DINING OUT:

Off the beaten path both geographically and gastronomically, Cibo Thai is a quaint restaurant featuring fresh, authentic Asian fare. It’s about a half-mile west of Montrose proper and a world apart from your common, everyday Thai takeout.

Try to disregard the somewhat dowdy exterior of Cibo with its mismatched signage, fading paint job and sad landscaping. The interior is warm and artistic with a calming color palette, beautiful Asian textiles and art, and pretty potted plants. The lighting gets an A-plus, as does the ambient music.

The place is intimate, with room for maybe eight parties, and the owner/server/chef Angela Etesse makes it even more intimate by flitting from table to table in her easygoing, gregarious style. She has boundless energy and is happy to help you choose what to order. So what should you order?

The menu is pretty standard, listing Thai favorites like pad Thai, larb and red and green curries. What makes Cibo different, I think, is the freshness and lightness of the family recipes. Angela goes shopping every day for fresh vegetables and meats and never uses MSG.

It shows. For instance, I’m a fan of rad na ($6.95), a dish with wide, flat noodles and broccoli in gravy. Normally, it’s rather dense and sticky, probably overly fried. Here, the brown gravy with hints of garlic, soy and fish sauce is wetter, the noodles more slippery, the broccoli cooked just right. It tasted wonderful, almost maple-y, and was less filling.

The yum yai salad ($6.95) is a perfect example of their commitment to freshness. It fills your senses with exciting aromas like cilantro, basil, lime and ginger, and wakes up your mouth with the crunch of onions, cucumbers, carrots, greens, tomatoes, and a decent amount of tender chicken, shrimp and sliced eggs.

We also tried the chicken Bangkok sate appetizer ($6.95), which boasted succulent chicken pieces in delicate spices. I thought the spices were a little too delicate to add any real flavor but the accompanying peanut sauce and cucumber relish helped. And you’ve got to love a place that puts spicy condiments on the table without your asking. The red sauce is awesome and the vinegary raw jalapeno slices are serious.

I’m anxious to come back and try their many curry choices but the panang ($6.95), with its creamy coconut and red chili broth, is incredible — flavorful, great over rice and not too spicy. But my favorite dish of the evening, and apparently many customers’ favorite, was the ginger fish ($8.95). Steamed white fish, in an exquisite gingery broth similar to that in sukiyaki, meshes nicely with sliced scallions, mushrooms and thin noodles.

The vegetable fried rice ($6.95) is also worth mentioning because it stands apart from its Chinese cousin by being lightly fried in peanut oil and chock full of large chunks of veggies, most interestingly, warm, quartered tomatoes.

In my opinion, Thai cuisine has some of the most unique sweets and desserts.

Thai iced coffee and tea ($1.75) are great, of course, and they are sizable at Cibo. But also try their coconut ice cream ($3) and, if in season, sticky rice with mango ($6). The icy coconut dessert is more like sherbet than ice cream with chunks of coconut and huge peanuts on top. The sticky rice is cooked in sweetened coconut milk and combined with mung beans and sliced mango. Toasted coconut tops if off for a crunchy, sweet, satisfying experience.

For a warm, friendly atmosphere and the fresh, vibrant flavors of Asia, find Cibo Thai (just beyond the fire station on Honolulu). My son declared Angela “totally awesome,” and the whole family voted to go back again.

?LISA DUPUY enjoys preparing and eating foods from all over of the world.