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Published on October 28, 2007

But a recent dinner meeting at a restaurant I'd never heard of delivered a real surprise.

Reno Café is in an old hotel of the same name, tucked away in a soi opposite the MBK shopping centre near the National Stadium. The food was simply great.

The menu brought traditional Thai recipes up to date by using new raw materials and different presentations. Take your traditional blanched morning glory salad: they dip the morning glory vines in batter and deep-fry them, serving them with the dressing as a dipping sauce. The crisp texture of the battered greens held the savoury sauce beautifully.

Also on offer are papaya salads, one with poached shrimp that seemed like a Thai take on a chicken Caesar salad. The other papaya salad has a dressing made with salted eggs and is garnished with crispy, slightly salty fried fish. Both were seasoned to perfection with the three stalwart flavours of Thai cuisine: saltiness from fish sauce, sweetness from palm sugar and sourness from lime juice.

They serve the usual fried sun-dried pork but also a very good grilled pork with jaew dipping sauce, an Isaan favourite that's usually served with sticky rice. Here, though, they dip wads of sticky rice in batter and deep-fry them. This keeps the rice moist and hot. What a wonderful idea!

I particularly liked their pork larb packed out with steamed Shanghai noodles. This gave a little more substance to the classic Isaan minced-pork salad without taking away any of its original character. In fact, the addition of the noodles makes this a light meal in itself, an Isaan version of the traditional kuay tiew.

Speaking of kuay tiew, Reno also does stir-fried rice-stick noodles in a drunken style with phak ga chade (water mimosa). This spicy number turned out to be very fragrant and packing quite a punch: it was instantly my favourite dish.

Then there was the green curry fried rice with prawns, which didn't look too potent but was actually very tasty and deceptively spicy. If you like your green curry, but want to keep your tastebuds, ask for it to be toned down a little because this restaurant definitely caters to local Thai tastes.

Another pick from the menu was deep-fried thousand-year-old eggs stir-fried with chilli, garlic and holy basil. Delicious! But this dish - which needs a rice accompaniment - is only for those with a soft spot for eggs and spicy food!

The sweet course offers something unusual in the way of non-traditional Thai desserts. The banana fritters served with honey and icing sugar are a must, and sure to damp-down the palate fire that will be raging after all those hot savoury dishes. They also have fried ice cream with chocolate and vanilla sauce. Being a diabetic, I have to watch what I eat, but on the evening in question I died and went to food heaven.

For those who want to make the same trip, bear in mind that the dining room is very small and very local.