Dok Mali Noodle Bar in South Portland. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Nonglack Thanephonesy, the chef/owner of Portland’s Dok Mali, has no illusions about how nearby Middle Street has contributed to her Thai restaurant’s well-deserved popularity. “It’s right there, close to Duckfat, Honey Paw, Micucci’s, Eventide. … It’s a well-known, very busy area that people come to for food,” she said. “Especially tourists. That’s where they go.”

Thanephonesy’s newest restaurant, the pan-Asian Dok Mali Noodle Bar, sits on the edge of South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood and does not benefit from the same geographical advantages. Sure, there’s a pair of excellent dining spots on the same block: SoPo Seafood and Café Louis. But their gravitational pull on diners is limited, by comparison.

Yet Thanephonesy isn’t daunted. “Here, it’s a different group of customers, and it’s mostly locals,” she said. “A lot of people who came to the India Street Dok Mali and became regulars, a lot of families, and a lot of people who live in Cape Elizabeth and South Portland and don’t want to cross the bridge.” She also acknowledges that without overspill from several buzzy hot spots, the Noodle Bar has to attract customers entirely on its own: “Yes, it’s harder because I know that here, people have to travel just for me.”

Judging by the full house I encountered when I visited a few weeks ago, enticing diners to her cozy, 24-seat restaurant hasn’t been much of a challenge. Indeed, since the Noodle Bar opened in July, business has been brisk, despite wobbles. I have a theory why, but I want to explore the mixed success of the food and drink menus to provide some context.

My two dinner guests and I ordered at least one beverage apiece. The best of the lot was the rotating local draft beer ($9), which on that midweek evening was a round and zesty Lone Pine Brewing Company IPA. No surprise that beer would come out on top here, because as Thanephonesy says, “Beer and wine go so great with Thai food, and who doesn’t love beer?” A close second was my glass of Pavette Cabernet Sauvignon ($11), a punchy, dry California wine that also held its ground well against spicier dishes.

The strawberry-matcha boba with mango popping boba at Dok Mali Noodle Bar. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Less impressive was the lemongrass mojito ($13), which was too sweet, despite my guest’s request that the bar go easy on the house-made mojito syrup. It also wasn’t terribly aromatic. Yet the mojito was better than the woeful strawberry-matcha boba ($7.50), a devastatingly sweet beverage only made worse by the flaccid mango popping boba slumped at the bottom of the glass. When I asked my overworked server – who took 15 minutes to bring us menus when we arrived – about whether the boba drinks were offered in place of dessert (which the Noodle Bar does not serve), she told me that many people order these saccharine palate-coaters with their meal. I cannot recommend this.

Spicy cashew ramen at Dok Mali Noodle Bar. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Food also ran the gamut from disappointing to delightful. On the less-impressive end of the spectrum was the cashew ramen ($20), a Dok Mali original. Elements of the Japanese-Thai dish were terrific, like the complex, spice-forward cashew “butter” of massaman curry paste, chili garlic sauce and coconut milk that Thanephonesy and team dollop over the noodles. The texture and mouthfeel of the creamy (yet nondairy) broth was also spot-on, with appealing flavors of shiitake powder, scallion and Asian pear. But the charred aromatics, especially ginger, contributed an overwhelming warm-spice aftertaste – not unlike star anise – to the broth. Oddly, the Roxbury, Massachusetts-sourced noodles were also floppy, like vermicelli, not the springy coils of well-made (and properly alkalized) ramen noodles. A little tinkering with ingredients should correct both issues, however.

The Korean beef japchae ($23), also needs a tweak. Here, though, the dish is decent already. Tender strips of beef flank, red bell pepper, scallions and onions find themselves tangled in a translucent skein of sweet potato noodles and doused in a nutty sauce of soy, sugar and sesame oil. The dish is a near-perfect clone of masterful Korean cooking maven Maangchi’s japchae. I say near-perfect because the texture of the noodles on my recent visit wasn’t chewy and slick but sticky and gummy. The issue could be overcooking or leaving the boiled noodles to sit too long. Yet again, a simple fix that would improve the dish tremendously.

Kanom jeeb dumplings at Dok Mali Noodle Bar. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

My guests and I also tasted several sound menu items, all of them appetizers or salads. The Chinese-inspired scallion pancakes ($13) were crisp, golden and not greasy. The accompanying spicy ginger-and-chili-oil dipping sauce contributed a sweet-savory layer of flavor. I also enjoyed the Noodle Bar’s take on a pescatarian-friendly salad, larb het ($21). No ground meat here, just sliced and wok-fried shiitake mushrooms dressed with lime juice, rather fishy Thai fermented anchovy sauce (the brawniest member of the fish sauce clan) and sandy khao khua, a coarse powder made from toasted glutinous rice. Then there was the dish that disappeared from our plates the fastest, Thanephonesy’s kanom jeeb dumplings ($13): steamed, wonton-wrapper parcels of Napa cabbage, red onion and ground chicken that remain every bit as tasty as when I wrote about the India Street version last year.

