Where hospitality and pad thai go hand in hand

You can tell a lot about a man by how he makes his pad thai. After all, the preparation of this classic noodle dish, as emblematic of Thailand as the hamburger is of the United States, is one of the most labor intensive, time consuming undertakings a Thai chef can attempt. In fact, many restaurants—though they’d never admit it—simply use a packaged sauce, spruce it up with a few ingredients of their own, and pass it off as fresh.

But Mr. Long, owner of Siam Cuisine at the Black Walnut—one of four outposts of his local mini-chain—won’t hear of it. And once or twice a week (depending on how many people order pad thai), his kitchen staff goes through the entire process, crafting the sauce from its most basic ingredients.

The result, as I discovered during a recent visit, is one of the best versions around ($22 with shrimp). It was sweet but not cloying, sour from the tamarind paste but not mouth-puckeringly so, and given a fabulous sense of richness from a sprinkling of crushed peanuts. It’s not that it was any sort of wild departure from other pad thais in the area—the same garnishes of bean sprouts, tofu, scallions and the rest were there, too. It was simply a better version: more complex, more balanced, assembled with more care and attention to detail.

This sensibility was evident in the grilled Thai-marinated tuna as well ($23). And though it was cooked just the slightest bit too long (a bit more rare than seared), the fish was tender enough to withstand that minor slip-up. The flavors of that tuna were framed by a rich, opaque balsamic-Port demi-glace which, while very good on its own, was utterly delicious—and far more nuanced—when cut with the heat of the bright green wasabi mayonnaise next to it. Again, the sense of proportion was spot on.

In fact, most of the dishes that succeeded did so for the same reasons: careful preparation and a sense of equilibrium. The chicken satay (part of the $12 appetizer sampler plate) was impossibly moist, more the texture of a particularly hearty fish than run-of-the-mill chicken. And the peanut dipping sauce, spruced up with coconut milk, added heft to the flavors without overwhelming them.

But sauce wasn’t always necessary, which to my mind is a sure sign of a well-prepared dish. I’m thinking here of the home-made spring roll, whose filling of ground chicken, silver noodles, cabbage and carrot was so utterly flavorful that I actually preferred it on its own; the sauce only obscured an elegance that deserved to shine unencumbered.

Only the dumplings disappointed. In the context of the other items on the sampler plate, they seemed somehow dowdy, their chicken and shrimp filling surprisingly uninspiring.

The calamari salad ($8), however, was better, and the zippy honey-soy-ginger dressing brought lightness and liveliness to the tempura batter enrobing the squid rings.

Siam Cuisine at the Black Walnut brings a French influence to bear on many of its Thai dishes. The Port demi-glace with the tuna, for example, fused the two cuisines seamlessly. But it was with dessert that the French influence really shined. The chocolate pyramid, for example, would have been perfectly at home on any French restaurant’s dessert menu. And its execution—it’s made in-house—from the velvety heft of the chocolate to its barely perceptible bitterness, was excellent. It was, indeed, the highlight of a dessert sampler ($10.50), which also included a refreshing coconut ice cream and a crème brûlée.

But what really capped my experience at the restaurant was the hospitality. Mr. Long, the charming, enthusiastic owner of Siam Cuisine, has a genuinely welcoming presence. Shortly after we were seated, he poured us tastes of a pinot noir he recently added to the wine list—just because he wanted us to try it. And when I asked him how he made his pad thai, telling him I’d failed at the endeavor several times, he sent me home with a little cup of sauce, just in case I needed it.

That kind of hospitality, that kind of warmth, is something both rare and special. Just like Mr. Long’s homemade pad thai sauce.

Siam Cuisine at the Black Walnut is located at 80 West State Street in Doylestown, and can be reached by phone at (215) 348-0708. Visit the Web site at www.siamcuisinepa.com.