Nikky Phinyawatana has two unusual gifts as a restaurateur. First, she knows how to operate the kinds of places that attract the most stylish clientele as regulars. But even more impressive, she somehow creates environments wherein these image-conscious individuals feel uninhibited enough to order heaping plates of fried rice and pad Thai.

JUAN GARCIA/DMN

The Crab Lover's Special

It's a phenomenon I've noticed at her Asian Mint restaurant, in a shopping center at Central Expressway and Forest Lane, and it's the case time and again at her new

and more concisely named Highland Park spinoff, The Mint.

JUAN GARCIA/DMN

Interior of The Mint

Ms. Phinyawatana also chooses unassuming strip malls for her restaurants. Well, the Shops at Highland Park may not be the most modest of locations, but still: Without looking specifically for The Mint, which resides in the same cluster of shops as La Duni and Aurora, it barely blips on the radar. But walk in at 12:30 p.m. on a weekday and good luck snagging a table. Lunching ladies may dominate, but suited-up businesspeople congregate here, too.

The spot-on prices and the veneer of health and familiarity around the food may encourage rapacious states of mind. This is Asian-lite cuisine, mostly Thai-inspired though also with some Chinese overtones, carefully reworked to Western palates. Sometimes the dishes still possess their original, innate characteristics, and sometimes not.

Put it this way: If you're a person who likes Thai food for its fresh and comforting qualities without too much of its exotica, you'll soon be a frequenter. If you're an ethnic- food explorer looking for Bangkok cuisine in all its righteous, fish-sauce funky glory, you'll probably emerge grumpy – though you might feel strangely compelled to return for lunch if you again find yourself in this part of town. The place exerts a sneaky charm that whittles down the dubious.

Pad Thai and its four variations may best exemplify the restaurant's culinary approach. The classic version (rice noodles with chicken, shrimp, egg, tofu, green onions and a handful of crushed peanuts) delivers a better-than- average interplay of sweet and sour flavors due to a nicely pungent tamarind sauce made in-house. A toss in the wok also sears in fragrant smokiness. Want fewer carbs? Go for the pad Thai that substitutes clear noodles made from bean. Want no carbs? (Somebody on staff here must have lost major poundage on Atkins at one point.) Try the pad Thai with no noodles at all.

That last one might elicit a bit of scoffing, yet I tried it during a hurried lunch on a busy day when a post-meal food coma was simply not an option. Broccoli and bok choy had been added to bulk up the dish, and the effect was more of a stir-fry with a finishing splash of soupy tamarind sauce. On its own terms, without thinking of it as pad Thai, it held its own.

On an average day, though, I'd much prefer the lush mound of pad Thai, gussied up with crabmeat.

Crab is the celebrity protein at The Mint. When it appears on the menu, watch out for ecstatic language and the restaurant's most expensive offerings. A dish labeled the Crab Lover's Special deserves its praise. It's a duo of one crunchy, fairly substantial soft-shell crab in a sauce lightly scented with orange alongside a tight heap of not-too-salty fried rice luxed up with crabmeat. The quirky presentation is even more memorable than the flavors: When it arrives, the soft-shell crab has been set in such a way that it literally hugs the fried rice ball, evoking an image of a child proudly embracing a snow boulder

he spent all morning constructing.

Also look for entrees where duck breast takes star billing. Its dark-meat qualities stand up particularly well in Thai red curry and, when heightened with basil, it makes a standard hodgepodge of stir-fried vegetables (bell peppers, broccoli, baby corn) far more interesting. Spicy duck salad, with its extra touches of mango and cashew in a chile-lime vinaigrette, leaves a longer- lasting impression than other main course salads featuring beef, chicken, salmon and shrimp.

If given the choice between shrimp and scallops, veer toward the shrimp. The scallops on two visits didn't taste past their prime, but neither did they proffer any satisfying suggestion of the sea.

If you want to join the throngs in their appetite for fried rice, the rendition made with pineapple, cashews, shrimp, egg and hunks of still-firm tomato warranted spirited shoveling.

Back to that duck salad, though: Consider splitting it as a starter. The list of appetizers doesn't rouse much excitement. Certainly, the universal chicken satay and summer rolls, both designed to be dredged through peanut sauce, are pleasant enough. But this would have been the place for truer, bolder flavors. And the restaurant's rubbery fish-ball skewers don't quell that yen.

Then I remind myself again: This place isn't about an authentic journey through Thailand's regional specialties. It's about the fun, shimmering decor, which, despite the restaurant's name, is more Aqua Velva ice blue than Wrigley's Doublemint green. It's about the generous coils of noodles and the sweetly goofy list of cocktails (though the bartender will make you a serious libation if you ask for it). It's about the good-natured, untiring servers, who make the rounds through the dining room constantly asking, "Is everything all right?"

Yes, thanks. And another Thai iced tea with my fried rice, please.

Food {star}{star}{star} Service {star}{star}{star} Atmosphere {star}{star}{star}

Price: $$ (starters $4.50 to $10.25, entrees $8.95 to $19.95, desserts $3.95 to $5.95)

Address: 4246 Oak Lawn Ave. (in the Shops at Highland

Park)

Phone: 214-219-6468

Web site: www.themintdallas.com

Hours: Lunch Monday-Friday

11 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner Monday-

Thursday 5 to 9:30 p.m., Friday

5 to 10:30 p.m., Saturday noon to 10:30 p.m.

Credit cards: All major

Wheelchair accessible: Yes

Smoking area: None

Alcohol: Full bar