Perhaps someone here was once passionate about Thai food, but it would seem now that the thrill is gone.

Durian Durian is one of what undoubtedly will be many new restaurants that will crop up to serve the burgeoning medical city rising in Lake Nona. The food is good but not extraordinary. The service is extraordinarily poor. It is not recommended at this time.

The name Hawkers makes sense once you know the concept, and it only sounds odd if pronounced by someone with a Boston accent.
The idea behind this charming little eatery is to present an array of dishes the type of which might be sold — hawked — by individuals who stake out space on the sidewalks and streets of various Asian cities but with, you know, stricter health department guidelines.
I’m resisting the urge to describe the dishes as tapas-like, but most of the menu items are “small plate” in nature. And the best way to experience Hawkers Asian Street Fare is the same as you would a tapeo, except instead of doing a tapas crawl, you might virtually wander these Asian streets and sample a number of delectable items. Try the banh mi sliders (I had the duck version; delicious) and the five spice pork choplettes. The curry Laksa is a wonderful and colorful bowl of myriad flavors with chicken, shrimp and big fat egg noodles.

Isan refers to the northeast of Thailand; zaap is a word that can mean spiciness or sassy.

Krungthep Tea Time isn’t your typical tearoom.

Or maybe it is and I’m just not familiar with them any more. My perception of a tearoom is set in the days of doilies and lace, quilted cozies and delicate tea cups with rose patterns and handles so small you couldn’t pick one up without raising your pinkie.

At Krungthep there are no doilies, no tablecloths of any kind. The floor is bare concrete, and tea is served in big honkin’ glass mugs.

Mai Thai wants to be known as an Asian fusion restaurant, though like everything else in life wanting it doesn’t make it so. About the only thing fusionesque on the menu is the Duck Tacos.

MT apparently also wants to be both a restaurant and a nightclub. Apparently, after dinner service the tables and chairs are moved out of the dining room to clear way for a dance floor. That might make one wonder how serious a restaurant it wants to be, fusion or otherwise.

A simple little Thai place on Lee Road with good traditional dishes. Note, however, that because it’s next door to a school you can’t enjoy your pad Thai with a Singha.

The food is basically the same as it has been for years: perfectly acceptable but rarely extraordinary. My lunch companion and I started with an appetizer of “soft rolls,” the unfried version of the spring rolls. Although shrimp was listed among the ingredients, I spotted none in the roll I ate, only noodles and lettuce inside a spring roll skin. The panang curry with beef had big hunks of bell peppers, snow peas and string beans mixed in with the sliced beef. The curried sauce was a bit on the mild side, but the flavors, which included fresh basil, were very nice. The dish would have been more enjoyable if the rice had been moister and fluffier. What we were served did not seem as though it had been recently steamed. The pad Thai was fine, the rice noodles well coated with the slightly sweet sauce, tossed with tangy bits of scallions, crunchy bean sprouts off to the side.

NaraDeva says it strives for authenticity in its rendition of Thai dishes. That may be, but I wish they’d also strive for a little more consistency in the quality. A Thai red barbecue pork dish was marred by an oversalty taste. And what’s up with the sticky floor?

A splashy and elegant restaurant with a hip vibe that befits its Park Avenue milieu. Short rib massamam featured a large beef short rib, braised and then sautéed with potatoes and small pieces of sweet bell peppers with a chili sauce and a bit of roasted peanuts. That the meat was not the most tender hunk of rib I’ve had – a bit more braising might have helped – does not detract from the overall enjoyment of the dish.
And part of the enjoyment of this entrée, and indeed most every dish served here, was the elegant presentation, which almost invariably included luminous purple orchid blooms as plate garnish. (Yes, orchid petals are edible, but frankly I enjoy looking at them much more than ingesting them.)Short rib massamam and yellow curry with chicken are a couple of menu highlights.