January 5, 2006 Issue                                               

©2005 The Chestnut Hill Local

Moon shines at Manayunk’s flavorful new Chabaa Thai
By LEN LEAR

Owner/chef Moon Krapugthong stops at a table to answer questions about Thai cooking. (Photos by Len Lear)

When Moon and Pat Krapugthong opened Chabaa Thai Bistro (Chabaa is Thai for hibiscus) at 4371 Main St. In Manayunk in April of 2005, they were terrified that they might have no customers. “We can’t afford to do serious advertising, and neither one of us was ever in the restaurant business before, so we really don’t know what to expect,” said Moon, who has an MBA, at the time. (Her husband, Pat, has a doctorate degree in finance.)

What a difference nine months make. Today Chabaa Thai Bistro is the hottest ticket in Manayunk, thanks to spectacularly flavorful and authentic Thai cooking, reasonable prices, a fetching art gallery-like decor and BYOB policy. During a visit last Friday night, there was a steady stream of customers that turned into a tidal wave by about 8 p.m. Nature abhors a vacuum, and Chabaa Thai Bistro is obviously filling a vacuum created in mid-2004 when Grasshopper closed its doors, leaving Manayunk without any culinary Thais, so to speak.

For dinner, appetizers are generally in the $5 to $8 range and entrees from $10 to $17. One appetizer that had us all enraptured was tom kah, a hot soup made with chicken broth, coconut, lime juice and a sublime fish sauce that is the main ingredient in Thai cooking. The milky broth has a divine, subtle flavor that is enhanced by bell pepper pieces, button mushrooms and your choice of tofu, shrimp or chicken. I can’t imagine returning to Chabaa Thai and not ordering this dish.

We thoroughly enjoyed the pad Thai noodles, as flavorful as any pad Thai dish we’ve had at other area Thai restaurants; crispy spring rolls and pad krapao, a spicy stir-fry (choose shrimp, beef, chicken or vegetables) with an ample portion of aromatic Thai basil.

I had heard that service was slow at Chabaa Thai, but that was not the case during out visit, even though every table was occupied on both floors. The server was not Ms. Personality, but she was certainly a model of efficiency. There were three of us at our table. Each had an appetizer and an entree, and the bill came to $69. We brought our own beer and wine.

Moon, also an artist who has overcome breast cancer surgery, has a sister who owns a restaurant in Chicago, and fine cooking is obviously a family trait. When Americans would taste Moon’s cooking (from her native Thailand) at home, they would invariably encourage her to open a Thai restaurant.

She was told to open a Thai restaurant in Selingsgrove, central Pennsylvania, where her husband is a professor of finance at Susquehanna University. “We decided instead on Philadelphia,” Moon explained, “because it is our favorite big city in the U.S. New York is too crazy, and we have found people in Philly to be more friendly than in Boston.

“So we came down here and drove around and walked around many different neighborhoods. We finally decided on Manayunk and then found this place, which had been a gift shop. We were able to work out a fair deal with the realtor, and one thing we really like about the area is that the restaurant owners all help each other. One person who has been extremely generous to us is Bruce Cooper (owner of Jake’s).”

The renovation of the former gift shop took one year, and it shows. Pretty pink fabric covers ceiling beams in dining rooms on both floors. Lots of colorful carvings and silk pillows on banquettes offer an exotic feel on the first floor, and the second floor, also filled with art works, looks much larger than it is because of strategically placed mirrors. In addition, the unisex bathroom on the first floor is roomy, filled with beautiful floral carvings and great-smelling candles. For more information, call 215-483-1979 or visit www.chabaathai.com

(As regular visitors to Manayunk know, one major negative is the lack of sufficient parking spaces. When we went to Chabaa Thai, we finally found a parking space on Cresson Street, one block from Main Street, after driving around and around and around, only because a car was pulling out at the time. When we returned to the car, a Parking Authority lady was writing out a $20 ticket, insisting that we were in a one-hour-only zone, although a nearby sign seemed to indicate otherwise. If the Parking Authority moguls think that punishing drivers is the way to bring customers into restaurant-rich areas like Center City and Manayunk, they are mistaken. I wish I had $10 for every suburbanite who has told me he will no longer patronize restaurants in Center City and/or Manayunk because of this exploitation, which can ruin an otherwise pleasant evening.)