For all of the growth on the Charlotte culinary scene, some of my favorite Queen City restaurants are the little unassuming places tucked away in remote locales. Bangkok Ocha is such a find.

Thai dishes are marked by a quartet of flavors: hot, sweet, salty and sour. Ingredients like lemongrass, kaffir lime, coconut, red and green Asian chilies and Thai fish and soy sauces all play a part. A talented chef, like Bangkok’s Pat Polasit, knows how to make them all work together for plate after plate full of flavor. With 20 years of culinary experience under her belt, Polasit partnered with Steven Chin to open Bangkok Ocha eight years ago. At the time, the Carmel Commons Shopping Center was relatively new; growth in Charlotte’s south perimeter was but a gleam in some developer’s eye; and the Ballantyne area was just beginning to take shape. Now the area is booming, and although Carmel Commons has had its share of revolving tenants, Bangkok Ocha has held tight, enjoying a loyal band of customers who appreciate made-fromscratch Thai cuisine.

Sunny, Chin’s wife, and a couple of employees who have been with the restaurant since the beginning, join Chin in the front of the house, while Polasit and several of her sons command the kitchen. The result is fast, friendly, personable service combined with great food.

Specialties of the house
Over the course of several dinners and lunches, I found little on the Bangkok Ocha menu I didn’t like. Some dishes I’ve enjoyed more than others, but everything was well done and prepared from scratch. “Of course, dishes are stir-fried right before we serve,” explained Chin, “but our chef takes the time to make every sauce for every dish and every bowl of soup to order. That is what sets us apart.” While there may be a bit of a wait for “from-scratch” cuisine, customers benefit in getting things exactly as they like.

Polasit’s specialty is seafood, and house noodle is her signature dish. Although customers may order the noodles with their choice of pork, beef, chicken or vegetarian options, the Chins and Polasit like it best with shrimp and scallops. Here thick, wide, fresh noodles, large shrimp and tender scallops are cooked in a light, savory Thai soy sauce for a mild but most flavorful repast. Egg, onion, bean sprouts and ground peanuts add texture and taste. The Thai soy used in the recipe (and served as a condiment at the table) is not overwhelmingly salty like many Americanized versions and thus serves as a solid building block for the start of Polasit’s exquisite sauce.

Curry, curry – read all about it
The curry dishes at Bangkok Ocha make up a separate section on the menu and run the gamut of flavorful concoctions from classic red Thai curry sauce to a more sedate yellow curry with potatoes. The green curry is the hottest but still quite flavorful. “We can make anything real hot,” Chin said with a laugh. “We just throw in another chili if someone wants it that way.” But Chin suggests ordering dishes at a medium heat level so the flavor of the other ingredients comes through. The red curry, called gaeng dang, is served with a coconut cream sauce, green peas, string beans, bamboo shoots, chicken and basil leaves. Bangkok Ocha also offers gaeng panang, a yellow curry in coconut gravy with kaffir lime leaves and sweet basil; gaeng massaman, a yellow curry with potatoes, peanuts, onion and coconut milk; and gaeng keow wan, a spicy green curry with coconut cream, bamboo, green beans and basil leaves. One of Bangkok’s frequent dinner specials is harbor shrimp, a curry dish featuring large stirfried shrimp bathed in yellow curry with minced garlic and ginger – spicy enough to get your attention, with a zest and zip that rolls wonderfully around your tongue.

More on the menu
Other favorites include the fresh rolls, golden triangles, Thai fish cakes and mee krob, all from the appetizer section of the menu. The fresh rolls are stuffed with boiled shrimp, rice noodles and raw vegetables and herbs all wrapped in a soft rice paper and served with a special brown sauce. The rolls are light and good for you too. A couple of orders will make a meal, and if you’re looking for fun tailgate fare, order a dozen or so to go.

Tofu tod is the Thai name for the golden triangles. In this dish, bite-sized triangles of firm tofu are deep-fried to a crispy crunch. Dip the tofu in the accompanying sweet chili peanut sauce for a taste that will whet your appetite for more. The Thai fish cakes or tod mun pla may be one of my favorite appetizers on Bangkok’s menu. Like a crab cake of sorts, the small and crispy fried patties come four to an order and are made from minced fish with a mix of Thai spices and herbs. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, the cakes are served with a cucumber chili sauce for dipping.

Like the noodle entrée pad or pud thai, mee krob is a favorite Thai starter or snack. Bangkok serves mee krob two ways: in a sweet-and-sour sauce in which the finely minced meat or vegetables are tossed with the rice noodles, or in a rich brown sauce served separately from the rice noodles. According to the Chins and Polasit, the sweet-and-sour version is the more traditional recipe, whereas the brown sauce is a more modern version of the same, resulting from the culinary influences of the Canton region of China. In both cases the noodles and meat mix are placed inside a leaf of iceberg lettuce and then rolled up and eaten like a burrito.

The lemongrass soup or tom yum is far and away my favorite soup at Bangkok Ocha. This hot-and-sour soup has a clear broth studded with a choice of chicken, seafood or vegetables. The addition of lemongrass gives it an unpredictable zing. Because every meal at Bangkok Ocha is cooked to order, the dinner entrée menu lists sauces and preparation styles and allows patrons to select the meat to be included. All entrées are served with aromatic sides of steaming-hot jasmine rice. At dinner look for entrée selections with fried rice, noodles and many house specialties as well.

The lunch menu is short, sweet and easy on the wallet. All items come with jasmine rice, a bowl of house soup, a fried spring roll and iced tea. Five different preparations are offered each day and customers can once again select from pork, beef, chicken, seafood and a vegetarian version. Pud Thai, house noodle and another noodle dish called pud see ew made from soft flat noodles, pan-fried with egg, broccoli and a special dark soy sauce, are offered daily. My favorite lunch item is offered on Fridays. Pra ram long song consists of a special peanut chili sauce stir-fried with your choice of meat or seafood atop a bed of steamed spinach. It’s truly one of the best Thai dishes I have had in years. In the evenings, Polasit prepares a dinner entrée version with seafood called Siam shrimp and scallops.

While the restaurant’s name may conjure up visions of a Thai-Mexican fusion establishment, the word ocha in Thai means delicious. It is an ancient word used as an honorable title. Lunch or dinner, taking out or eating in, Bangkok Ocha certainly lives up to its name.

Well-known Charlotte restaurant critic, food writer, cooking instructor and connoisseur of food and wine, Heidi Edidin writes "The Charlotte Weekly: Culinary Corner," a restaurant review or food feature that appears weekly. Contact Heidi with questions and restaurant, food or story ideas by email at heidi@thecharlotteweekly.com.

This article first appeared in "The Charlotte Weekly" on July 7, 2006. "The Charlotte Weekly" is a free, locally owned, independent newspaper that's "About the Community, For the Community," available every Thursday in North and South Charlotte and Uptown.

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