I don’t usually write about restaurants when they’re going through a “soft opening” phase. Soft openings exist so a new restaurant can iron out the kinks, educate the staff, try out dishes, test the kitchen.
Since the menu at Dalah in Pasadena is not simply a “soft opening” menu but a “very soft opening” menu, I should have given the place a pass. And yet, and yet … I’ve been seeing so much online buzz about this understated contemporary Thai — half a block off Lake Avenue, in an easy-to-miss location — I had to give it a try. You should, too.
Even in a town of many Thai restaurants, Dalah stands out from the crowd. The “very soft” menu was solid as could be. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
In the meantime, Dalah’s first wave is packed with dishes that make you pause during that first taste and ask yourself: How the heck can a dish I’ve had many times before taste so much better than it has in the past?
This is the sort of experience that food writers — an overfed, jaded bunch of coddled aesthetes — dream of finding. Something to knock us for a loop. That joyous experience of: What the dickens is this? It doesn’t happen often. But when it does, it’s like being bonked over the head in a Roadrunner cartoon. You see stars as your tastebuds get wacked with a sledgehammer.
It’s an experience I’ve had in my life with that first bite of the quintessential N’Yawk pizza slice. With a spoonful of ultra dark chocolate gelato at a shop in Florence, Italy. With a Philly cheesesteak at Pat’s King of Steaks on 9th Street on the south end. Even at Baejarins Beztu Pylsur at Tryggvagata 1 in downtown Reykjavik, where the smoked lamb hot dog has been served since 1937 — and even tastes great with an Arctic wind howling off the North Atlantic. (The only seating is at some picnic tables outside; Bill Clinton famously liked the dog so much, he went back three times during a visit.)
I tasted those dishes lo these many years ago. And I can taste them still. I feel the same about the chicken satay at Dalah.
I know, I know … every Thai restaurant in town serves chicken satay. Marinated chicken on a skewer, served with a tiny chopped marinated vegetable salad, and a cup of dipping sauce that tastes amazingly like spiced peanut butter. (Probably because it is spiced peanut butter!)
The satay served at Dalah (3.5 stars; 851 Cordova St., Pasadena; 626-884-2645; www.dalahpasadena.com) is a multi-ethnic wonderment. Not just tender chunks of chicken thighs on a skewer. But thighs in an Argentine chimichurri sauce (parsley, garlic, oregano, olive oil and vinegar) — a marinade with a name that comes from the Basque term tximitxurri, which translates as “a mixture of several things in no particular order.”
Add onto that a satay glaze with a rum base. Put the pickle relish called arjard on the side. Add a nice cup of chunky peanut sauce. And the result is a dish that had me put down my utensil and look at it in wonder. This is chicken satay superficially like I’ve had before — but also unlike any I’ve had before.
And that’s the case with everything I tasted. The pad Thai — as basic a dish in a Thai restaurant as spaghetti with meatballs is in an Italian — has a crispiness that lasted well into the next day. (I like to take dishes home to eat them under the kitchen lights.) The noodles — crunchy as potato chips — were a perfect balance of sweet and sour, nicely mixed with a choice of grilled chicken and grilled tiger shrimp.
The pad see ew had a smoky flavor that was both unexpected, and just wonderful, tossed with a soy glaze that adhered to the wide noodles like Krazy Glue, and beef that was as tender as Mexican birria. The fried rice was jumbled with lump blue crab. The chicken wings were in a coriander and cumin marinade with crispy shallots and a chili jam. The garlic grilled short ribs came with shishito peppers. The only salad was grilled beef with a spicy lime dressing. Even the salad made me stop and wonder “What the heck?”
The “very soft opening” menu has just five Small and Special dishes, two curries, two noodles, one rice. There are three sides — including kab-moo, which is Thai-style pork cracklins. You dip it in spicy chili paste. It’s a dish from Northern Thailand that’s akin to the cracklins from our Deep South. There’s Thai tea ice for dessert.
The kitchen is wide open. The décor is sparse. The staff is friendly as could be. I asked how much bigger the menu would be when it’s no longer “very soft.” I was told maybe 10 dishes will be added. I’ll be back. I want to taste every one of them.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Dalah
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Where: 851 Cordova St., Pasadena
- Information: 626-884-2645; www.dalahpasadena.com
- When: Lunch and dinner, Wednesday through Sunday
- Details: Tea and soft drinks; reservations important
- The food: A modest, easy-to-miss Thai café with some of the best Siamese cooking in town — unique twists on familiar dishes, with a “soft opening” menu that makes me look forward to what’s next.
- How much: About $40 per person
- On the “soft opening” menu: 5 “Small and Special” Dishes ($16-$26), 2 Curries ($26-$28), 3 Noodles and Rice ($19-$30), 3 Sides ($4-$6), 2 Desserts ($8-$15)
- Credit cards: MC, V
- What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)