Kittichai (CLOSED)

Graceful, candy-colored orchids, suspended in water-filled glass jars at the entrance, are an apt introduction to one of the city’s finest Thai fusion restaurants. Chef Ian Chalermkittichai’s savvy interpretation of Thai cuisine is at once elegant and playful: The cold beef salad, heaped onto a banana leaf speared with a toothpick, receives crunch from a light coating of roasted rice powder; monkfish tingles with ginger curry; and banana spring rolls are drizzled in a burnt-honey sauce. The garden-style dining room features low, wood-slat ceilings, billowing Thai-silk, and flickering white candles in glass bowls floating gently on a central pool, as trance-like instrumental tunes are softly piped in. It’s enough to lull you into deep meditation—until the next bite of wok-sizzled chili sauce.