Thai restaurant doesn't take shortcuts on tasty dishes

"Arharn" is Thai for "food," and it is a fitting title for this humble, wholesome, well-priced, delicious little restaurant that recently sprang up near the Super Target on Powers Boulevard.

Dishes such as steaming-hot, spicy lemongrass soup swimming with shrimp and fresh chopped cilantro ($6), and deep-orange Panang Curry - tart with fresh basil and kaffir lime leaves - offer traditional Thai food without flourishes or shortcuts.

"We make it the way Thai should be," said owner Doungsamorn Peanvanvanich, who with her cousin moved from Denver to open the cheerfully bright Arharn in February.

That means recipes they learned from their families. And while Peanvanvanich goes by the simplified name Pong, she takes no Americanized shortcuts with the food.

Take the Pad Thai Ho Kai ($7.90). The dish wraps the traditional, simple Pad Thai stir-fry of rice noodles; egg; fish, shrimp or chicken; crushed peanuts; and cilantro, and wraps it in a paper-thin omelet.

This "Thai-style burrito," Pong said, is a popular street food in Thailand, "but nobody serves it here because it is too difficult."

Too bad. It's fantastic. Do not leave the restaurant without ordering this dish.

The green curry ($6.70) brims with the same allegiance to true Thai cooking. American versions often slide toward being too rich with coconut milk or too sweet with sugar, masking the more interesting flavors of spice and fish sauce. At Arharn, rich and sweet take a back seat, aromatic spices drive, and musky, salty fish sauce shares shotgun with fresh fronds of Thai basil.

Pong says the green curry is a favorite dish with military customers who have developed a taste for real Thai overseas.

A better starter curry might be the sweeter, milder Panang ($6.70) made from, among other things, galangal root, lemongrass, coriander root, coriander, cumin, peanuts, garlic and salt. It comes swimming with a choice of meat, thin rounds of zucchini, julienned carrots and more of that lovely basil. Pour a little over white rice. It is fantastic.

The pairing of wide ribbons of rice noodles, lemongrass and fish sauce in the Drunken Noodles ($6.60) offers a bright and delicious balance.

The supremely simple dessert of ripe mango and sticky rice cooked in sweet coconut ($4) is not to be missed.

A word about spice. Every Thai restaurant gives you the option of how spicy you want to make your dish, but there is no standard. "Hot" at one place may be mildly spicy, and at another place may be, to quote Lisa Simpson, hot enough to make you "see through time." At Arharn, they don't mess around. Medium has a decent punch. Hot may cause pain. And Thai hot is a straight-out cage fight.

I ran into only one disappointment: I ordered two deep-fried appetizers for takeout - seasoned fish cakes ($4) and shrimp on a stick, wrapped in rice noodles, then fried ($4) - both were cold and rubbery by the time I ate them. Anything fried should be eaten right away.

Arharn is worth a sit-down meal. The room is bright and modern, but cozy and full of plants. The service is quick and friendly without being rushed.

The fans it wins over (and I expect they will be many) are well-deserved.

ARHARN THAI RESTAURANT
**** (splendidly spicy)

Address: 3739 Bloomington St.
Phone: 596-6559
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, 4-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays, noon-9 p.m. Saturdays and noon-8:30 p.m. Sundays
Entrees: $6-$9
Vegetarian: Plenty
Alcohol: No
Credit cards: Yes