After closing for three months, Taste of Thailand on Selby Avenue in St. Paul is back in action.

We stopped in recently, and at first glance, things seemed the same — from the worn out furniture to the menu of mainly Thai and a few Laotian dishes. All is not as it was before, however.

The restaurant is under new ownership, but chef/former owner Lamphay Phetphrachanh still helms the kitchen.

Phetphrachanh said she has been bidding adieu to her restaurants — Taste of Thailand on Old Hudson Road near White Bear Avenue in St. Paul as well as in downtown Minneapolis, Apple Valley and Fridley.

“I had trouble taking care of all of the businesses so I sold all of the restaurants. I sold four of the restaurant spaces to my employee. And the Fridley space, I sold to friends,” she said. “The new owner of the Selby location, my former employee, takes care of all of the management and the front of the house. It allows me to just concentrate on the cooking.”

Phetphrachanh said the menu remains the same, so regular patrons of this 20-year-plus institution will find their standbys, but now she has time to experiment and add new items.

With more time to concentrate on the kitchen, Phetphrachanh began making her own noodles. So far, she’s put house-made chow fun noodles on the plate, so dishes such as the Pad See Eew get from-scratch noodles rather than store-bought. We just had to try it.

Some noodles stuck together, but we could appreciate how much more fresh and moist they were as compared to noodles from a package. We enjoyed other details of the dish, too, from the thin, moist slices of pork to the slightly crunchy piping-hot Chinese broccoli.

The favorite during our visit was the Gai Tom Kha, or the lemon chicken soup. Thinly sliced chicken, light coconut milk broth and hints of lemon and lime served with rice made for a light and refreshing dish.

We also had a shrimp stir-fry dish that we found to be vegetable-laden and black-pepper forward. In fact, all of the dishes we tried had bold sprinklings of black pepper, which we’re chalking up to being a Taste of Thailand signature.

Along with from-scratch chow fun noodles, house-made egg noodles are in the works, as are dumplings and Thai desserts.

Phetphrachanh said she’s enjoying what new owner Htoo Lay has to offer because he is younger and embraces social media and marketing. Next up is a name change to Taste of Thailand and Khanom Thai, which is honor of where Htoo lay is from.

TASTE OF THAILAND

Where: 1671 Selby Ave.; St. Paul

For more information: 651-644-399; tasteofthailandmn.com

Prices: Appetizers, $3-$6; entrees, $8 to $13

Small Bites are first glances — not intended as definitive reviews — of new or changed restaurants.