Photos by David Moore Red curry pork shoulder with kabocha squash

This sleek new spot turns out traditionally tongue-tingling Thai food with delightfully modern twists.

Our server laid out the last of our plates on the table and stepped back. He gestured to the dozen or so dishes in front of us and prepared to explain the spread, but I quickly raised my hand.

“No, please,” I interrupted. “We’d like to figure it out as we go.”

As familiar as I am with Thai food – indeed, there are many such restaurants in the Valley – the shiny, eight-month-old Soi 4 in Scottsdale is a new adventure. Preconceptions are best left at the door; just dive in and explore the exciting, exceptionally good cuisine.

Anyone craving favorites like pad Thai will find an excellent version here, more authentically Asian than American-style sweet, the fresh rice noodles stir-fried with prawns, tofu, egg, bean sprouts and a sprinkle of nuts and chives ($12). Vegetables rolls ($7) make nice, crispy nibbles, as do the chicken satay ($6) and crab-fried rice ($11).

Pan-seared duck

Besides the chicken, the chef also skewers tofu in fat squares that are fried to a creamy interior ($5.50), as well as chunks of meaty eggplant ($4.50) and slippery calamari ($7). The veggie rolls are dressed in a brisk, fresh lime vinaigrette, the shell thin and crisp and the insides warm and moist. The seafood in the fried rice is real, and for an extra $2.50, you can get a golden, fried egg on top, all piled in such a delicate mound decorated with whole sprigs of fresh herbs that you almost hate to disturb it with your chopsticks.

Then there are the original dishes, each one artistically plated to keep with the restaurant’s fine-dining ambience. Pad ped pla dook is one of the prettiest presentations of catfish I’ve ever seen, prepared in a captivating stir-fry of green beans, yellow squash, pink-orange ginger and rust-red curry ($14); besides the color on the simple white plate, the silkiness of the sauce, crunch of the veggies and smell of aromatic spices will woo you.