Thai on top

The restaurant was packed, the entrance was full of customers waiting for tables and one group had scattered on the stairs outside. Servers bustled about, balancing trays of food and pitchers of water as they maneuvered around the customers standing in the packed foyer on the evening of Saturday, Nov. 3. This busy atmosphere is not uncommon for the restaurant.\nBloomington's dining scene offers a variety of cultural cuisine, but for those who voted in the 2007 Best of Bloomington poll, one ethnic restaurant stands above the rest. Siam House, 430 E. Fourth St., was voted "Best Ethnic Restaurant."\nOpened in February 1990 by Wemonrat "Wim" Pok, a native of central Thailand, the restaurant recently finished renovations to its entrance. Patrons are greeted at the door by two Thai statues of Buddha, and the inside of the restaurant is adorned with Thai decorations.\nMary Lynn Harris and Terry Harris of Crawfordsville, Ind., said they are frequent customers, visiting the restaurant every time they are in Bloomington. When informed that Siam House was voted the best ethnic restaurant in town, they wholeheartedly agreed. \n"It was wonderful. They were very busy, but I don't want to put them down for it, because the food was great," Mary Lynn said.\nPok said that when she moved here from San Francisco, opening a restaurant was never at the front of her mind. \nInstead, "it's just something that came up," she said.\nWhen she arrived in Bloomington, Pok said she noticed many people who knew about Thai food, yet there were no Thai restaurants in town. She saw a demand for it, and because she loves to cook and already had a large collection of Thai recipes, the opportunity was great.\nPok said she came up with most of the recipes the restaurant uses. With help from her family and some other Thai employees, Pok said they make food to order so they can cater to individual customers' needs.\n"It's tough sometimes to please customers, but we try," she said.\nPok thinks the food, atmosphere and good service make Siam House so popular. Servers are trained in Thai customs, and Pok likes for them to know about the restaurant's decorations and the meanings behind them.\nRegarding the other ethnic restaurants in town, Pok said she does not view them as competition. \n"I think people in Bloomington are lucky because we have a lot of authentic national food," Pok said. "I think it is just a small town, but it has a very large variety ... different taste, different ingredients, different cultures."\nMargaret Schweer said her son, an IU student, frequents Siam House. She said it is a great place that offers vegetarian dishes and goes along with a lot of current food trends that she has noticed, especially regarding ethnic foods and diets.\nPok never wants to remove items from her lengthy menu, but she is always creating more dishes to add. \nShe has no personal favorite item, adding, "I love all of them. Every dish is different."\nWhile she may love all the restaurant's food, she is especially satisfied with the restaurant's homemade curry. \n"(Bloomington) has three Thai restaurants in town," she said. "You can try them all -- our curry is different." \nShe attributes the difference to her use of the freshest ingredients possible.\nWhile she said it is sometimes difficult to keep the food quality as high as it is, Pok gains great enjoyment from cooking for her customers.\n"People here are nice and friendly. They're open. They enjoy it and will tell me," she said. "I get encouraged from customers. It's a good feeling"