Luckily we were able to snag a seat right in front of the kitchen, so we got to watch the chefs make all the food. One our way to our seats I saw Gail Simmons, the judge from Top Chef, so I am very curious as to what she thinks about the food. As we were sitting down, I noticed Harold himself manning the kitchen. He was barking out orders and making sure the food was getting to the right tables. Sigh. Of course I couldn't stop staring. I loved sitting in front of kitchen and it gave me a new found respect for chefs. The kitchen here is tiny, no bigger than most galley-shaped kitchens in New York apartments. There were 4 chefs lined up practically on top of each other and a dish washer at the end making sure that they had clean dishes. What I liked about sitting in front of the kitchen was that you can see that they make everything made to order here. The pots and pans are so small that they can't just cook in batches. We started with the pea shoot and bay scallop appetizer ($12). The pea shoots were crispy and the scallops came with a nice coconut garnish. The whole dish was drizzled with a tasty coconut curry sauce and it made me wish we had ordered some roti to clean the dish. For main entrees, Dan got the goat massaman curry ($21) and I got the pan fried crab noodles ($21). The dishes come out sort of family style as they are big enough to share. I've never had goat before and this was quite tasty and it fell off the bone very easily. It didn't hurt that the meat was covered in the curry sauce which had a slight kick to it. It came with cubes of purple yams and mustard greens, which offset the goat meat nicely. The crab dish was good, but after I ate all the crab (which wasn't a whole lot but there was enough that I could at least see chunks of it in my dish) I felt like I was just eating a bunch of noodles at the end. It would have been nice if it was a bit heartier with some other vegetables or something else to combine with the noodles. But the crab that was in it was very fresh and delicious. The service was great and the design of the restaurant was modern but not too edgy. The only thing I didn't really like was our cocktails ($12/each). I got the Phuket Fizz which was vodka and pineapple juice, but it didn't really taste like too much. Dan got the Kin and Tonic (their version of a cucumber gin and tonic)...Dan's comment was "Now I know what lotion tastes like" and after that it was all I could taste. I thought the prices were a little bit high for the food but after watching them cook it in the kitchen at least I know it's cooked fresh and with a lot of quality ingredients. Total bill with tip and tax $105.
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