All You Need Is Larb

But Sabai Thai is only a year old, and it has a lot of things going for it. For starters, it's one of the cleanest and best-looking Thai restaurants in the city. The decor is quite modern, with blond wood tables and chairs against mustard-colored walls. A series of large framed photographs hanging on the wall depicts Thai dishes in partial focus at sexy angles. And in preparation for Christmas, the fake palm trees have been decorated with strings of lights.

The food can be great too; it's just a matter of finding the right dishes.

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On our first visit to Sabai Thai, five of us descended on the place like an invading army, ordered way too much food and then loudly devoured an impressive amount of the smorgasbord. Standouts included the larb gai, a salad of cold minced chicken tossed with lemongrass, scallions, lime juice and chile peppers that's marked with one star on the menu. If you ask me, it was three-star hot and my favorite of the Thai salads. Fried fish tofu was the mystery dish -- no one could figure out what made the aromatic but plain-looking fried tofu cubes taste fishy. My editor ordered her favorite, tofu basil, a dish of soy cubes and herbs tossed with onion, bell pepper and spices. She liked the tofu, but she really went nuts for the kee mao noodles. I finally had to take them away from her for her own good.

Our slightly inebriated cocktail correspondent also approved of the drunkard's noodles. He ordered tiger cry, which is supposed to be a salad of chargrilled steak strips served with a screamingly hot sauce. But he wasn't impressed by what we actually got: a plain steak with a none-too-spicy dipping sauce on the side. Bored with his entrée, the Stirred and Shaken man ended up in the kitchen supervising the efforts of Ms. Foon.

We ate ourselves silly, took home cartons upon cartons of leftovers, and still the bill came to less than $80. Which makes me think this could be just the place for a low-rent holiday party. And they've already decorated the fake palm trees!