Beef Pad See Yew is a star at Dalah.
The block of Cordova near Lake has never been a stretch anyone would call glamorous, but on a recent evening the room at Dalah felt like somewhere more exotic: deep red tile tables, captivating smells, and a kitchen sending out plates that seemed to have wandered in from three different countries and agreed, against the odds, to get along.
Dalah is named for the torch ginger flower, a spiky pink bloom that grows in the garden of co-owner Nataya Maraddeta’s mother, back home in Thailand. Maraddeta, who goes by Fai, moved to the United States in 2012 and met her husband, Peter, whose family ran a small Thai restaurant in Pasadena that closed more than a decade ago. Peter grew up helping out there, and the city stayed with him. When the couple returned from a stint back in Thailand, a stop in Pasadena for what Fai calls some errands turned into something else. They found the space on Cordova and decided to build the restaurant Peter had wanted for years.
What they have built is not the restaurant his family ran. Fai describes their food as home-style Thai with a playful twist, and that twist shows up in small, deliberate collisions.
A whole young coconut, cracked open and served with a straw, opened the meal the way it might in Bangkok, sweet and unadorned.
The garlic grilled short ribs, listed simply on the menu, arrive as a fan of char-streaked meat laced with fat, the kind of grill work that would not be out of place at an Argentine parrilla, set beside a tangle of quick-pickled shallot and shishito. It is a dish that trusts smoke and salt to do the talking.
The chicken satay takes a bigger swing. Thighs are grilled until the skin blisters, then finished with a rum-laced satay glaze and a chimichurri built from herbs rather than peanuts, an arjard pickle standing in for the usual cucumber relish.
The Duck Leg in a curried broth was rich and wondrous.
Ordered alongside was a whole duck leg, dark and lacquered, set into a curried broth the color of turmeric with a smooth, pale-green tapioca quenelle melting slowly at its edge, an unannounced but welcome piece of kitchen showmanship.
The pad see ew arrives the way Fai says it should, wide rice noodles stir-fried hard enough to pick up char, tossed with egg and beef, and topped here with sliced grilled steak and torn basil. Fai calls it her favorite dish on the menu, and it is easy to see why: the noodles taste of the wok itself, not just the sauce poured over it.
Dessert brought mango sticky rice, its coconut cream pooled beneath ribbons of fruit, and a mound of shaved Thai tea ice cream dusted gold and scattered with ice cubes, melting into a glass before it could be finished.
Dalah opened on Cordova near Lake in June. Fai says she and Peter are still cooking mostly what they like to eat themselves, and hoping the neighborhood keeps liking it, too.
Dalah is at 851 Cordova St, Pasadena, CA 91101. (626) 884-2645. dalahpasadena.com.
