If you're looking for food trends in Northeast Ohio, you'd be hard-pressed to find a sector with more growth than ethnic restaurants. Last year saw the introduction of new Latin, Thai, Mexican, Japanese and Middle Eastern dining spots.

But today's crop of ethnic eatery is a whole new breed. That stereotypical mom-and-pop shop of yesteryear is gradually being replaced by modern restaurants that happen to specialize in the foods of another culture. Two perfect examples are Peppermint Thai Cuisine and Pacific East Japanese Restaurant.

In a delicious twist of fate, a pair of popular Coventry Road restaurants, Mint Café and Pacific East, built elegant new outposts less than a mile apart in neighboring Pepper Pike and Woodmere. Considering the stellar reputation of these restaurants, the addition of posh suburban spin-offs seemed like a no-brainer. Judging by the response, which has been enthusiastic at both, those gambles are apparently paying off.

Pacific East's new spot is a jewel box of a space at ETON Chagrin Boulevard. Black granite surfaces, highly lacquered furniture and bold contemporary art give this small restaurant a polished look. With just 40 seats in the dining room and 10 more at the three-sided sushi bar, the joint can fill up fast, especially around noon.

But busy is good for a sushi bar, where highly perishable foodstuffs are the stock in trade. Like the original in Cleveland Heights, this Pacific East is a great place to score unique tastes like baby yellowtail, live uni and sayori, a seasonal fish. A small illuminated board ticks off the day's special sushi, but many sell out by day's end. Since opening week I've enjoyed delightfully fresh slices of escolar ($3.25), albacore ($2.50), fatty tuna ($6) and yellowtail ($2.95).

The chefs here appear equally proficient in the fabrication of deluxe sushi rolls. In the iso maki ($11.95), colorful chunks of tuna, salmon and yellowtail are bundled with ripe avocado and mayo in a special seaweed wrapper resembling snake skin.

It would be a shame to stick solely with raw fish. Pacific East serves an unbelievably succulent piece of yellowtail collar ($8.95), broiled until the skin is crispy and the flesh barely heated through. Yes, the meat falls off the bone. Buttery wafers of seared pepper-dusted tuna loin ($8.95) are served with a zippy wasabi sauce. The only fish miss comes in the form of dreadfully elastic fried squid ($5.95) paired with an off-putting vinegar-based sauce.

Served in seemingly bottomless bowls, the noodle soups quash the hunger and satisfy the soul. Choices range from chewy udon noodles paired with white meat chicken ($9.50) to soba noodles topped with crisp shrimp tempura ($10.25).

Peppermint, the Pepper Pike edition of Mint, is also an aesthetic upgrade from the original. Tucked into Landerwood Plaza, the Thai restaurant is spacious, comfortable and sleek, unlike its Coventry sibling. But despite a generous 90-seat dining room, tables fill up and stay that way during the peak dinner hours.

It is obvious why: The menu is nearly identical to the Cleveland Heights version - that is to say, exhaustive. There are some 20 choices in the soup, salad and starter sections alone. The rest of the menu is divided into categories for design-your-own curry dishes, grilled items, house specialties, traditional Thai dishes, noodle and fried rice options and, finally, vegetarian-friendly entrées.

A bowl of tom ka gai soup ($3.50), while a tad meek and one-dimensional, is still a pleasurable way to kick off a meal, as is the perennial crowd-pleaser beef satay ($6.95), a mini barbecue of grilled marinated flank steak served with peanut sauce. Not so pleasant, however, is the soft-shell crab tempura appetizer ($8.95), which arrives fishy, chilly and scarcely "tempura-ed."

Mint has always had a way with duck, a finicky fowl, and the same holds true at Peppermint. The duck in green curry ($13.95) may be the tastiest Thai dish in town. Duck noodle soup ($7.95), available at lunch, is a big pho-like bowl filled with roasted duck (on the bone), noodles and vegetables in an aromatic broth.

My request to up the heat quotient in an order of normally tame Indonesian fried rice ($10.95) was taken quite seriously. The delicately sweet, slightly chewy, curry-scented rice contains shrimp, mushrooms and thin slices of grilled chicken. Ordered just as it is, the Landerwood string beans ($11.95) is a mildly spiced medley of chicken, green beans and pea pods in a savory peanut-curry sauce. Entrées include a choice of jasmine or nutty brown rice, a natural for this dish.

Will the success of these glitzy new spots spell doom for the aging originals? Let's pray not.

Peppermint Thai Cuisine

30769 Pinetree Rd., Pepper Pike
216.464.5432, peppermintthaicuisine.com

Hours:
11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday
11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10:30 p.m.
Friday-Saturday
4-9 p.m. Sunday

Pacific East Japanese Restaurant

28601 Chagrin Blvd., Woodmere
216.765.1305
Hours:
11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday
11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday
noon-11 p.m. Saturday
3-10 p.m. Sunday.

BITES

Judging by the crowds that have besieged the new Anatolia Café (2270 Lee Rd., 216.321.4400) since opening day in early March, you would think we all grew up on Turkish cuisine. Credit must go out to owner Yashar Yildirim, who designed a beautiful restaurant that beckons diners with its warm glow. Though large by any stretch, the restaurant is divided into four comfortable zones: a bar and lounge, the foyer and open kitchen, and two main dining rooms connected by brick archways. Like the original at Cedar Center, which this replaces, Anatolia serves made-from-scratch Turkish cuisine, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Greek and Lebanese fare. The menu is filled with hearty, home-style dishes featuring marinated, skewered and grilled meats served with rice or house-made yogurt ($11-$13). Kebabs made with lamb, chicken and beef are available as sandwiches ($6) with fresh-baked pita. Starters include a refreshing salad of cracked bulgur ($4.95), parsley and onions, a deeply aromatic red lentil soup ($2.95), and the irresistible sigara borek ($4.95), deep-fried phyllo "cigarettes" stuffed with feta and parsley. Despite a first-week visit, service at this bustling tavern could not have been smoother.

An early inspection of Bricco (1438 Euclid Ave., 216.862.2889), a new Theater District restaurant, did not go as smoothly. Open three weeks at the time of our visit, it was as if no one was running the show. After we were ignored at the hostess stand on a slow non-theater night, a server did finally seat us. The dramatic space features tall ceilings, funky track lighting and an attractive bar and lounge, but the main dining room feels a little unfinished. On Sunday and Monday nights, Bricco sells all of its wine at retail prices, with bottles as low as $9. Sadly, our server failed to mention this until after we ordered off the impressive beer list. Despite twice sending back a starter of stuffed risotto balls ($7) (the server admitted that they had been improperly frozen), a manager never appeared. Another starter of fried dill pickles ($5) would have been better had the pickles been sliced thinner. We enjoyed a dish of spicy penne pasta ($14) tossed with Italian sausage, banana peppers and sun-dried tomatoes in a pesto cream sauce. Our pizza ($10), though, was over-topped with spinach, feta and watery roasted tomatoes, leaving the dough a little soggy. Bricco, with its affordable pizzas and pastas, will be a great addition to the area if it gets its act together.