Kittichai

60 Thompson St., 212-219-2000,

www.kittichairestaurant.com

Appetizers run $6-$14, entrées $14-$27.

Kittichai is stylish, fashionable, and located inside a hip boutique hotel—all attributes that, in the great Ethnic Restaurant Equation, tend to exist in inverse proportion to the quality of the food. Somehow, though, despite the model-doormen and hostess-waifs, despite the reflecting pool and the exotic cocktails, despite the fact that it’s not in Queens, even, Kittichai triumphs. Credit chef Ian Chalermkittichai, a Bangkok import whose unrestrained Thai flavors explode on contact. Galangal-and-coconut soup sizzles and soothes. Chocolate baby-back ribs are irresistibly fatty and meltingly meaty in all the right places. Curries captivate, from the green (braised short rib) to the red (tender duck with grapes and tomatoes) to the murky but marvelous chili-ginger monkfish and hearts of palm. Factor in with-it servers who’ve managed to memorize and rattle off every ingredient, no matter how arcane, and even the most skeptical curry maven, the kind who seldom eats Thai outside his Formica-tabled, fluorescent-lit outer-borough habitat, will be willing to make an exception.

지금 뉴욕에서 가장 HOT한 레스토랑. 요즘 이상하게 Thai 음식이 여기 열풍이다. 예약을 하려면 적어도 두 달은 기다려야... (기념일 외식을 예약하려고 한 달 전에 전화했는데 실패... )

음식은 가격에 비해 그저 그렇다는 얘기가 있는데 예쁜 인테리어로 가장 데이트하고 싶은 레스토랑으로도 꼽힌다.