They’ve got good taste and it shows

Erawan is gorgeous, from its red and gold facade to an interior as dark and elegant as an old Thai wooden house -- an aristocratic house whose owners value fine antiques and rare paintings.

Mirrors line a golden wall. Gilt sarong fabric peeks out from under the butcher paper that covers the tables. There are orchids on the tables too and long sprays of them on the bar. Brass temple bells, a screen carved with elephants, tranquil Buddhas, a mirrored pillar: Each time you go, something lovely pops out at you.

The restaurant is after young, hip diners, as you can tell from the pop music soundtrack, the staff fashionably dressed in black and a menu printed in English without the Thai translation.

Many of dishes are as stylish in their presentation as the restaurant is. Fortunately, they’re also mostly very good to eat.

Summer rolls are softened rice paper stuffed with vegetables, tofu and rice noodles. They stand on end in the contrasting colors of honey-mustard and sweet-sour sauces swirled around each other to resemble flower petals. Along with carrot and cucumber, I found avocado in mine and tasted basil and mint.

Meang kum is a decoration in itself. The plate is ringed with perfect spinach leaves (subbing for the traditional betel leaves), each topped with ginger, lime, red onion and dried shrimp, a peanut and some roasted coconut. You wrap the leaf round this filling, dip it in palm sugar sauce and eat it in a single bite. The interplay of flavors is enchanting.

Cute golden pouches, filled with minced shrimp and chicken, are tied with green onions. It’s Erawan Thai’s fancy way of presenting fried wontons.

Most of the dishes on the menu are Thai standards -- barbecued chicken, satay, hot-and-sour shrimp soup and so forth -- but the chef specialties are worth investigating. Grilled salmon may not be very Thai, but it’s a well-prepared dish, moist in the center and coated with basil and mint. It comes with interesting accompaniments: carrot shavings (somehow browned at the edges) and a Thai cole slaw of cabbage mixed with carrot shreds and bean sprouts in a sweet ginger dressing.

If you feel like prawns, try the choo chee prawns: grilled jumbo shrimp in their shells sitting on sweet curry sauce, with lightly steamed broccoli at one side and red pepper dice around the rim of the plate. There’s also a perfectly OK but not thrilling dish called garlic prawns, with plenty of chopped garlic in it (although you’re hardly aware of the fact).

Steamed sea bass, lighter than a cloud, perches on vegetables surrounded by clear lime sauce. The dish is so pale, it looks bland -- but watch out, those fine green circles on the fish are super-hot Thai chile, and there’s more chile in the sauce.

The perfect choice for lone diners is seafood curry udon. It’s a whole meal in a dish. Brightly colored vegetables mingle with shrimp, scallops, squid, crab claws and mussels in a sweet but spicy coconut sauce made with red and yellow curry pastes. The sauce would get lost in rice; the resilient udon noodles prevent sogginess.

A few things could be better. The pad Thai is so sweet it begs for a squeeze of lime juice; still, it’s elegantly served on a piece of banana leaf. The sticky rice that accompanies sliced mango for dessert seems to have been pre-cooked, wrapped in plastic, then reheated in the microwave, to judge from the way it’s dried out and rather chewy at the edges. Rice fresh from the steamer would have better texture.

Erawan serves good Thai coffee and excellent jasmine tea -- brewed from tea leaves, not teabags -- in a handsome stainless steel pot. The restaurant also has a wine list. It’s not an inspired list but serviceable if you have to have wine with a Thai dinner.

Among the desserts, a silky coconut custard overlaid with coconut strands and elusively scented with jasmine was so good I had to order it again. But the next time, diced kabocha squash had been mixed in, making the texture choppy, and the custard had not set properly. A rough clump of coconut looked awkward on top. Not a good experiment.

Green tea ice cream accompanies tender fried bananas on a plate squiggled with chocolate art. “Love Thai Food,” said mine, beside a chocolate heart. It’s a pretty finish to a dinner with some extraordinary dishes, in an extraordinary setting.

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Erawan Thai

Location: 7119 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 692-0600.

Price: Appetizers, $4.95 to $7.95; soups and salads, $6.95 to $11.95; entrees, $6.95 $15.95; lunch specials, $6.95 to $10.95

Best dishes: Meang kum, summer rolls, steamed sea bass, choo chee prawns, seafood curry udon.

Details: Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Beer and wine. Street parking and lot parking. Major credit cards.