Thiptara and Thai on Main go upscale

THIPTARA PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

There arrives a time for most foreign foods to be transformed by classic American gentrification, the moment when a canon of recipes become so familiar that the easiest way to tweak them is simply to lay them out on fine white plates. The cuisine of the moment—at least in Long Beach—is Thai, as creamy green curries and charred chicken satay are being gussied up all over town. It’s a pattern played out in the parallel paths of two new restaurants: Thiptara and Thai on Main.

Thiptara occupies the PCH space long inhabited by the Mexican Affair, a brick building constructed in the same faux Mission style responsible for all the earliest Taco Bells. Though the exterior received little more than a fresh coat of paint (it’s now a cool grey), Thiptara’s innards underwent a drastic and handsome transformation. Patterned red wallpaper warms the dining room; a backlit bar glows orange in preparation for its first customers (the restaurant’s liquor license is still in the application process). Near the restrooms, billowy pendant lamps bloom like flowers sprouting from the ceiling.

Stripped from its intelligent interior, Thiptara’s core is familiar: the restaurant is in fact the second, more upscale venture from the owners of Thai Sky, a Wrigley favorite stationed on Pacific Ave. Thiptara’s menu is nearly identical to that of its sister restaurant; and because it had little to do in terms of ironing out conceptual wrinkles, Thiptara’s kitchen is already cooking with a marked confidence.

There’s a bounty of appetizers, but salads are essential here. Among the 15 options, there’s the usual larb and the increasingly common nam tok, as well as familiar papaya and mango salads, the latter a mix of mango, shrimp, scallions, shallots, mint, cilantro and cashews in a lemongrass dressing. Each salad possesses a distinct bite (dialed up or down depending on your capsaicin tolerance) that serves as a perfect prelude.

Curries are crucial, too, particularly the pumpkin curry. It’s a spicy, heaping bowl of roasted chile paste, coconut milk, hunks of pumpkin, chicken, kaffir lime leaves and Thai holy basil. (The accompanying rice is piled into mounds that, if they don’t first recall familiar feminine curves, will probably resemble the busty silhouette of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.)

The rest of the menu is divided not by proteins, but by essential components and cooking styles: noodles, various fried-rice preparations, soups and sautéed dishes. There’s some Chinese-American influence (see the orange chicken, “Thai dim sum,” etc.), but balanced options like fish in a terrific tamarind-chile sauce (your choice of sole, salmon, striped bass or whole red snapper) more than make up for any menu concessions.

Seal Beach’s Thai on Main treads similar territory. A few doors down from Beachwood BBQ, Thai on Main is a purple place accented by chairs fit with plum-colored padding and cool aubergine walls. It’s a well-designed, contemporary space that even adds a small bar (and some nice happy-hour discounts) to fit in along Main Street’s beer-heavy bar crawl.

Dishes sometimes falter here (each curry in the sampler-sized curry trio has one defect—too salty, too subdued, too sweet), but for the most part, Thai on Main produces some rather admirable renditions of classic dishes, including a good bowl of garlic-laced green-lipped mussels. There isn’t quite the variety as at Thiptara, but it’s a pleasant surprise to find fish cakes and fried Thai jerky lodged in the list of Thai on Main’s appetizers.

Often in this process of modernization and transformation, restaurants lose focus on their base strengths. Yet there’s not much dulling of quality or flavor at either of these restaurants. Thiptara and Thai on Main are able ambassadors of dressed-up Thai tastes.

Still hungry? Visit Miles for more at eatfoodwith.me.

THIPTARA 5630 E PACIFIC COAST HWY • LONG BEACH 90814 • 562.498.8809 • OPEN DAILY • THIPTARALONGBEACH.COM

THAI ON MAIN 117 MAIN ST • SEAL BEACH 90740 • 562.598.7030 • OPEN DAILY • THAIONMAIN.COM

Tags: curries, Food, larb, Long Beach, nam tok, Restaurants, seal beach, thai on main, thiptara