With its stunning floral arrangements and eye-catching statuary and sculptures, it's easy to see why Typhoon, an elegant Thai restaurant in Shadyside, consistently draws a crowd. They're there not only to enjoy the food, but also to enjoy the atmosphere of eating in a beautiful restaurant among beautiful people, a kind of participatory theater where every diner feels the glow of a private spotlight.

Though the restaurant is several years old, it feels brand new, buffed and polished to a shine every night. The service, for the most part, is equally polished, demonstrating that good service is as much about observing a table as it is about interacting with it. There's no need to ask how diners are "enjoying" their food when you can see with your own eyes that they are enjoying it and they're also deep in conversation. In the hands of a gifted server, I felt as if he had erected a small bubble of privacy around our table and then used his considerable skill to remain unobtrusive.

Given the modern glamour of the restaurant, the food can seem a bit anticlimactic, in that it isn't as exciting or innovative as the setting might lead one to expect. Many dishes are in fact fairly straightforward renditions of those found on almost any American-Thai menu.

But that is not to say that Typhoon is serving the same food as even the better neighborhood Thai restaurants in Pittsburgh, or that the prices aren't justified.

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Typhoon

3 stars = Excellent
Ratings explained

242 S. Highland Ave.
Shadyside
412-362-2005

• Hours: Lunch, Tuesday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner, Monday-Thursday, 5-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 5-11 p.m., Sunday 5-9 p.m.
• Basics: Thai food with a few fusion dishes and an emphasis on high-quality meat and fish. Refined preparations and presentations, as well as a stunning dining room, make Typhoon one of Pittsburgh's most elegant restaurants.
• Recommended dishes: Sweet potato triangles, lemongrass pork meatballs, green mango salad, pan-seared scallop salad, pineapple curry, pork tenderloin, lump crab fried rice, Massaman duck curry (special), mango and sticky rice (currently out of season), coconut ice cream with jackfruit.
• Prices: Appetizers, $6-13; Entrees, $16-28; desserts, $5-7; wine by the glass starts at $7.25, by the bottle, $28
• Summary: Wheelchair accessible; park on street; credit cards accepted; reservations strongly encouraged on weekends; corkage, $25; discounted to $15 with a purchase from the list.
• Noise level: low to medium-loud

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Grilled pork skewers ($8) with characteristic salty-sweet notes, and sweet potato triangles ($7) encased in crunchy wrappers are only a few of many possible examples of things that are similar in kind to dishes offered at almost any Thai restaurant, but at Typhoon showcase a better quality of ingredients (especially in regards to meat and seafood) and superior execution.

I've had pineapple curry with shrimp ($21) many, many times, but nowhere have I found such large, sweet shrimp, or such a clean, focused sauce.

The green mango salad ($9) simply captivates the palate, teasing it along with the tart yet somehow still sweet green mango, the spicy-sourness of cilantro, the earthy crunch of peanuts, and a sharp but not overpowering heat. Shredded coconut adds yet another layer of texture. This salad is as perfect a representation of Thai's unique flavor profile as any I've tasted.

The lemongrass pork meatballs ($9) are gently packed around skewers of lemongrass, so the meat stays incredibly moist and practically explodes with the flavor of ginger and garlic and the ethereal perfume of lemongrass.

A special of lamb massaman curry was an ingenious, atypical pairing -- massaman curry is most commonly made with beef, chicken or duck -- and one that proved to be a marriage made in heaven. Braised chunks of lamb were practically melting into the rich sauce, tempering the sweetness of the curry and bringing out the nuances of its flavors.

Other dishes have been reinterpreted, seemingly for a more American palate by enlarging the portion of protein, transforming curries into sauces, rather than emphasizing the curry and de-emphasizing the protein. While there were a few successful dishes, I found these dishes on the whole to be more disappointing than the refined versions of straightforward Thai dishes because they seemed to be dumbing down Thai food, rather than reinterpreting it.

The New York strip steak ($28) was a little dry, and since it was served without a steak knife, difficult to eat. This dish might have been better if it had been accompanied by a more generous amount of penang curry, an import from Malaysia quite similar to Thai red curry, but strip steak was simply the wrong cut of meat in this context.

A fillet of mahi mahi ($26) had the sweet flavor and just a bit flaky texture that indicates it's been perfectly cooked. The sauce, described as a sweet and spicy pineapple pepper sauce, was a reasonable, if not original concept. But the large chunks of pepper and pineapple never really came together as a sauce, and the broccoli was just distracting.

The pork tenderloin ($23) was a much more successful creation, probably because it wasn't constructed in such a formulaic manner. Lightly pounded slices of pork tenderloin paired beautifully with a sweet-salty sauce of tamarind, garlic and coriander. It was accompanied by fragrant steamed rice sprinkled with black sesame seeds and a small pile of shredded Brussels sprouts, shallots and just a few wilted cherry tomatoes. This dish was much more of a departure from something traditionally Thai, but it was also a much more interesting dish.

True to form, the more Thai desserts, such as the mango and sticky rice, and coconut ice cream with fresh jackfruit, were better than the others I tried, including a bouchon chocolate brownie which is too sweet to satisfy a real chocolate lover and looks a little lonely sitting all by itself on a plate.

The wine list has been carefully selected to pair well with the complex, assertive flavors of the food. Though wines seem to be priced at about 250 percent of cost, the quality of recommendations made the mark-up go down more easily than it does at many comparatively priced restaurants. The drink list is more interesting and pairs better with the food than most any other in Pittsburgh.

The restaurant also offers lunch, and though I didn't go specifically for this review, past experiences there suggest something interesting about the restaurant. At lunch, they offer a few spectacular dishes that I would love to see added to the dinner menu, such as Street Noodles #1. At lunch, if you ask for your dish very spicy, you get it very spicy. At dinner, requests for "10" and "Thai spicy" were promised, but just not delivered.

In its current guise, Typhoon isn't so much the pinnacle of the Pittsburgh Thai experience as it is a refreshingly different choice for an elegant, memorable meal. But its best dishes and its slightly more daring lunch menu suggest that with a little more confidence it could be both.

Either way, Typhoon is one of the loveliest, most relaxing places to dine in the city.