Critics’ choice: The flavors of Southeast Asia
Khâluna Minneapolis
“What’s the fastest way to reach a whitesand Thai beach resort from Minneapolis?” asked Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl in Mpls.St.Paul magazine. I’d recommend a visit to chef Ann Ahmed’s most ambitious restaurant to date. Step into the dining room, order a gin and tonic enhanced by dragon fruit, and Khâluna will “quickly give you the feeling you’re sitting within a cabana of beach palms.” Add food—maybe samosas whose chicken filling is infused with the smoky flavor of a wood fire—and you’ll realize that this venture represents the Laotian-born chef’s “kick-down-the-door entrance into elite dining circles.” Mango fish is a delight, but the next-level dish is the duck, which fans out perfectly seared, aged D’Artagnan Rohan duck breast over a caramelized lemongrass and chile-dressed laab herb salad. A “thrilling” cocktail list complements the food, as do Ahmed’s jeows—Laotian relishes that together feel like “a window into the culinary heart of one of our city’s finest upcoming chefs.” 4000 Lyndale Ave. S., (612) 345-5199
Phuket Café Portland, Ore.
On paper, Phuket Café is a Thai restaurant, but “beyond that, all labels are off,” said Karen Brooks in Portland Monthly. It also happens to be the city’s best new bar, with a soundtrack that whips from Esan country to Mexican metal and “out-ofthe-box” flavors in every dish or specialty drink it sells. Consider the Coffin Maker, a mezcal concoction that’s like “a smoky margarita eating a Thai cucumber salad.” The kitchen, helmed by Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom, specializes in Bangkok flavors. His ceviche with peanut brittle is “sensuous and daring.” And the snacks are excellent, from the addictive curry puffs to fried rice noodle crackers that you use to scoop up pork crumbles “hot enough to part your hair.” Further down the menu, there are problems. At times, the salt levels are “high enough to corrode metal.” And the deep-fried curryglazed potatoes, which were “screaming good” one night, lacked crunch the next.
Give Phuket Café time to mature, though. It’s already a blast, and possibly “the most fascinating food experiment in Portland.” 1818 NW 23rd Place, (503) 781-2997
Kingfisher San Diego
Vietnamese flavors are the launching point for this “dazzling” new upscale restaurant in Golden Hill, said Ian Anderson in the San Diego Reader. But there’s “a lot more ingenuity” at work at Kingfisher, beginning with the gold-accented dining room, stylized lotus wallpaper, and stunning island bar. The menu, meanwhile, is “clearly the work of a high-caliber chef in possession of a whole world of culinary influences.” You will find some Vietnamese standards, such as chicken wings glazed in tamarind with crispy garlic and crushed peanuts. There’s also an excellent striped sea bass, seared in caramelized fish sauce to create a pleasing blend of “light sweetness and rich umami.” But chef Jonathan Bautista also reaches all the way across the globe for dishes such as mussels escabeche—mussels blanched in an acidic coconut broth flavored with Thai basil and lemon verbena, and served cold. After trying Bautista’s mussels, “I’d like never to eat them any other way.” Score a hard-to-get reservation and you too can experience how Kingfisher defies expectations in all the right ways. 2469 Broadway, (619) 432-1014