Thai Grill in Hillcrest, San Diego, California

Located just north of downtown San Diego, Hillcrest is a chic profusion of diversity with quirky shops lining University Avenue between 3rd and 7th Avenues and lots of fabulous restaurants from various regions of the world. Tucked a bit out of the way on Robinson between 4th and 5th Avenues is a little Thai restaurant that could: Thai Grill.

This squeezingly tiny joint has only 6 little dine-in tables (2 of them out on the patio) and seems to cater toward to-go order. But if you can fight the urge to rush about and settle in to dine here, though, it is downright homey in a most gently Southeast Asian way. The wood-paneled interior is beautifully stocked with tasteful Thai crafts and other artifacts. You can take a seat and basically see all of them pretty well without moving (you wouldn't want to move that much once you've settled down there anyway... there isn't much leg room here!). The waitress is Thai, speaks excellent English, and always has a smile on her face. Very attentive and fast service. I've been here twice and always got my food within 10 minutes of ordering (though I've never gone for the really exotic dishes on the menu.

The menu is full of Thai food, of course, I think from the Chiang Mai area in the north. That means a lot of vegetables in soups and curries, and lighter sauce. It is also very vegetarian-friendly, with most dishes available vegan style or with tofu instead of meat. Portion size is very good for the price. The $11 crab meat fried rice is very good. If you are familiar with sweetened American-style Thai food, however, the 'plainer' taste of this dish may take some getting used to (but then real pizza in Italy isn't all loaded up with cheese and toppings like we get here in America either, ay?). They actually put real crab meat in this thing, and have the good sense to not try to cover that authentic taste with artificial toppings! Now, that's cooking!

My favorite on the entree menu, though, is the $8 green chicken curry. It is creamy and quite mild and light (with a touch of mint), and shock full of chunky white chicken meat, eggplant, bamboo, bell pepper, and basil leaves. And they actually give you steamed rice with it for free! You get to dictate the degree of spiciness when you order (I've been going with 'medium', and it really isn't very spicy at all).

The real specialty of this place is their grilled chicken... I can't comment on it since I haven't tried. I'm too hung up on their curries. But the dessert menu, I do have a thing or two to say about! If it is available, you really must try either the sweet sticky rice with mango or the taro custard with sticky rice... or both. At $7 a piece, it is a bit stiff, I know (but not if you share it with a dining partner!). They might put you over your maximum starch allowance for the day, but then there's Balboa Park nearby where you can walk it all off (before coming back for seconds).

There really are many good Thai restaurants in Hillcrest area, but I like dropping in at Thai Grill more than at the posher ones on University Avenue. The atmosphere here is wonderfully intimate, the food is good (a good lunch or dinner for $15 is not bad at all for this area), and the waiting staff treats you really well. Thai Grill is open everyday from 11AM-10PM.

Thai Grill (in Hillcrest): 420 Robinson Avenue, Suite E, San Diego, CA 92103. Tel. (619) 683-7725. Opens daily 11AM-10PM. All major credit cards accepted.