Publisher's Note

Cover Story

Taste Buds

Indochine

Faire Gallery Cafe

Events Calendar

INDOCHINE ASIAN DINING LOUNGE
 
1924 Pacific Avenue Tacoma, WA 98042 253.272.8200

Cash, Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted

HOURS
Monday to Friday: 11a.m.-10 p.m.

Saturday: Noon-10 p.m.
CLOSED SUNDAYS
 

April 2008

by A.V. Crofts

© Copyright 2008 ColorsNW Magazine

Elegant Southeast Asian Dining
 

Indochine offers grand interior, delicious cuisine in Tacoma

The 1900 block of Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma’s Warehouse Historic District acts as the gateway to the city center off of Interstate 705. On the north side of the block stands an attractive stretch of renovated industrial brick office buildings that date back to the turn of the last century. They are now home to upscale lofts and ground-level boutique businesses.

Faded advertisements painted on walls facing South 21st Street serve as reminders of the neighborhood’s first industries (“Hunt & Mottet Co. Wholesale Hardware”). On the south side of the block sit the Washington State History Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum and the eye-catching Museum of Glass with its conical glass hot shop, all three joined by the restored Union Station. A sleek streetcar line bisects Pacific Avenue providing modern public transit with a decidedly throwback feel. The stop at South 19th Street is often peppered with University of Washington students, whose Tacoma campus rises magnificently up from Pacific Avenue with a sweeping outdoor staircase entrance.

However, this section of Pacific Avenue was not always such a beacon of urban planning. Revitalization began with the launch of UW’s Tacoma branch and the restoration of Union Station in 1990, followed by the History Museum six years later, and most recently, the Museum of Glass in 2002 and the Tacoma Art Museum in 2003. A forgotten stretch has been transformed into a hive of activity.

At the heart of this urban renewal is Indochine Asian Dining Lounge.

It is the one of four restaurants owned and operated by the Ngov family, with Ly Ngov and her husband, Russel Brunton, launching Indochine in August 2005, after two years of fevered construction and design of the space. Ngov’s parents and her siblings fled their homeland of Cambodia in 1979 during dictator Pol Pot’s reign of terror and after a transitional year in a Thai refugee camp, eventually resettled in Auburn, Wash. The family’s first venture was a modest bakery and Thai restaurant in Federal Way named Café Indochine, which opened in 1995 and remains popular to this day. (Ngov’s mother is ethnically Chinese and her father is part Thai, so the cuisine in their four restaurants reflects their family recipes and Cambodian influences, such as the French pastry traditions introduced to Cambodia through colonization. “The style that we use to cook is very Chinese and the flavor is that of Southeast Asia,” Ngov says.) The other two Ngov family Indochine eateries are in Tacoma’s University Place and Point Defiance.

Indochine Downtown, as the Ngov family refers to it, is by far the most ambitious restaurant of the four. Situated at street level and commanding a width of three storefronts, Indochine can seat up to 220 people, regularly staffs its kitchen with 15 chefs at a time and employs 50 people. The stylish space is festooned with more than 700 yards of silk drapes (all handmade by Ngov’s mother) offset against the original brick walls and an impressive central water feature that uses blown glass in a nod to its neighbor museum across Pacific Avenue. Ngov oversees this enormous operation through the strength of her personality. “I once sat over 350 people in five hours,” she says.

I don’t doubt her. When I first met Ngov at Indochine she was still in her pajamas at 2 p.m., having worked behind the scenes to fill a huge catering order earlier that afternoon. “Russel and I are on the floor all the time,” she says, “We know the customers and they know our standards.”

Indochine is, at its essence, a close-knit family restaurant operating on an astonishingly grand scale. Sky-high ceilings, dessert cases that tempt diners with their strategic location front and center, and rich, polished-wood seating all coexist with extended family in the kitchen (Ngov’s brother-in-law, Vathanyu Nanakornphanom, serves as head chef), young servers and a casualness that is intentional, if at times unexpected at a swanky downtown restaurant.

“Indochine is familial but sophisticated,” Brunton says, “You can be warm and relaxed in a chic environment.” Brunton’s easy smile is a constant feature at Indochine, and his natural hospitality is often on show both behind the counter and on the palatial restaurant floor. “We aren’t as organized, but we make up for it with enthusiasm,” he says. “More organized is more structured; we’re more personalized.”

