With its clunky name and institutional décor, Somtum Maneeya is about as stylish as a mini-mart, with all the warmth of a cafeteria. We almost didn’t make it through the front door the first time we visited. In addition to seating outside on the sidewalk, the five-month offshoot of the original Suan Lum branch is 12-14 small tables in a rectangular room with an all-glass front wall and sliding glass doors. On this Saturday night, it looked cramped—and loud: a full house, televisions hanging from the ceiling tuned to football and a singer with a guitar in one corner. The interior isn’t exactly inviting, either, with its cream-colored “outdoor” siding, wood tables and chairs that are covered with brown faux-leather vinyl and obligatory photographs on the walls signed by celebrity food gurus. So, we’re thinking ear-splitting noise, a short list of barely edible alcohol-friendly food and grumpy service. But the place was full! We stopped back a few weeks later to find our first impression couldn’t have been more wrong: the room was buzzing but not loud (the TVs were on mute); the singer-guitarist could actually carry a tune; the staff was friendly and efficient; and the food far exceeded our expectations. Not every dish was worth writing home about, but the flaws were minor: the tom yam koong featured nice plump river-prawns, but the soup was on the sour side, for example. And the yam koong foo (“exploded” prawn), while fluffy and crisp, was simply a bit boring. No complaints with anything else, however—especially at these very reasonable prices. We’re a bit wary of eating tiny, pre-shucked oysters raw, but ours were chilled, plump and fresh and served with four accompaniments, including a bright green chili-garlic sauce and crisp just-fried shallots. Somtam with blue crab was a bit light on the somtam but big where it mattered, featuring large sections of unshelled crab and cashews for an added hiso crunch. And we won’t forget the snapper fried with lemongrass, peppercorns, and kaffir lime leaves; despite being deep-fried, neither the fish nor the herbs were the slightest bit oily, and the chunks of fish meat were cut large, seasoned with restraint, and perfectly cooked—by far the best interpretation of this dish we’ve tasted. Thoroughly enjoying our meal, by this time we had noticed several details that we had missed on arrival, like the brand-new uniforms on the staff, how spotlessly clean everything was, the little bar in the corner boasting local beer as well as Erdinger on tap, and the bottles of Penfold’s at the table next to us. So there’s definitely more to Somtum Maneeya than meets the eye. It’s nice to be wrong, sometimes.