Galanga Thai Eatery displays attention to detail throughout meal

They had me at the tea.

When dining in Thai restaurants, I tend to order the Thai iced tea, which is a pleasing combination of austere, high-tannin black tea, slightly sweetened and served over ice with condensed or evaporated milk floating on top, the milk's tendrils drifting down and eventually turning the tea an orange color. Some places do a better job at it than others, but in the probably 100 times I've had it in Las Vegas and elsewhere, it's always been delivered in a tall glass.

So I was a little confused when our server at Galanga Thai Eatery brought me an empty glass filled with the requested boba (you also can get it boba-less) and ice cubes made of tea -- a nice touch, that -- plus a little round tray bearing a Mason jar filled with tea and two small glasses.

"Have you ever had it like this?" she asked gently.

"Uh, no," was my eloquent reply, as I pondered the display in front of me. She explained that the smaller glasses held jasmine syrup and milk, and that I could mix my own so I got it just as I liked.

Well, how about that? And so I poured and balanced and mixed and periodically readjusted until it was perfect.

That extreme attention to detail also showed up in the Galanga plate ($9.95) of appetizers. Galanga Thai Eatery is, from all appearances, a mom-and-pop kind of place, with Mom in the front and Dad in the back, and it was he who delivered this one. He pointed out the components of the plate and then the accompanying plate of three sauces and a cucumber salad, telling us which went with what. And so we went merrily along, dipping and crunching and chewing our way through crisp spring rolls with a well-considered mix of vegetables, tender and deeply marinated chicken satay, delicate curry puffs and crispy crab ravioli, the latter hybrids that were much like the beggars' purses sometimes seen on Chinese menus. Except that these were really good, thanks to a pronounced crunch and the presence of surimi notwithstanding.

Eggplant basil ($9.95) was another well-considered dish. This one contained, in addition to the chunks of tender eggplant, cubes of firm tofu and shreds of springlike basil, a whole garden's worth of vegetables, including carrots and green beans and red and green bell peppers and bok choy, all of them crisp-tender and lightly cloaked in a "holy basil sauce" that had brown-sauce undertones.

A dessert of sticky rice ($4.99) usually comes with mango ice cream, but our server asked if we'd like to substitute vanilla -- for which I was grateful, as my tolerance for mango's perfumy sweetness is decidedly on the low side. With a sprinkling of crushed peanuts, it was perfect.

The only dish that wasn't gosh-awful fantastic was, maybe ironically, the Pad Thai ($8.95 with chicken, pork or beef or $10.95 with shrimp), the ubiquitous Thai noodle dish. I was drawn to it by the promise of smoked tofu, but a smoky flavor wasn't discernible, and the pork I chose didn't seem to have been cooked with much in the way of seasoning. A good-sized pile of fresh mung bean sprouts and a smaller pile of crushed peanuts, plus the opportunity to substitute glass noodles for rice noodles had I so desired, were welcome touches. But while the dish was decent enough, it didn't measure up to the others.

Service throughout was very good, and we liked the soft, well-varied jazz music and the black-and-gold decor, with simple but attractive accents like lighted bird cages above the counter and a bowl of illuminated light bulbs on it.

The Las Vegas Valley has certainly seen a good share of Thai restaurants opening in recent years, and Galanga Thai Eatery is one of the better ones.

And not just for the Thai iced tea.

Las Vegas Review-Journal restaurant reviews are done anonymously at Review-Journal expense. Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at 383-0474 or hrinella@reviewjournal.com.