The King and Thai

Thai Rama is named for Rama V, the 19th century king of Siam (best known to Americans from “The King and I”) who brought Thailand into the modern world. You can hardly miss its iridescent green neon sign on Glendale’s quiet Pacific Avenue.

It’s a cool place with mustard-yellow clapboard walls and a corrugated tin awning over the kitchen door. Library-type glass lamps hang from the ceiling. You sit in a booth or on an ice cream parlor stool at a table.

Chef Ranchanee Gola’s menu is fairly standard, but there are several bright spots and one or two innovations. The barbecued beef short ribs, which are cut across the bones like Korean barbecued short ribs, are not to be missed. They are cooked over an open flame like the Korean dish, but the meat is more tender and it’s basted with a sticky-sweet pale red sauce with a fiery kick.

Another standout is Rama barbecued chicken. It’s not served on the bone, in the usual Thai fashion, but in bite-sized chunks fragrant with garlic, ginger and turmeric. The unusual appetizer called royal shrimp is large clumps of minced shrimp wrapped in won ton skins fried crisp.

Larb, a specialty of northeast Thailand, is treated as a salad on this menu. This version is made of ground chicken mixed with the usual toasted rice powder, red onions, mint leaves and lime juice. The idea is to pick it up in one of the cabbage leaves served with it.

Gola makes a mean prik khing, your choice of meat or seafood cooked with red peppers and green beans. I recommend the shrimp rendition. One of the best of the Thai curries is green curry with chicken, in a spicy but not overwhelming sauce incorporating bamboo shoots, bell peppers, green hot peppers and basil.

Two familiar noodle dishes rise above the crowd. One is pad see ew: big, flat rice noodles stir-fried with egg, broccoli and a fair bit of gravy. The other is pad woon sen, made with “cellophane noodles” extruded from mung bean flour. The translucent strands, with a mild, sweet flavor and a texture that is even more delicate than angel hair, are lightly sauted with eggs, tomatoes and onions.

There isn’t much in the way of beverages or desserts here. Of course you can get a cloyingly sweet Thai iced coffee--filter coffee mixed with crushed ice in a tall glass, topped with too much condensed milk. And there is a bland, supermarket quality coconut ice cream. But Thai Rama is a nice neighborhood find and worthy of bearing a king’s name.

BE THERE

Thai Rama, 1100 N. Pacific Ave., Glendale. Open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday, 4-10 p.m.; Sunday, 4-9 p.m. Street parking. No alcohol. MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, $19-$32. Suggested dishes: royal shrimp, $5.95; larb, $6.25; Rama barbecued chicken, $6.95; barbecued beef short rib, $7.95. Call (818) 545-8023.