Uncle Boons

Opened in the middle of a trend toward restaurants exploring recipes from Thailand’s north and northeast, Uncle Boons skips all over the country and takes respectful liberties. The result could have been superficial, but it’s nuanced and smart. The chefs, Ann Redding and Matt Danzer, offer carefully considered breaks with Thai tradition. In their hands, shredded potato and melting beef cheek taste right at home in a musky, complex massaman curry, and sweetbreads are a natural fit for a rounded, rich bowl of mee krob that’s tart and fruity with tamarind. Chile freaks can find the heat they crave in a chicken-and-banana-blossom salad or an unusual warm laab of chopped lamb fried to a caramelized crunch in a wok. Like the cooking, the service has a degree of polish you wouldn’t necessarily expect of a place where the restroom has a monster-movie poster with the rousing slogan “Once again dinosaur shake the erath!”