Johnny Monis’ Komi restaurant was among the first places in the city to expose the divide between the city’s old ways (expense accounts, cavernous steakhouses) and new (smaller rooms, more adventurous cusine). Here, at this 28-seat northern Thai joint in an electric green-colored English basement next door to Komi, Monis marinates his pork ribs in Mekhong whiskey, and his seven courses for $45 are as pungent as they ought to be. If this isn’t the best Thai restaurant in the country, then it’s certainly the most inspired, and, with its doting staff of winsome servers in hipster nerd glasses, perhaps the most fun. Little Serow
1511 17th Street, NW