Thai Restaurant Boasts Fine Food, Ambiance, Needs to Turn Up Heat

I have believed for some time that we San Diegans demand too little from our ethnic restaurants, not in terms of cooking, perhaps, but in ambiance.

On numerous occasions, while sitting at table in a modest little place and reviewing an attractive stream of dishes, I have wished that the eatery in question offered more in the way of creature comforts. The problem is simple enough: while there is a desire to recommend the food, it is difficult to suggest that readers drive any distance to a place that features bare walls, harsh lighting and service barely superior to that encountered in an Army mess hall.

Countermanding this reluctance has been the awareness that most such places are family-run operations that have little spare cash to spend on frills.

But after visiting stylish, well-decorated Vietnamese, Thai and Cuban restaurants in other major cities, it seemed to me somewhat unreasonable that San Diegans should continue to put up with the bare Formica tables and inept, sometimes rude service that characterize the vast majority of such places here.

A recent trip to a highly regarded local Vietnamese restaurant brought the issue into especially sharp focus because, although the cooking was excellent, it was impossible to enjoy a single bite. The dreary decor set a bad enough tone, which worsened when the waiter, who had not the faintest concept of what constitutes even passable service, brought the appetizer, soup and entrees at the same time. The table quickly became a messy jumble of dishes, and, naturally, plates cooled before they could be tasted. The waiter turned cold too, in that he failed to bring water refills, needed silverware, napkins and so forth. The saddest part of all this was that the performance was only too familiar.

Thus, a first glimpse of Celadon, a new Thai restaurant located on the Hillcrest stretch of 5th Avenue, seemed rather like a mirage. Attractive enough on the outside, the place inside is like a little jewel box of combined Art Deco and post-modern styles carried out in peach tones, all of it decorated with bold, bright prints. The servers, who seem well trained, knowledgeable and eager to please, wear floor-length aprons in the style once affected by French waiters, another attention to detail that gives the place a definite sense of class. Celadon’s insistence on elegant trappings has not made it expensive relative to its peers, however; except in the seafood category, very few dishes cost more than $6.

The menu is a pleasant sampler of Thai cooking, which is among the more interesting of the world’s cuisines. The cooking can be faulted only on one major point, and this is an important one: Thai food can be extremely hot, but Celadon shows little willingness to prepare dishes in the incendiary style that often befits them, and this robs the food of a degree of authenticity.

The genius of Thai food often lies in an interplay of temperatures, both in terms of the fiery effect of chili peppers poised against the icy pungency of fresh mint leaves, and of skewered meats served sizzling from the grill with a pile of cold, crisp cucumber slices. Proprietor Prasit Kitisakkul, questioned about the general timidity of spicing, explained that he is attempting to determine just how hot San Diegans like their food. He should instead offer them the real thing, since it is certain to be accepted.

But even when it lacks what would seem an appropriate spiciness, the cooking at Celadon tends to be quite good. As is often the case with Oriental cuisines, the appetizers are especially delightful, and anyone who feels inclined to make a meal out of these tasty little mouthfuls should do just that.

The list commences with kratong thong, which the menu translates as “golden cup” and which the waiter described as flavored with traditional Thai “tastes.” By this term, he probably meant the underlying sweetness that accented the mild chicken filling in these meltingly tender pastries. There was a touch of sour, too, a hint at the stronger sweet-sour notes that later would appear in some of the soups and entrees. This plate, by the way, displayed the restaurant’s insistence on style; it was garnished with a pair of tomato roses tucked into a bunch of parsley, the whole arranged so that it resembled a bouquet.

Popia resembled Chinese egg rolls in shape and pastry, but the delicate filling of tender rice vermicelli mixed with minced pork and crisp, slivered vegetables made them uniquely Thai. A thick peanut sauce, a staple of Thai cuisine, accompanied these but was too mild; usually, a quantity of chili lurks in this sauce and explodes on the palate after the second or third taste.

Poo ja mimicked Maryland crab cakes in certain respects, but were dipped in a delicate batter instead of crumbs, and were extended with minced pork, an addition that made them exceptionally savory. The satay, or skewers of marinated, flame-grilled pork, met the tenderness test and were flavorful in themselves, but hot peanut sauce is a requisite for these, and, as mentioned above, Celadon’s failed to make the grade. The appetizer list also includes mee krob, a very popular combination of fried rice noodles mixed with chicken, shrimp and a sweet, almost syrupy sauce. Everyone apparently loves this dish, even if it seems too like an adult version of Rice Crispies.

Having grown accustomed to Celadon’s mild-mannered approach, the pla goong salad came as quite a surprise; when making this dish, the kitchen evidently forgot to be timid with the spicing. The heat, which increased in degree with every bite, actually caused one guest considerable discomfort. It was a superb dish, though, a toss of thin, crisp slices of onion, garlic and fresh ginger, seasoned with much chili and garnished with meaty shrimp that threw the fiery vegetables into relief.

Copious quantities of sliced lemon grass lent a deep, refreshing sour note to the tom yum goong soup, a typically hot and sour (if, alas, not very hot) concoction of light broth enriched with mint leaves, shrimp and mushrooms. The grass may be eaten, but many may wish to leave it at the bottom of the bowl, thanks to its stiff, celluloid-like texture.

The entree that perhaps best captures the essence of Thai cuisine is the chicken kaprao, a savory stir-fry of tender, minced chicken tossed with a moderate amount of hot chilies and a handful of mint leaves. Also excellent is the sliced abalone, cooked in the clay pot in which it is served. A dish with Cantonese overtones, it combines fat, meaty mushrooms, shrimp and small, toothsome heads of young bok choy in a mild, lightly thickened sauce that allows every element to stand on its own while contributing to a general sense of goodness. A third winner was sauteed scallops in “burnt” sauce, an umber-colored liquid of some depth that included both sweet and hot tones.

The preo-wan pork, on the other hand, billed by the menu as “in sweet and sour sauce, uniquely Thai,” was a boring dish of greasy, deep fried pork patties in a sticky, uninteresting sauce.

The Thai sweet tooth is honored by the home-made coconut ice cream, a delicious and wonderfully fresh-tasting confection which, when garnished with lychees and chopped peanuts, makes a most unusual sundae.

CELADON

3628 5th Ave., San Diego

295-8800

Dinner served nightly, 5-9:30 p.m.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a glass of house wine each, tax and tip, about $25 to $40.