text: Three 1/2 stars\nFirst thing I noticed when we walked in was the decor in a West Elm style - possibly by an earlier tenant? A pleasant break from the usual Bangkok palace anyway.\n\nThe lunch specials were $9-12 according to the protein of your choice and include soup or salad. The soup of the day was egg drop something -no thanks- so we went with the salad, Chicken Pad Thai, Shrimp Tum Yum ($6)  and Crispy duck ($18) - same as we did in the last few Thai places we tried.\n\n-The lettuce was crispy, the ginger dressing tangy and tastier than we're typically served. It also wasn't thickened as usual but that was fine too. \n\n-The Tum Yum made for a fine medium spicy soup with many ingredients - mushrooms, shrimp, tomato etc- but no trace of lemongrass and malanga. The waitress told  me they don't put lemongrass in the bowl because customers objected to bits of \"wood\" in their soup but the chef uses it to make the broth. Maybe true, the soup had some nice flavor but my taste buds could not recognize it as Tum Yum : 3 stars\n\n-the Pad Thai was very tasty but fell just a little short overall because there was no crunch to it (no bean sprouts or anything of the sort) and it was made with thin noodles instead of the wider, flat kind :  3 stars\n\n- Crispy Duck: now we're talking! I've had good, bad and indifferent Asian duck around town but this one was the only one that came close to the experience of *Crispy* Thai duck. What looked like a whole half duck chopped into thick slices with a cleaver, crispy meat with lots of crunchy skin (like rind) to nibble. That's what I was looking for. The meat had been deboned, which I didn't notice at first because it had been carefully put back together for a traditional presentation -a compromise I can live with. Excellent duck:    Four stars\n\nNow, I'm NOT going to claim this or that Thai restaurant makes THE BEST DUCK HANDS DOWN, nope! Apples and oranges, they all use different recipes. Thai Orchid's for one, serves a duck dish that's every bit as tasty -if not more- than Ban Thai's.   \n\nHowever Ban Thai was the only restaurant in my admittedly limited sampling which -in spite of claims to the contrary- actually serves Crispy Thai Duck .