Prik Hom

The mood is relaxed at this quiet neighborhood newcomer, but the compact menu offers an excitingly fresh, vibrant take on Thai cuisine. It is owned by siblings Tanya and Jim Suwanpanya, the latter of whom runs the kitchen and applies finesse learned in fine-dining kitchens in Bangkok to approachable versions of both familiar and lesser-known dishes. The name translates to fragrant chili, and aroma is part and parcel of the cooking, from complex hand-pounded curry pastes, to a bright, herbaceous salad of crunchy lotus stem. Even a signature dessert of coconut ice cream topped with candied palm seeds and pandan-flavored rice crisps is finished with a plume of fragrant smoke from a traditional Thai incense candle.