coconut milk soup, which had a marvelously smooth texture and a reverberating twang of lime and ginger.

New Zealand mussels steamed with lemon grass in a clay pot, though aromatic, were, unfortunately, slightly overcooked—just a minute shy of being totally rubbery. Mango salad topped with crispy tuna sounded like an intriguing pairing, but the pale slivers of fruit would have been better enhanced by a more traditional crumbling of pork or beef, rather than an overbreaded-to-the-point-of-unrecognizability slab of fish.

With the entrees came a greater sense of confidence and consistency. It helped that their presentation was thoughtful and inspired. Anyone who can craft three-dimensional butterflies made from carrot shavings gets points. Chicken bathed in green curry was not quite as spicy as it could have been but the sauce was velvety and rich, the coconut-milk equivalent of a cashmere pashmina (or poncho, as the seasonal trends demand). The Indian-inflected Masaman curry with chunks of tender beef, roasted peanuts and cubed potatoes was another favorite, the sauce radiating a spectrum of subtle spices, including lemon grass, chili, garlic and ginger.

In the pad bai ka pow, or pork in holy basil sauce, the sacred, spiky-leaved herb gave the dish a pungent and sharp flavor, but the real "ka-pow" was its tiny bursts of chili pepper. The most delicate of the dishes we sampled was a grilled salmon in a sweet, light lemon-grass sauce, which nicely counterbalanced the heavier curries. All of these dishes were right on the money and on par with the better Thai restaurants in town.

Dessert, too, had many pleasing moments. The ice cream, which can be ordered fried, is homemade and served in Friendly's-sized sundae glasses. The coconut variety, snowy and studded with chunks of fresh coconut flesh, elicited a joyful response, as did the green-tea ice cream, which had a deeper hue but a softer flavor than the commercial kind. The only disappointment among the desserts was the sticky rice with mango. The rice was something close to adhesive, and the mango was hard and unripe.

On each visit, Chaleo was quiet and mostly empty, the tablecloths and folded napkins perfectly unwrinkled and unsmeared. People, it turns out, add a lot to restaurant atmosphere. But as far as I could tell, the emptiness was no reflection on the food, which was rather good, or the service, which was efficient and helpful, and least of all its location. All this restaurant needs to succeed, it would seem, is some customers.

Chaleo 700 S. Fifth St. 215-592-4622

Hours: Tue.-Thu., 5-10:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5-11 p.m.; Sun., 4-9 p.m.

Appetizers, $3.50-$7.50; entrees, $8.95-$17.95

BYOB. Wheelchair accessible. Smoking is not permitted. Reservations accepted. All major credit cards except Discover.