Stewart L.
Yelp
I believe Star Leaf opened early this year, and we tried it for a weekday lunch, which is perhaps their best value. Star Leaf is a worldwide brand founded by a woman with over 40 locations; this is their first US site, situated on Colorado Blvd in the former Roy's space in the Playhouse District. The food is Asian/Southeast Asian. They serve lunch and dinner daily, with a weekday happy hour. Apparently they offer valet parking for dinner.
The decor is elegant and exotic, with an outdoor patio, indoor and outdoor water features, lots of dark wood and palm fronds, not unlike the Long Bar at Raffles Singapore (which I've visited--birthplace of the Singapore Sling), and also not unlike a luxe, darkly lit Tommy Bahamas.
Fo lunch, Star Leaf offers a 2-course $29 menu with 5 starter options and 5 entree options. The options are all off the main menu, which can all be seen in the menu that has photos. As a group of 4, we ordered 3 different starters and 4 different entrees and enjoyed them family-style, which the restaurant encourages. They of course have a full bar and the lychee martini was recommended (they also have Raffles Singapore Sling), but I went with a zero-proof strawberry pandan lemonade, which was very refreshing.
Our 3 starters were: Mamasan's Shrimp Cake Skewers (2 per order, so got 2 orders), the Spicy Thai Som Tum Salad and Saigon Summer Rice Paper Rolls (4 per order). The shrimp cakes were presented on lemongrass skewers with charred pineapple and a garlic chili dip that wasn't spicy. The salad was shaved green papaya with tomatoes, mango and peanuts; the menu said it had dried shrimp, but luckily that overpowering taste was not detectible. The summer rolls were vegetarian and uncooked with a sweet mango dip. All very tasty.
Our mains were:
1) Thai Royal Curry (comes with shrimp or soft-shell crab--we chose shrimp), served with a freshly baked baguette that was more like a soft French roll, it had a golden crust but was not buttered. It can be ordered with lobster a la carte. Coconut cream-based.
2) Malay's Captain's Curry (we chose chicken over the upcharged beef), it had a lot of potatoes, also coconut cream-based. Served with white rice.
3) Rainforest Vegetable Curry, a variety of fresh vegetables that surely varies with the season, no coconut.
4) Royal Crown Fried Rice, a very photogenic dish with scallops, shrimp, egg, jasmine and wild rice topped with orange fish roe.
All dishes were generously portioned. My favourites were the veggie curry and fried rice because I like but do not love coconut.
We were too full to try their signature Pink Mekong dessert, but did see its dramatic camera-ready presentation at a nearby table.
Service was very pleasant but not terribly attentive. Although the restaurant became fairly full during our weekday lunch visit, they were not in a hurry to turn tables, which allowed us to linger.
Overall a tasty, upscale and fairly unique Pasadena dining experience.