Best phad thai and larb gai are demurely hidden in a strip mall

It's 18 MapQuest miles from my house in Seattle to Noodle Boat Thai Cuisine in Issaquah. Doesn't sound that far, but it sure can seem that way. Especially when I'm a) hungry and b) eagerly anticipating another dose of the best phad thai and larb gai I've found to date in the Puget Sound area.

RESTAURANT REVIEW

NOODLE BOAT THAI CUISINE

PHONE: 425-391-8096

ADDRESS: 700 N.W. Gilman Blvd.,

Suite E-104, Issaquah

PRICES: Appetizers $4.95-$7.50; salads $3.95-$6.95; noodles or rice $6.50-$6.95; entree $6.95-$9.95; "additional" $5.95-$10.95

HOURS: Lunch, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner, 5-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 5-9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday

BAR: Bottled beer, wine by the glass

SMOKING: Smoke-free

RESERVATIONS: Accepted

PAYMENT: Major credit cards, no personal checks

SOUND: Thai music and low-level conversation

ACCESS: Barrier-free

KID-FRIENDLY: Yes; high chairs available

PARKING: Free parking -- it's a strip mall

BEST BETS: Mieng kum $7.50; larb gai $6.50; phad thai chicken $6.95; Phuket Island rice $6.50; green boat $6.95; jungle curry $6.95; BBQ chicken $6.95; Thai iced tea

RATING:

Food: *** 1/2

Service: ** 1/2

Ambience: ** 1/2

Dealing with our normally annoying local drivers becomes excruciating when I'm in this condition. I want to harm the guy who neglects to put on his turn signal until the light turns green. I want to do evil to the parking-spot-cruiser slowing and speeding in front of me.

Phew. Deep breaths.

Happily, almost immediately after I enter Noodle Boat, life's irritations fade away. It isn't simply the outstanding Thai cuisine prepared at this small strip-mall restaurant that puts me in good spirits. It's everything: the caring service, the cozy atmosphere and -- all right, I admit it -- the bubbling, glowing acrylic "water columns" (complete with fake floating fish and motorized color wheel) separating service and dining areas.

The only problem I have at Noodle Boat is one you'll never face. To do my job the way it should be done, I do my best to order different dishes during each review visit. At Noodle Boat, however, I want to forget about doing my best. I want to be an ordinary person who can order her favorite dishes every time she eats here and never give it a second thought. Until, of course, I realize that every untried item on Noodle Boat's menu represents another dish I might know and love -- if only I would give it a chance.

So each time I visit, I allow myself the luxury of reordering one or two favorites and auditioning a few new dishes to see what undiscovered joys might await me. Most nights, I go home with leftovers, but when to-go boxes contain such gustatory pleasure, that's hardly what I'd call a tragedy.

So what, exactly, is on my short list of favorites? The big three are larb gai ($6.50), phad thai chicken ($6.95), and mieng kum ($7.50). One or two of these dishes is mandatory during every visit.

Until I journeyed to Noodle Boat, I'd lost hope of finding an adequate, much less laudable, larb gai in this town. Theirs meets my standards and then some: coarsely ground chicken, red onion and whole fresh mint leaves mixed with a dusting of roasted rice powder and a generous squeeze of lime juice. A wedge of fresh cabbage for wrapping and eating comes on the plate. Cabbage also helps cool your palate if you like your larb gai three stars, as I do.

Speaking of stars or levels of spiciness, Noodle Boat doesn't kid around. That's another thing I respect and like about this family-run restaurant: When they say three stars (actually chili peppers, on their menu) equals "hot," they mean it. Your sinuses will clear, your nose may drip. Have a tissue handy. Other than my three-star larb gai, I order most dishes two stars or medium. Trust me, you'll still feel a kick.

I feel a bit dopey extolling the virtues of chicken phad thai -- a peanut-y noodle dish I've ridiculed as safe food for scaredy-cats, but I cannot help myself. Noodle Boat's fried rice stick noodles -- tangled with egg, pleasing morsels of chicken (our choice), green onions and topped with fresh bean sprouts, ground peanuts and grated carrot -- put all other local versions to shame. Add a squeeze of fresh lime, toss it all together and what you have is truly addictive.

Mieng kum does nothing less than wake your taste buds. A fun starter for two or more to share, it's a hands-on wrap-fest of stimulating mix-and-match ingredients covering all points of the sweet-sour-salty-hot flavor compass. Don't be daunted. Palm one of the big green cha-plu leaves (Piper sarmentosum), and then add any or all of the following: roasted coconut, peanut, chopped red onion, sliced Thai chili, chopped lime (skin and all), fresh ginger and jamlike palm-sugar sauce. Fold the sides of the leaf in, top down, and you're set. Pop the whole thing into your mouth and feel your senses revive.

Noodle Boat serves bottled beer and basic wines by the glass, but my preferred beverage is sweet, milky Thai iced tea served in a lidded, terra cotta container outfitted with a flexible straw. For me, it's a must.

Beyond these necessities, I highly recommend two soupy noodle dishes: the eponymous noodle boat ($6.50) or slightly more exotic green boat ($6.95) flavored with green curry and coconut milk; the red jungle curry ($6.95) or young coconut green curry ($9.95); fruity, aromatic Phuket Island rice ($6.50); or the homey yellow curry fried rice ($6.95) with carrot and onion.

My final suggestion is BBQ Chicken ($6.95) -- sometimes called "Thai boxing chicken" or "boxing stadium roast chicken" -- grilled chicken marinated in sultry Thai barbecue, served with a sweet sauce on the side.

The point is, you don't need my help. Many, many pleasures await you at Noodle Boat. Just order the first one; the rest will follow.

Note: Noodle Boat can be tough to find. Once you see the yellow Denny's sign, you're almost there. Noodle Boat is at one end of the wrap-around strip mall that shares a parking lot with Denny's.

P-I restaurant critic Penelope Corcoran can be reached at 206-448-8391 or penelopecorcoran@seattlepi.com.

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