Chaturunk Ngamary has taken the cooking skills...

Chaturunk Ngamary has taken the cooking skills learned from his mother, who owned a restaurant in Bangkok 50 years ago, and parlayed them into a Thai restaurant empire throughout Los Angeles County. The flagship of the Ngamary family operation is the popular Thai Thani restaurant in Redondo Beach.

Thai Thani opened 10 years ago and moved to its present location, a large A-frame building on Pacific Coast Highway, in 1988. It is a comfortable establishment with soaring ceilings, and at the same time a touch of privacy provided by the many potted plants between tables. The friendly staff, led by manager Tommy Ploypairos, is eager to explain the menu.

A popular appetizer selection is boneless chicken wings ($5.75), so stuffed with ground pork, onions, ginger, cilantro and noodles that it looks as if the chickens have been working out with Hulk Hogan. The Bangkok grilled beef ($5.25) consists of several large slices of flank steak grilled with cilantro, soy sauce and ginger. Although flank steak is not the most tender of cuts, the excellent flavor imparted by the grilling and the flavorings makes this a good choice.

A highlight among the several fine soups is tom yam goong ($6.95), a spicy shrimp coconut soup. The attraction here, apart from the shrimp, is the exotic broth, highly flavored with chili paste, lemon grass, coconut milk, ginger and galangal root.

Those craving shrimp for a main course can select from eight preparations (all $6.75), including garlic shrimp, mint shrimp, shrimp curry and shrimp a la Thani, in which the large crustaceans are mixed with baby corn, mushrooms and tomatoes. Shrimp are all too often cooked to the consistency of racing tires elsewhere, but these are tender and plump.

For pineapple rice ($7.75), rice, shrimp, crab, pork, green onions, tomatoes and pineapple chunks are cooked together, then served in a hollowed-out pineapple shell. This pretty dish is good either as a main course or as a side dish to be shared by several diners.

Thai Thani is at 1109 S. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach. (310) 316-1580. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.