The name Better Bites Thai & More suggests casual, perhaps healthier Thai cuisine, contradicting the new restaurant’s status as a new luxury establishment in Kakaako that has sprung up to replace the former Phuket Thai.

The interior is clean and modern, with the bar now pushed to the back for a clean, open entryway.

I admit to feeling a sense of sticker shock to see curries priced from $14.95 to $36.95, fried noodles for $14.95 to $28.95 and Crying Tiger marinated grilled ribeye for $44.95.

To be fair, I have been feeling that same sense of sticker shock at restaurants throughout this pandemic and wartime era of rising food costs due to crop and shipping crises, but here, that feeling was exacerbated by a long-held belief that Thai cuisine is among the most affordable of family fare. It doesn’t feel like so long ago that curries could be had for $9.99.

At these prices, the food better be good and thankfully, it is. Just show up with enough friends to divide the bill.

Food is prepared by a chef straight out of Bangkok, though flavors have already been adjusted for the local palate to be more savory than sour. That said, the food is still Thai hot and my tongue was on fire after requesting medium heat with dishes. Maybe a lighter hand will prevail in the future, but you might want to start with mild heat while getting acclimated to the dishes.

The menu opens with classic appetizers such as chicken satay ($17.95), green papaya salad ($18.95) served in rice paper rolls, and what we recognize as summer rolls that they call spring rolls, filled with veggies and tofu ($15.95) or shrimp ($16.95).

Most intriguing was the deep-fried calamari lava ($18.95), said to be served with a salted egg lava sauce.

But it was disappointing that the salted egg was undetectable and the sauce simply tasted like a basic sweet chili sauce.

Larb is one of my favorite dishes and I enjoyed the flavors of red onions, cilantro, scallions, mint and toasted rice powder that permeated their ground chicken dish ($21.95). It’s served with butter lettuce for making wraps, with plenty of extra greens on the side.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a complete Thai experience without at least one curry. Though the green coconut Emperor Curry ($36.95) called out to me with its combination of shrimp, mussels, calamari, scallops, basil, bell peppers and long beans, the accountant in my head doing the math calculated that this was a little too rich.

I went conservative with a red curry with chicken ($16.95). The full range of regular yellow, red and green curries range from $14.95 for veggie-filled, to $28.95 for a seafood version.

Similarly, dishes of stir-fried broccoli or green beans range from $14.95 with veggies to $28.95 with seafood. I could not go without ordering one of my favorite dishes, the drunken noodles ($14.95 to $28.95).

I just love the wide, chewy flat rice noodles pan-fried with green beans, jalapeños, basil and garlic chili sauce. Again, I went conservative going with the $14.95 added veggies option. I guess that does make this Thai experience a healthier one.

It goes against the grain to order a rice dish for $34.95, but I had to try the house crab meat fried rice with lava egg. It does feature a generous amount of crab scattered throughout the rice and within the Thai-style scrambled omelet that tops the mound of rice.

It’s not the oozy over easy egg one might expect from the lava connotation.

Dessert options include fried bananas with ice cream ($12.95), a Thai pancake with ice cream ($12.95) or a pretty arrangement of mango sticky rice ($14.95) with thin-sliced mango snaking around a mound of sweet Thai coconut rice.

Overall, it’s a luxe experience that allows you to reign in costs with conservative choices, but sometimes that’s no fun.

Better Bites Thai & More

Nalu Lani Plaza
401 Kamakee St., Honolulu
Food: ****
Service: ****
Ambiance: ****
Value: ***½
Call: 808-888-2991
Hours: Lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and dinner 5-10 p.m. Wednesdays-Mondays
Prices: About $65-$100 for two without alcohol

Nadine Kam’s restaurant visits are unannounced and paid for by Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Follow Nadine on Instagram (@nadinekam) or on YouTube (youtube.com/nadinekam).