UPDATED: May 9, 2008

Walking into Grand Pu Bah was a shock. Given the location — the street-level retail strip of a larger building, across from the greasiest of greasy spoons and at the edge of lower Potrero's shabby commercial warehouse district — I was expecting the Thai equivalent of Chevy's decor, at best.

But upon entering I discovered that the interior was — gasp! — really, really nice. Appointed with dark woods and a beautifully lit bar, I felt as if walking through the door had transported me from SoMa to the Financial District. (I'm sure the desired effect was SoMa to Thailand but I've never been to The Land of Smiles so it wouldn't be fair to make that comparison.) It was truly surprising, in a good way.

On our first visit, at lunchtime, Mackie and I were disappointed to learn that the restaurant had sold out of the fried pork spare ribs. At our waiter's suggestion, we tried instead the sizzling spicy prawns ($10.00). The dish was good — six medium-large prawns (shell backs split, prawns deveined for those of you squeamish about such things) served on a sizzling platter with a thin lemongrass, lime and Thai chili sauce. Even at medium, the sauce imparted more than enough heat. The taste of lemongrass dominated — more balance would have made for a better dish. Nonetheless, we enjoyed it, enough so that I poured the excess sauce over some of my rice. Yowzah!!! I didn't realize just how spicy hot the sauce was until I did it. I am *so* glad we only went medium.

Ordering mains is a bit odd because you pick a preparation style and you pick a protein. I don't like this style of menu because not all preps fit all proteins (and vice versa). To me, the menu should list the most appropriate combinations.

Moreover, pork was not an option on the protein list, although grilled lemongrass pork was listed as an entree option. If you have pork in the house, why not list it as a meat option? I don't get it.

Mackie went for the pad see you with beef ($10.00). With one exception, her dish was very good. The wide stir-fried flat noodles paired well with the little bit salty, little bit sweet, little bit spicy sauce. The Chinese broccoli was a good addition, offering both some flavor and a little bit of crunch. But the beef was chewy. So chewy that Mackie discarded most of it.

I ordered the yellow curry with beef ($10.00). It too was very tasty. I always feel a bit odd going double carb during a meal — potato and rice in this case — but the sauce again cried out, "Dump me over rice and let me soak in!" I did and am glad I did. But, as with Mackie's dish, the beef was like chewing gum — too tough to bother. I cleaned the rest of my plate and left a pile of beef on the side.

C'mon pu bah people!!! It's not that hard to serve tender beef! Buy a better cut or pound it a little. I sure hope you saw what Mackie and I left on our plates and got the message that something was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Our second visit was for dinner. The Pu Bah’s dinner menu is a bit more standard, with the pick a prep, pick a protein section of the menu de-emphasized and relegated to a back page.

This time around, the fried pork spare ribs ($8.00) were both on the menu and in the kitchen, much to our delight. The preparation was unusual. The ribs were individually cut, lightly breaded and deep fried. This is a dish where the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. On their own, the ribs’ taste was rather plain. But when dipped in the accompanying sriracha sauce, the flavors blended and popped. Wow!

For a second starter, we ordered the grilled asparagus ($8.00). The al dente spears rested on sesame dressing garnished with a liberal dose of black sesame seeds and were topped by crispy shallots. A good, tasty dish although the shallots were superfluous at best and annoying at worst.

I ordered pan-seared U-10 scallops ($16.00) as my main.

Through subsequent research, I discovered that U-10 means that fewer than 10 scallops of that size are required to make a pound. From what I can tell, it’s the second largest size of scallop, with U-8 being the largest.

This surprised me because I thought the scallops to be on the small side for sea scallops. The serving of three left me wanting another scallop or larger scallops, if the same number were served. Call me a glutton.

That said, the scallops were fantastic. They were tender, seared to a crust on both sides (it’s surprising how many places give their scallops a good searing on one side but pretty much ignore the other) and peppery.

The accompanying asparagus-mushroom risotto was excellent. Mackie noted that it was much better than many risottos she’d had in Italian restaurants. She thought it surprising that a Thai place could do it so well.

Like the shallots in the asparagus salad, the ginger broth that pooled at the bottom of the dish was superfluous at best. It added nothing and made the rice kernels at the foot of the risotto soggy. I tried swishing bits of scallop through it to see if it enhanced their flavor but nada.

Being a big Thai noodle fan, Mackie again ordered the pad see you with beef ($12.00), undeterred by the beef’s chewiness during our last visit. Although not on the dinner menu, the kitchen was happy to accommodate her request with a $2.00 uplift over lunchtime pricing. Again, the dish was very good. The beef was tenderer than our previous visit, still a touch on the tough side but well worth eating.

We went all out at dinner, ordering dessert. I went for the mango sticky rice ($8.00). It featured a generous hunk of thinly sliced mango with a thick mango sauce, vanilla-infused coconut sticky rice (which was green for reasons are beyond my comprehension) topped with caramelized pop rice (think caramelized Rice Krispies) and Tom Kha (presumably coconut milk) sorbet. I wasn’t a fan of its deconstructed presentation but it was very tasty.

Mackie chose the fried banana with ice cream, one of our favorite desserts. She felt that I’d already been gluttonous enough for one meal and refused to share with me. She reported that the fried banana was excellent but that the Singha beer ice cream was downright nasty. Beer ice cream doesn’t sound like a winner to me but I’ll never know because she staunchly defended her plate, even when I insisted that my sampling was required to accurately report on this blog. I tried to do my duty loyal readers but Mackie's concerned that my waistline has expanded too much.

Grand Pu Bah would make a nice venue for a fun date, a casual business meeting or a celebration. During our evening visit, a party of 10 and another of 14 were comfortably accommodated in the dining room. It was louder than I expected. I thought that the false ceiling and room dividers would dampen the noise more than they did. Afternoon parking was challenging but we found a space immediately at dinner.

While I’m still not totally sold on the beef, I’m quickly becoming a grand fan of the Pu Bah.

The Grand Pu Bah Restaurant
88 Division Street
at Rhode Island Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-255-8188
Map
Web site
Food inspection score: 90
Symbol of Excellence: No
-Friendly: Fun Date, Casual Business Meeting, Celebration