You can tell a neighborhood hangout by the parking lot. Six o'clock, when most restaurants in Miami are getting ready to open, the place is full of regulars, those who know that if they don't get there early, they don't eat.

Such a place is Bangkok City, open 10 years now at walking distance from State Road 826 and therefore only minutes from thousands of hungry Kendallites. This is a good spot to be in, especially if you're putting out a popular product (Thai food) and especially if you do a good job of it.

We arrived at just after 6 and endured a brief wait for a table, one of about 20 in the cozy, multi-tiered place. Seated right up front, we were able to watch a perpetual parade of takeout customers come in and out; the kitchen does quick work here, though, so we didn't feel put upon.

Appetizers were quick to arrive. We eschewed the usual - egg rolls, satay and that sort - for a couple of more interesting dishes, a wise choice.Yum-koon chiang ($6.25) was a platter filled with green salad decorated with onion, cucumber and scallion, the base for many Thai appetizers, with a centerpiece of Thai sausage, which sounded too intriguing to pass up. These were slices of faintly chewy strips of pork, as lean and leathery-looking as beef jerky, redolent of a tart lime marinade and cooking sauce. Tasty stuff.

Gulf of Thailand ($7.95) has a nice array of boiled seafood - squid,shrimp, scallops - with some imitation crabmeat, which there's no need to boil. It has a sauce based on lime juice, flavored with hot pepper, scallion and white onion. A nice one to split.

One of the world's best soups, tom-ka-kai ($3.75), shines here. In a broth of coconut milk and chicken stock float big pieces of chicken breast, various mushrooms and pieces of ginger-like galanga root, plus the occasional scallion. This version has more lemongrass than lime, which gives a slightly more tart, lighter feel; the hot-sweet-sour balance, so important in this soup, is orchestrated well.

Selection of entrees, as at any Asian place, is mind-boggling; the usual response is to order the same thing on each visit, saving yourself the confusion. We always try chicken curry ($9.50), the Thai staple, and here it's nicely done, the curry paste and silky coconut milk making a nice spicy-sweet statement, and there's plenty of meat and bamboo shoots, peas and bell peppers.

Thai pepper steak ($9.50) is a nice American-style dish, good here. The key is quality, tender beef, sauteed in a light oyster sauce with green pepper,onion and big slices of button mushrooms.

Bangkok City has more than a dozen shrimp dishes, which we figured was inducement enough to try one. Good move: the goong-pad-prig-sod, shrimp with hot chili pepper ($10.95), had lots of medium shrimp, tossed with onion in a fragrant, flavorful red-chile sauce (they spice mildly here, so ask for hot if you want it).

One disaster: crispy pork three flavor ($10.95) is more like soggy pork no flavor, the tidbits of meat overwhelmed by thick breading, deep fried and sauteed, a double whammy of oil. Not recommended.

To finish, you will, though, want a fried item: the Thai donut ($3.25),puffy-light, flash-fried balls of dough with sweetened condensed milk and ground peanuts as a dipping sauce.