Elizabeth Keyser Photo

Tender squid and octopus rests in a sweet-spicy brown sauce

Bangkok Restaurant
72 Newtown Rd., Danbury, (203) 791-0640, www.bangkokrestaurant.com

Thai food, once an exotic novelty, is now more available but less real. It's been dumbed down for the masses. Restaurants pretending to cook Thai food create dishes lacking in the balance of true Thai cuisine — the spicy, sweet, salty and sour flavors, and the combination of cooked meat, fresh herbs and cooling vegetables. Insipid and too sweet, these faux Thai dishes lack heat and complexity. I recommend avoiding Thai dishes in any restaurant that also serves Chinese and Japanese food.

The good news is that Bangkok, the restaurant that introduced Thai food to Connecticut in 1986, is still going strong. It's the best I've had in the area. Here you can get Thai food so spicy you'll be suffused with a hot chili pepper rush requiring sips of Singha beer to put out the flames, and you'll also find mild and comforting dishes that will please children and the less adventurous. Bangkok is eminently family friendly.

With young hungry visitors in tow, we arrived early at Bangkok's inauspicious location in the Nutmeg Square Shopping Center. The restaurant had yet to open, but Taew, the owner, noticed us standing outside with the kids and ushered us into the restaurant. We were enveloped in her hospitality, as she got soft drinks for the kids, beers for the adults and shrimp chips for the table, and then asked us to give her a few minutes while she turned on all the lights and set the tables.

When she returned, she told us the kids would like bo-pit-pad, mini spring rolls filled with ground pork, bamboo shoots and cellophane noodles. She was right. They loved the crunchy bite-sized rolls, and happily dipped them into sweet plum sauce. Chicken sate, skewered and grilled and served with peanut dipping sauce, was also a natural for kids.

The adults wanted their food spicy — "Thai-spicy," our table's Thai traveler told Taew. She brought us a plate of chicken larb ($11.95), tongue-tingling minced chicken, shallots and cilantro, permeated with a balanced spicy-sour sauce of chili, lime and fish sauce. The larb was served in iceberg lettuce cups, a good use for the much-maligned lettuce, because it stood up to the sauce, provided freshness and a delicate crunch.

From the salads, we choose Yum Nuan ($11.95), a room-temperature dish of sliced charbroiled steak served with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and red onion — all of it dressed with the spicy lime sauce. The kids just ate pieces of the smoky meat. The adults loved the combination of rich, pink meat and spicy and cool vegetables.

The kids wanted cashew chicken, and I ordered it with broccoli. It came in a sweet-ish brown sauce, the slices of chicken like velvet, the broccoli bright green and tender. We urged the kids to eat the broccoli. Ben, ever the trooper, dove in. Tessa assiduously maneuvered one piece of broccoli around her plate. It never touched her lips.

Pad Thai is now such a familiar dish, it's like a bore. Not so at Bangkok. Here it's made so well, you'll remember exactly why you used to love it. The rice noodles were light and well separated (not clumped). The shrimp was plump, sweet and tender, and the bean sprouts fresh and crunchy. Little pieces of tofu blended innocuously into the whole, and a shower of chopped roasted peanuts added flavor and substance. The adults reveled in a dish of sliced pork tenderloin and green beans in a hot green curry. Tender mixed seafood in a sweet-spicy brown sauce was also a hit.

For dessert, we shared mango and sticky rice. The rice was infused with sweet coconut milk and the mango was fresh and juicy. Homemade coconut ice cream was a refreshing way to end the meal.

Bangkok's walls are plum and paper umbrellas hang from the ceiling. The waitresses, wearing traditional long colorful silk dresses, are young and friendly. We left the restaurant with smiles on our faces. "That place was good," said Ben. "You should review it."