During my first-day walkthrough of the sumptuous Grand Hyatt Erawan, I couldn’t find this You & Mee noodle café. The magazine article I had that listed it was six years old, so I figured the restaurant went out of business. Three nights later, I was back at the Grand Hyatt, in another section of the mammoth hotel, and there it was, You & Mee. As I learned during my stay in Bangkok, top hotels have a range of restaurants at all price levels scattered throughout their often enormous structures, and they’re not always easy to find.

I wasn’t hungry enough for the nightly Khao Tom Buffet, so I ordered a bowl of noodles: “Khao soi: Northern chicken curry with crispy noodles” (100 Baht, $2.50). This was probably the best noodle dish I’ve ever eaten. It was a bowl of yellow curry with crispy egg noodles topped with fried coconut shreds, a base of slippery rice noodles and a generous helping of light, curry-soaked, white-meat chicken.

As if the spicy and sweet noodles weren’t already good enough, it came with a plate of condiments: strands of ginger, a lime wedge, onion, pickled cabbage, and a deep red mix of tamarind, palm sugar, coconut sugar and dried chilies. As my waitress said, “It looks spicy, but it’s not.” It was sweet, with a granular kick. Sensational.

To eat the noodles, I made a selection from You & Mee’s colorful chopstick-filled vase, shown here with spices.

According to You & Mee Manager, Pornpis Bootchai, who goes by “B,” the 12-year-old restaurant attracts mainly hotel guests, who are predominately from Asian countries like China, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.

I swore I wouldn’t eat anywhere twice on my trip, but the lure of the Khao Tom Buffet (290 Baht) was too strong. The buffet features seven stations of clay pots, plus a rice station with steamed white rice, boiled white rice, boiled brown rice, and a two-table dessert station. And it was all labeled, so not only would I get to eat a wide range of Thai food, I’d also be getting an education. I must have tasted 75 different dishes. Here’s the best of what I ate from each table:

Table #1: Nam Lieb – large, salted black olives, ultra salty; Kai Jiew – Thai omelette – fluffy, filled with red and green chilies and tender onion; Pia muek wong – deep fried dried squid sheets; and ground pork with salted black olives.

Table #2: Sauteed kale – a good version of the bitter greens; steamed pork wontons with BBQ pork.

Table #3: Sheets of white meat chicken with shredded ginger; shrimp with cabbage and red chilies; Kratiem Dong – pickled garlic – outstanding, crunchy sweet little orbs; Goon Chieng Tord – possibly the best dish all night, sweet, chewy, crisp-skinned slices of Chinese pork sausage

Table #4: Chicken stir fried with chili and basil – an above average rendition; sheets of sweet, paper-thin fried pork.

Condiment Table: Nam Yam Sarm Rod – lime & fish sauce; Tao New Soy Bean Paste; Prik Ki Noo Soi – sliced chili; sliced pickled ginger; chopped pickled cabbage; chopped pickled cucumber; mix of red chili pods, diced carrots, onions, cabbage and lime; Khing Soi – fresh shredded ginger.

Table #5: Unctuous seaweed salad; roasted peanuts; and another candidate for best dish, Mai Kuea Yao Song Kreung – tender green eggplant and minced pork with hot basil.

Table #6: Moo Yong – pork floss – If only I knew I could floss with pork as a kid; har gow and siu mai in soy sauce – the siu mai were pure shrimp, but the har gow were pasty.

As part of my dinner, I was given a choice of two special soups: fish ball noodle soup or egg noodle soup with braised chicken wings. I chose the former. The wide rice noodles were slippery, and I wasn’t a fan of the types of spongy fish balls: covered in bean curd, in ball and torpedo form.

On to dessert: a big bowl of shaved ice, bowls of coconut milk, coconut caramel milk, yellow beans, maraschino’d water chestnuts, and pandanus dumplings.

On a second table were syrup-soaked egg yolk pastries in the shape of stars, and a fruit platter: pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, taro and grapes.

I had three of the delicious egg yolk stars and a great bowl of ice, coconut caramel milk and green pandanus leaf dumplings, in the unfortunate shape of sperm.

Overall, the food at You & Mee ranged from pretty good to fantastic, and I received an incredible education in Thai ingredients.