WHEN WAS THE last time you actually tasted the vegetables in a fried spring roll? That’s the question that presented itself the first time I sampled the ones at Thai One On. The spring rolls at this sophisticated, new Lake City Thai restaurant have a fresh, green cabbage flavor that’s highlighted by the strong note of vinegar in their sweet-and-sour dipping sauce.
Of course, Seattle has no shortage of good, cheap Thai food. In fact, it’s easy to become jaded, and that makes it especially satisfying to come across a Thai restaurant that has a nice slice of ambition and a fresh take on atmosphere and decor—and even a sense of humor about it’s name. Instead of the usual sweet, heavily-sauced approach, the restaurant’s renditions of familiar Thai dishes are light and subtle, relying on good-quality ingredients and precise timing.
On one visit, the eggplant in our spicy eggplant ($7.95) was thoroughly tender and silky, but the Thai basil tossed with the dish was still bright green. Pud kee mao ($6.95) features crisp-tender broccoli and carrot coins, and meaty, homemade-tasting tofu (it’s made fresh daily by a producer in the International District. The dish’s wide rice noodles, usually just a bland vehicle for sauce, turn out to have a flavor of their own; they taste substantial and slightly sweet. And if our entrees arrived before we’d finished our appetizers, well, it was worth it—perfectly crisp-tender vegetables wait for no man, woman, or spring roll.
A respect for fresh ingredients and individual flavors characterizes most of the dishes I’ve tried at Thai One On. The kitchen abandons its restraint only when it comes to the use of hot chilies; our server said the restaurant’s spiciness scale runs from zero to five stars, but in reality, it seems, it starts around two and goes to eleven.
On another visit, the waitress’s eyes lit up when we ordered the tamarind scallops appetizer ($6.95); she said it was her favorite. The shellfish were nicely cooked and enlivened by a drizzle of pungent fish sauce, but as for tamarind, I couldn’t taste any. This was one dish that wasn’t all that different from other fried scallops you might have had before in other Thai or seafood restaurants.
I was more impressed by the yellow curry seafood ($9.95). As I’d come to expect by this time, the scallops were buttery and tender, the squid not the least bit rubbery, the shrimp meaty and just cooked through. All this was bathed in a sauce of mild—especially by Thai One On standards—yellow curry, made velvety with cooked egg, almost reminding us of egg-drop soup.
THAI ONE ON lives up to its name with an impressive selection of liquor. What’s more unexpected is the attention to detail behind the bar. A stem of lemongrass rested languidly in the lemongrass gimlet ($7), which was refreshingly citrus-y. The lychee cranberry kamikaze ($7), adorned with a lychee fruit speared on a toothpick, was dangerously drinkable and not too sweet. Even lowly Singha beer ($3.75) is elevated by its tall, elegant pilsner glass.
The first time I visited Thai One On, it was a warm summer evening. The bank of windows along the restaurant’s front wall was open to the fresh breeze and the sounds of traffic along Lake City Way, lending the place a pleasantly urban vibe. As the hostess guided my husband and me to our table, we decided the bench against the wall looked so inviting that we both opted to sit there side by side; next time I looked up, several other couples had adopted the same cozy arrangement.
With the arrival of the cold and dark of fall, the restaurant’s dark wood, Thai sculptures, and turquoise-and-gold walls keep the place warm and comfortable. And its combination of hole-in-the-wall prices and grown-up, just-slightly-more-elegant-than-usual atmosphere fosters the kind of contented calm that comes from treating yourself right, like a clean shirt—and, yes, a good stiff drink—at the end of a long workday.
Thai One On, 12343 Lake City Way N.E., 206-362-6999, LAKE CITY. 11 a.m.—10 p.m. Sun.-Thurs.; 11 a.m.—10:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat.
