Tuk Tuk Thai Food Loft

No need to mince words: Tuk Tuk is the best Thai restaurant in Atlanta. The lime-kissed salads boast cleaner flavors, the curries display more layered nuance, and the menu includes intriguing curios like a mussel omelet and a soft-chewy version of beef jerky spiced with coriander. The location, in a second-floor space in south Buckhead’s Brookwood Place shopping center, is the size of a ballroom, which lends an impersonal edge. But chef-owner DeeDee Niyomkul counteracts the chilly space with the warmth of her food. Start the journey with mieng kum, petals of spinach cradling ginger, onion, lime, peanuts, and minced coconut glossed with caramelized palm sugar that zings in the mouth like no other dish.

Photo by Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn