A small, friendly joint in downtown Hightstown, at the site of the former Slowdown Cafe, Da’s has a mostly Thai focus but displays a Vietnamese influence via the availability of pho.

We started with an appetizer combo. This featured some very good spring rolls and some shumai that was essentially the same as any other shumai. The winner here was chopped-up mangos, but instead of providing pure-play fruitiness, they were in an intriguingly unidentifiable spicy sauce.

The main courses were tofu with yellow curry (the curries are generally available with tofu, chicken or beef) and pho. The curry had an unique blend of spicy and flowery. Accompaniments included onions, carrots and broccoli. This was delicious, but the curry/rice ratio was such that we ran out of rice before the curry.

With the pho, the typical array of beef variations wasn’t offered here -no tendon option for instance – but it was a flavorful soup made better with some customization. The soup came with servings of condiments, including two varieties of what seemed to be dried peppers and a sharp sauce (fish sauce, maybe?). O.K., it would be better if we had the technical terms, but barring that, these additions gave it a really good kick – by the time the bowl was nearly empty, tears had formed.