Tree Top Thai can count itself among one of the very few restaurants within walking distance of campus, not counting the row of places on Moody Street a little farther away. When I heard that this place was supposed to be one of the best for Thai in the area, it seemed too good to be true.Tree Top Thai shares a building on Prospect Street with Carl's Steak Subs (a review to which I am very much looking forward) and presents itself as a small, cozy, family-owned place; friends or family of the hostess will often stop in to chat during the slow hours between lunch and dinner. The restaurant's decor is also graced by a very personal (and slightly strange) touch of the manager's-the wall is lined with black, white and color portraits he has drawn of various people, the most recognizable being a young Michael Jackson (caption: "All children, except one, grow up").

I started my first visit with a fine Thai iced tea, which was boldly flavored, satisfyingly sweet and, of course, a nice, vibrant, neon orange after being mixed with the sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of the glass. The shrimp-in-a-blanket appetizer was less appealing. I had craved shrimp and had hoped for some plump, fresh shrimp lightly fried, but I was instead presented with five mediocre shrimp very tightly wrapped in their wonton skins and heavily soaked with oil. The plum sauce that came with them, a light, clear syrup, made them better but did little to cover the strong oil.

The yellow curry proved to be more than redeeming for the shrimp: It was smooth, creamy, sweet and slightly spicy. This came as the curry for the Mango Curry Special (the dish the chef suggested), which consisted of chicken and shrimp with a nice variety of vegetables-onions, tomatoes, baby corn, yellow squash, mushrooms, red peppers and several large hunks of fresh mango. The main disappointment was that the pile of jasmine rice was just barely large enough to go with the meat and vegetables and was not nearly enough to sop up the large pool of wonderful curry.

The Laksa-Lemak noodles (a dish from northern Thailand/Malaysia) were also mostly fine. They came with the same yellow curry, this time over delicate egg noodles, chicken, red onions and broccoli and were topped with chopped cilantro leaves and stems. However, the chicken was dull and dry, and the broccoli was very hot, though still very crunchy and undercooked. The pad thai-a stir-fry of noodles, egg, bean sprouts and ground peanuts garnished with fresh lime-was a much more successful dish, as it usually is in most Thai places. Tree Top's was particularly flavorful, maybe just slightly too much so, but the dish still went down well.

The shortcomings of the restauraunt's dishes may be easily overlooked by the reasonable prices: At lunch, most entrées are $7 (marked up by $5 or $6 for dinner). But I think the place could be made much better by making a few minor improvements. First of all, it needs to fine-tune the execution of its food and then make dishes more exciting and boldly flavored. Please-more basil! More cilantro, and don't be stingy with it. The meat needs to be cooked more effectively, perhaps roasted and not sautéed to death, and more interesting meat should be offered as well, like lamb and actual boar (their "boar" is actually just pork, by admission of my server). Vegetables beyond carrots, green and yellow squash and peppers would be nice to have, too, like a nice pumpkin curry or something, a favorite of mine at other Thai places.

If Tree Top begins to serve interesting, exciting food, I think it could very easily become a destination restaurant for the area and really deserve the dazzling reviews it has earned in the past.