Thai-D Up In The Grove

So you can't turn around without someone shoving a bloody hunk of designer beef in your face. But you can turn around and see we really could use some better Thai restaurants.

Could the new Atchana's East West Kitchen in Coco Grove's Mutiny Hotel be one? Well, it's got a good enough pedigree. Proprietors Atchana and Steve Capellini also run the well-regarded if "ugly green" Siam Lotus Room (a former Best Thai restaurant in NT's Best Of poll) in South Miami. Nothing ugly about Atchana's, though, with its swanky big hotel-style dining room and pretty, tree-bedecked outdoor patio.

With their namesake restaurant, the pair has bitten off a pretty big chew--breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week. Not just all the usual Thai suspects like curries and Pad Thai and spicy beef salad, but omelets, Eggs Benedict, Caesar salad, burgers, Cajun jerked fish wrap (huh?) and grilled New York strip with mashed potatoes and veg.

I know; steak, again. Give it up for a nice vegetable curry!