Joy Bong, Auckland city

By ELEANOR BLACK for canvas

It started badly, with a teensy table by the door. Cold air slapped us whenever someone walked in or out of the restaurant which, on this humming Saturday night, was at least every four minutes.

Jealously, we eyed the happy people sitting at the huge clamshell booths around the edge of the dining room, drinking and laughing and picking at bite-sized morsels on small white plates. They were having so much fun. Loving it. We weren't.

It was so dark in our breezy nook (the sole candle not quite up to the job of lighting the menu) that we relied on the street-lamp glow coming through the window to make our choices. Even the people in the look-at-us booths only had two or three tiny candles to help them to find their food, although they appeared too comfortable in their expansive seats to care. The noise -- a combination of cheerful diners, wooden floors, glass windows that bounced the sound back into the room, and that swinging door -- verged on unbearable.

Things improved markedly when our very helpful waiter arrived to explain the menu. Joy Bong offers both the piquant cuisine of the Isaan region of Thailand -- where coriander, kaffir lime leaves, chilli powder and mint are the favoured flavourings -- and your average Thai food with its comforting peanut sauce, coconut milk and curry paste components.

We opted for a dish from each tradition, the Isaan grilled beef ($23) and innovative Thai-style tacos ($20), to follow our rather bland entrees: gold wonton pouches (stuffed with glass noodles and shrimp, $8) and fish fingers (crumbed terakihi pieces, $8), both accompanied by sweet chilli dipping sauce with a mild afterburn.

The beef was incredibly flavourful -- cooked in soy sauce and served with red onion, coriander, lemon leaf, Vietnamese mint, chilli powder, and a tiny bowl of super-hot chilli sauce (as opposed to that sort-of-hot chilli sauce that is so exasperating for those of us who mean hot when we say "hot"). It came with a basket-weave box filled with sticky rice to be rolled into balls and eaten by hand, and it was the most gratifying choice we've made at a restaurant in months.

The tacos were equally good, although a completely different experience. Chicken, shrimp and wonderfully crunchy bean sprouts coated in peanut sauce were packed into three light, crispy shells which appeared to have been made with rice flour. The dish came with a mound of regular rice to bulk it out, but hardly needed it.

The only niggle was that after the first taco, gobbled down within five minutes, the other two disintegrated, casualties of the contents' heat and moisture.

For those new to Isaan food, we recommend choosing at least one less exotic main to partner it. Four bites of the beef dish, which I loved, was about as much as my tastebuds could handle. As for the entrees, they are small (what can you expect for $8?), so if you're hungry, order one more than you think you'll need.

Now, about the seating arrangements: we noticed there were quieter booths out the back, which would better suit the low-key meal we had planned. We got so tired of shouting at each other we gave up and looked out the window, prematurely turning into one of those mournful couples you see ignoring each other at restaurants. But if you want the rowdy group experience, book a booth. Those people had a supreme time.

Ambience

Cheerfully crowded and noisy, verging on the ridiculous.

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, party places and entertainment in canvas magazine, part of your Weekend Herald print edition.