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This tiny restaurant may not be in the most visible spot, but that hasn't stopped Downtown office workers and locals from flocking to its cozy bistro-style dining room. They're on to something: well-cooked pan-Asian cuisine that includes Laotian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, and even Chinese and Japanese dishes. Thai, however, is the happening cuisine here. Fresh ingredients, perfectly spiced and attractively presented, are the specialty of this somewhat wacky house. (The menu not only features soups, salads, noodles, and curries, but also helpful notes like "to ward off vampires," and "a hummingbird weighs less than a penny".) Best is the addictive Massaman curry, with chicken falling off the bone in an onion-infused peanut sauce. The coconut soup is loaded with vegetables and ample amounts of lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves for flavor. Crunchy and grease-free spring rolls are stuffed with shrimp and real crabmeat. Jumbo prawns are fresh and cooked to tender perfection. Vegetarians will be in fake-chicken heaven with the mysterious "soul chicken." It can be added to any curry or sauce, and it may be the best tofu you've ever had. — Simon Spelling

Massaman curry chicken, $10; Mango "soul" chicken, $11