Menam River a good place for a tasty Thai meal

Restaurants may open and close, but Menam River Thai Restaurant is still going strong.

That shouldn't come as a surprise, because the food is tasty, and the interior quiet, clean and beautiful. As soon as you walk in, you know it's a good place for a quick lunch or a get-together with family and friends.

Start with tom yum goong soup, which has is flavored with lemon grass. Seafood salad features fresh prawns, mussels and scallops. Mango juice with mint is a refreshing drink.

Or try the green Chinese tea, or oolong. Yellow curry chicken comes in a heated terrine, with nicely chopped carrot and onion. Among the restaurant's most popular fare are charcoal-grilled pork, fried water spinach with shrimp sauce, mashed prawn cake and fish cake, sea bass in sour soup and curry crab. Popular side dishes are fragrant egg-fried rice or teppanyaki, tasty dry-fried rice noodles.

It is not a big restaurant, but is arranged comfortably. There also is an open-air café out front.

Average spending is about 100 yuan ($16) per person.

1/F Stellar Cinema City, Bldg 8, Shopping Street, 8-9 Jinhui Lu (road), World City, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-8590-7598