Into the Mild

Thai Chef & Noodle Fusion is a little too tentative with the heat.

by David Snyder

Michael T. Regan MASSA CLASS: Thai Chef & Noodle Fusion's massaman curry, a classic dish built around a coconut curry peanut sauce.

Deciphering whether a restaurant's food is too spicy — or not spicy enough — is an exercise in subjectivity. Every person has a different yardstick for how much he or she can handle. But there is an objectivity to the level of spice in Thai cuisine. For many Thai dishes, that seductive breath of heat isn't merely an accent or condiment, it's an integral component. Without that fiery warmth in these plates, you're simply not eating real Thai.

In this respect, every Thai restaurant in the United States is faced with a dilemma. If the spice level is kept truly authentic, the restaurant may attract a certain core following, but its audience may not be large enough for it to make bank. Lowering the spice level to make the food accessible to more sensitive tongues runs the same risk. Striking the right balance requires an acute awareness of local sensibilities. (The American relationship with the prerequisite fishy flavors of Thailand is an issue for another review.)

For husband and wife Nick Sira and Nadia Lay, who recently opened Thai Chef & Noodle Fusion on Chestnut near 20th, the decision may have seemed easy — just do what they've done before. Chef Sira, a native of Thailand, came to Philadelphia more than 20 years ago. Since then, he's cooked all over the country, including California and Texas, but was eventually drawn back to the area. After success with Media's Nooddi, Sira and Lay decided to expand into Center City. 

Despite its name, Thai Chef & Noodle Fusion (TCNF), whose aquatic décor is something like Little Mermaid meets Yellow Submarine (in a good way), does not serve actual fusion cuisine, though the menu does feature dishes from multiple disciplines — Indonesian, Korean, Burmese. Sira told me the recipes used at TCNF are the same ones used at Nooddi. But choosing to reprise the Media restaurant's apparent concession to local proclivities comes off as an unfortunate, yet easily fixable, miscalculation. TCNF's food is often wonderfully flavorful. But when it comes to spice level, it has a tendency to go out of its way to over-mild even the most benign dishes.

Take the massaman curry, which is built on a coconut curry peanut sauce. The charm of this classic, which I tried with chicken, is that it delivers a round, savory warmth derived from numerous tiny heat sources — dried Thai chilies, tamarind and cumin among them. While TCNF's massaman had nicely layered flavors, it possessed none of the subtle kick necessary to complete the dish's signature arc. On a second visit, I requested the massaman spicy. Unfortunately, the heat was still far below the mark.

TCNF's apparent underestimation of its big-city customers' capacity for spice shows up in other dishes, as well. The tasty crab pad Thai was free of the overriding greasiness that characterizes many lesser renditions, but the sweet crabmeat needed more heat. Though the Thai beef salad's dressing lacked its traditional warmth, I loved its texture, achieved by sprinkling the chargrilled meat with uncooked rice that was browned and pulverized. But strangely, the kitchen removes the fresh lemongrass stalk from the plate before serving. Sira says this is because the flavor enhancer is not pleasant to eat on its own, but it's rare to see a Thai restaurant nix it from the presentation entirely — I'd venture to say that most Thai food fans, at least in these parts, are savvy enough to know not to bite into it. I suspect that's why it was also absent from the markedly subdued tom kha gai, the classic coconut broth soup. 

The good news is that TCNF is capable of incorporating a respectable kick into a dish when it wants to. The wild boar, my favorite dish, not only had an adult level of spice (thank whole peppercorn strings for that), but the heat was also effectively integrated into the chorus of other wholly satisfying flavors — bell pepper, Thai basil, string beans, red curry. The same is true of the "Winning Alligator," which features said meat sautéed with accompaniments like eggplant, ginger and soybean.

TCNF's dishes have the depth of flavor to allow it to stand tall among its peers. All it has to do is recalibrate its barometer as to how much spice we can take. That would be hot.

(david.snyder@citypaper.net)

Thai Chef & Noodle Fusion | 2028 Chestnut St., 215-568-7058

Hours: Lunch daily, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Dinner Sun.-Thu., 4:30-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 4:30-10:30 p.m.

Lunch, $3.50-$11.95 Dinner, $3.95-$21.95

BYOB

Delivery available