My visits to Indochine reveal Brunton’s credo to be true. Upbeat servers are eager to please and quite attentive, but with the perpetual bustle, sometimes little details slip (I only experienced small hiccups, like a bill where they undercharged me and a drink order getting swapped from iced tea to iced coffee). Presentation is paramount – from the richly designed interior to each specific entrée, but did I really need Thai orchids as garnish on my drink and dessert, not to mention everything in between?

My Tangerine Shrimp with Cucumber Crème Fraiche ($12.95) arrived on a generous rectangular platter with a bouquet of six glazed shrimp at one end and a bundle of shredded carrot and purple cabbage slaw at the other. In between was a short stack of sliced cucumbers dusted with black and white sesame seeds and dollops of crème fraiche. The shrimp were sweet with citrus but a pinch of savory was provided by the addition of soy sauce.

Indochine’s Crispy Tofu ($9) is one of the best values on the menu and for a tofu-lover like me, one of the most satisfying. Cubes of tofu are dredged in coconut milk and fried golden brown, leaving a welcome soft interior in contrast to the crispy shell. Indochine serves the tofu with the wonder twin-power Southeast Asian taste duo: ground peanut and sweet chili sauces.

Indochine’s Thai Seafood Salad ($14.95) combines lime juice-marinated baby scallops, rings of squid, sea cucumber, shrimp and clams that are then seasoned with shredded basil and cilantro and piled atop a nest of fresh baby greens. The Coconut and Galangal Chicken Soup ($7.50) is served in a shallow bowl and you’ll need both chopsticks and a soup spoon to eat this hearty offering. The coconut milk base is showcased in this tangy treat of boneless sliced chicken breast, button mushrooms and baby corn segments with sticks of lemongrass for flavor. I liked the soup’s sea-salty quality, but if you tend to prefer less volume on the sodium front, ask your server to turn it down a notch or two.
 

The entrée sizes at Indochine are as ample as the appetizers. Ying Yang Ahi ($24.95) is a great example of this bounty. The dish consists of Ahi tuna pan-seared ever so quickly with a sesame-seed crust and then presented in a fiery puddle of ancho chili sauce with fresh carrots, cucumbers and greens in the center for a cooling contrast to the spicy sauce. A wasabi dressing is decoratively piped over the tuna, which melted in the mouth but I felt was in danger of drowning too much in the competing sauces.

The Black Sea ($24.95) dish gets its name from the dark Thai rice that provides the base and boasts hints of sweetness. An earthy coconut-milk gravy that draws its flavor from Kala Masala, a spice mixture from the state of Maharashtra, India (Brunton’s family is ethnically Indian and he was born and raised in Trinidad & Tobago), is combined with clams, fish, shrimp, squid and scallops and ladled over this inky bed of rice.

Finally, the Mussaman Curry Beef ($14.95), at three stars for spice level, nearly scorched my tongue out of commission. But the dish was so delicious I kept returning for more punishment. It combined the tenderest chunks of beef in a rich curry gravy with cashews, carrot coins, rough-cut onion and potatoes. Exquisite pain!

One motivation for frying my tongue was the promise of soothing it with a few scoops of homemade Indochine Gelato ($5.95). I adore the restaurant’s orange/cranberry variety for the citrus base and the flecks of real cranberries, and the raspberry is potent with flavor. I was not nearly as taken with the coconut kind, given my fondness for anything involving the cherished flavor. I found the coconut gelato a bit gummy, even though I appreciated the real coconut flakes throughout. I also think the added whipped cream served with the gelato superfluous, so if you prefer your gelato unfettered, just say so.

It’s a good idea to check the gelato case as you walk in for special flavors, as Ngov likes to experiment. For chocoholics like me, the menu mention of the Nemesis Flourless Chocolate Cake ($7.95) was reason to celebrate. The slice I tasted was sinfully good, even though Indochine’s version is lighter than I expected. When I order a flourless chocolate cake, I look for scrape-the-cake-off-the-roof-of-my-mouth density.

And I must ask this question and then forever hold my peace: When will Indochine forgo the ease of canister whipped cream and make its own? Anything else is an insult to its high-end level of baking.

Ngov and Brunton clearly thrive on both the pace and performance art of a restaurateur. “We love people and the restaurant industry allows us to nurture customers,” says Ngov. In addition to these qualities, Brunton also cites the opportunity to be part of the Pacific Avenue renaissance as a compelling reason to launch Indochine two years ago. “This street is a symbol of development for the downtown.”

www.indochinedowntown.com