The chili-garlic “knife” noodles topped with fried egg at Dok Mali Noodle Bar. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

But the dish that convinced me that Noodle Bar deserved another visit was the chili-garlic “knife” noodles ($20). This Noodle Bar exclusive is served in a shallow bowl with a runny fried egg on top and crisp-tender bok choi on the side. Underneath, you’ll discover ruffly Chinese “knife cut” noodles that are engineered to latch on to sauce. Think of them as rumpled pappardelle. When the kitchen prepares this dish on the minivan-length stainless steel wok range, the cooks quite rightly pay as much attention to the pasta as they do the (frankly incredible) sauce.

And about that spicy-sweet and slightly funky sauce: “I like to experiment with a lot of ingredients. That one took me so many tries to perfect it. It must have been a month to get it right,” Thanephonesy said. “But I love ground chicken and bok choi … and eggs! So I played around with (Korean) gochujang, black vinegar, sweet soy and chili-garlic sauce, added my own dried chilis and sesame oil until it all came together.”

Speaking of creating harmony, Dok Mali Noodle Bar has had an ace up its sleeve since it opened this summer: its interior design. First kitted out in semi-austere “culinary laboratory” drag when it was home to Judy Gibson, the cozy single storefront has since been made over in warm neutrals, rattan pendant lamps and framed photos of Thanephonesy’s relatives. “I worked hard to make it more intimate, friendlier for everyone,” she told me. “So, when I’m cooking at the wok station, I can turn around to serve my guests and talk with them about anything. I think the vibe is, ‘Hey, you’re coming over to your niece’s or sister’s house.’ It has a family feel.”

To me, that’s the Noodle Bar’s secret sauce. Not the broad, erratic menu, not the sometimes tortoise-like service, but the understated, welcoming design. Especially now, when the world often feels cold-hearted, there’s nothing better than the embrace of a homey and familiar space.

Nonglack Thanephonesy, owner and chef of Dok Mali Noodle Bar, in the kitchen of the South Portland restaurant. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

RATING: ***
WHERE: 169 Ocean St., South Portland, 207- 536-4114, dokmalinoodlebar.com
SERVING: 11:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Monday; 4–8:30 p.m. Wednesday; 11:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 4–8:30 p.m. Sunday
PRICE RANGE: Appetizers: $7-$14; entrees & salads: $16-$27
NOISE LEVEL: Trumpet quartet
VEGETARIAN: Many dishes
RESERVATIONS: No
BAR: Beer, wine and cocktails
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: No
BOTTOM LINE: There’s a lot to love about Nonglack Thanephonesy’s newest restaurant, Dok Mali Noodle Bar – a sibling business to her similarly named Dok Mali on Portland’s India Street. Chief among the cozy, 24-seater’s upsides is the warm and homey-feeling dining room, decked out in neutrals and adorned with family portraits. The food and beverage programs, however, are erratic in conception and execution. Drinks like the lemongrass mojito and boba teas are unbearably sweet, while local draft beers and wines are well-selected and moderately priced. Food is more consistent, with minor issues here and there, plus a few knockout dishes like kanom jeeb dumplings filled with ground chicken and Napa cabbage, and the not-to-be-skipped chili garlic, knife-cut noodles served with steamed bok choi and a fried egg, perched like a beret over a nest of ruched Chinese egg noodles. This last dish – a Dok Mali creation – merits a visit on its own.

Ratings follow this scale and take into consideration food, atmosphere, service, value and type of restaurant (a casual bistro will be judged as a casual bistro, an expensive upscale restaurant as such):

* Poor
** Fair
*** Good
**** Excellent
***** Extraordinary

The Maine Sunday Telegram visits each restaurant once; if the first meal was unsatisfactory, the reviewer returns for a second. The reviewer makes every attempt to dine anonymously and never accepts free food or drink.

Andrew Ross has written about food and dining in New York and the United Kingdom. He and his work have been featured on Martha Stewart Living Radio and in The New York Times. He is the recipient of eight recent Critic’s Awards from the Maine Press Association.

Contact him at: andrewross.maine@gmail.com
Twitter: @AndrewRossME