The Thai restaurant to beat along Castro Street's smorgasbord of Southeast Asian cuisines.

by Contributor

Since its opening in 1995, Amarin has established its reputation as the Thai restaurant to beat along Castro Street's smorgasbord of Southeast Asian cuisines. The interior is clean and bright, with snowy white table linens kept spotless under glass tops. The 80-seat restaurant is usually packed with health-conscious diners. Amarin means "I shall live forever," and maybe you will if you dine often on Amarin's many vegetarian offerings. There is a separate vegetarian menu in which simulated meat, made from soy bean or wheat flour, is featured prominently. For vegetarians, the red curry is not to be missed with its straw mushrooms, soft tofu cubes and still-crunchy green bell pepper strips and baby peas bathed in a red-gold curry sauce mellowed by coconut milk and made fragrant by whole basil leaves. Meat eaters will marvel at the balance of sweet, sour, salty and hot flavors in the barbecued honey pork with sticky rice and Thai salad.—Laura Reiley