Siam On Lake Union: More First-Rate Thai

Dec 16, 1994

John Hinterberger

----------------------------------------------------------------- Restaurant review

XX 1/2 Siam on Lake Union, 1880 Fairview Ave. E. Thai cuisine. ($$) Lunch and dinner ($5 to $8.75) 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; until 11 p.m. Friday. From 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sunday. Lounge; full bar. Major credit cards. Smoking in lounge only. Reservations: 323-8101. -----------------------------------------------------------------

The boxcars are almost invisible now.

Maybe it's the happy distraction of holiday lights twinkling from the NOAA ships across the street. Or the plantings of evergreens now grown tall in front. Or the new purple awnings, the neon signage or the bright white paint.

You have to look twice to discern that the restaurant is still built around a cluster of boxcars - where a food fashion fell from favor and rode out of town on the rails of a discredited 1960s concept of red, red meat.

Siam on Lake Union moved a month ago into the ganged freight-car space once occupied by Victoria Station. Partners Chai Asavadejkajorn, John and Lynda Siriwatanarong still run the tiny (and usually jammed) Siam on Broadway, 616 Broadway Ave. E. They remodeled the old lakeside beef palace to accommodate the excess crowds they've always entertained on Capitol Hill.

"When we take reservations at the Broadway place, we send the overflow down here," Lynda said, "and the first thing our old customers say is: `You have a parking lot!' "

On such inedible tangibles are restaurant fortunes (and downtown business districts) sometimes founded. Siam on Lake Union serves first-rate Thai food (including the most savory fish cakes around) and if anyone can bring back traffic to the old railhead, this congenial Thai partnership can and should.

A case for fish cakes

"All fish cakes are alike!" a skeptical friend objected (she had once been served a pedestrian Phad Thai at the Broadway Siam and forgives slowly).

"No, they aren't," I said. "Tod Mun Pla is a mix of curry paste, ground fish paste and thin-sliced green beans. The Siam uses more green beans than most - and they are very fresh. These fish cakes not only crunch, they squeak."

In any case, we started with them ($5.95 for five), and I ate more than my share. The Siam Fresh Rolls ($4.95) are another house favorite. Vermicelli rice noodles, shredded crab and shrimp meat are packed around a core of green onion, wrapped in a rice flour pancake and served with a "special sauce" whose degree of hotness you can specify.

If you want a sampler of the Siam's starters, order the Combo Plate ($8.50), which includes fish cakes, two chicken satays, two spring rolls and some shrimp chips, with an assortment of dipping sauces.

Thai salads ($5.25 to $6.75) are often overshadowed by the fiery aggression and exotic novelty of Thai curries, but they should not be overlooked. Dishes like Yum Woon Sen ($6.75; bean thread noodles with spicy ground pork, squid and prawns, along with red onion, lettuce, cucumbers) are not only attractive but profoundly satisfying as meals.

Powerful Panang

The Panang ($6.95) is a red curry sauce tempered with coconut milk and magrood leaves, then textured with ground peanuts and cubes of red and green bell peppers. You can order it with any meat, but it shines as the base sauce for prawns. It's presented with either jasmine rice or a side plate of thin noodles. To appreciate its complexity, request at least two or three stars of heat.

Siam Swimming Angel ($6.25; also known as Bathing Rama, etc.) was a pleasant oval pond of sauteed spinach, floating a heap of lightly sauteed chicken in the typical Thai peanut sauce. It's not a difficult dish to execute, but it's a tough one to hold. This specimen (due to an inexperienced server) had rested under a warming light too long. The sauce separated; the spinach swam, then sank. The angel treaded peanuts. It all tasted fine, but looked weepy.

Siam Special Orange Beef ($7.25) is another house favorite. Crispy, twice-fried beef squares were recombined with nicely stir-fried broccoli, scalloped carrots and half moons of zucchini in a deep brown sauce flecked with ground red pepper. Very successful, quite hot and best consumed slowly with a cold Thai beer.

Despite the prejudicial whisper, I liked the Phad Thai ($6.25 with a choice of meat), Thai flat rice noodles, sauced with sweet-sour and Thai spices, then tossed with meat, green onions, egg and dried tofu. The dish was a bit light on the tofu and onions but was loaded with flavor and topped with sprouts and peanuts.

John Hinterberger, who writes the weekly restaurant review in Tempo and a Sunday food column in Pacific, visits restaurants anonymously and unannounced. He pays in full for all food, wines and services. Interviews of the restaurants' management and staff are done only after meals and services have been appraised. He does not accept invitations to evaluate restaurants.