Ottawa Citizen  |  Sunday, April 29, 2007
"Rising from the Inferno"

by Anne DesBrisay

Siam Bistro caught fire. Not the "talk of the town" or "profits through the roof" kind of catching fire. This was a real inferno that forced the west Wellington Thai restaurant to shut its doors for eight months while it was gutted and recreated.

Fires may be truly horrible things, but they do mean an instant overhaul is in order. The Siam Bistro re-opened a year ago, almost to the day, and while it has the same blue and white exterior, inside all has changed.

The racy red foyer, trimmed in carved teak, opens to a long and narrow 40-seat dining room framed with stretched camel-coloured benches. Shades of brown and iridescent gold leaf cover the walls and curved ceiling. Funky hand-painted art (the art and the walls are by the Sarah Moffat-Susan Bailie decorating team) is big and bold and some of it is matted with rice paper, which allows the light from the front hall to filter into the windowless dining room. Every dark wood table is set with fresh red flowers and wooden mats. Even the washrooms have been fussed over. They've done a very nice job.

And it's only my particular frustration - and likely no one else's - that into this fine new space must go the same old food.

Mostly very good - I hasten to add - but still the overly familiar lineup of appetizers and entrees you find everywhere: spring rolls, shrimp rolls, fish cakes, satay, soups, yums, curries (yellow, red, green) stirfries, noodles/fried rice dishes, plus a few chef's specials (curries served in a pineapple shell, say, or in the "chef's special sauce").

Here, it seemed to me, was a phoenix-esque opportunity to tender a different kind of Tahi restaurant, one that offered a much shorter, more original menu. This kitchen would have been up to it.

Well, it may not be distinctive, but Siam Bistro remains a solid neighbourhood restaurant with kind service and tasty staples and perhaps I'll just get on with telling you what it is rather than what I wish it might be.

Among its talents are its generous servings and pretty arrangements. Siam also has a talent for finding the happy balance of ginger, garlic, basil and chilies, which happily romp in so many of its dishes. Lime leaves too, especially in dishes like No. 33, a mildly spicy shrimp curry freshened with the intense citrus zing of shredded kaffir. Soups have bite and are packed with both flavour and ingredients. Spring rolls have the addictive quality you look for and just the right balance of grease with crunch. The chicken satay is moist, the peanut sauce piquant. The panang curry with chicken is full bodied and creamy-rich.

Spicy-hot dishes are nicely balanced with cooler ones, but if you want the food really inflamed, you can ask for the heat to be turned up a notch or two.

What I wouldn't mind turned down a notch or two is the sugar content in some dishes. An excessive sweetness at times plagues the food. The seafood curry with egg is gorgeously perfumed with lime leaves and basil, but I find it disturbingly sweet. I find the Pad Thai too sweet as well. (My children disagree).

Siam Bistro offers a strong list of beers and whiskeys. The wine list is kindly priced and offers choices that suit this food.