Not only is Patakan a place for affordable gourmet Thai food, the interior is very beautifully designed and spotlessly clean. Lots of attention to detail can be seen here, tucked away into a relatively secluded corner of the strip mall just south of the Pasadena Freeway. Extra kudos should be extended for the outdoor seating enclave that completely insulates diners from the adjacent mini-mall parking lot. This is quite a corner, in fact, for excellent Asian cuisine. Two doors down from Patakan is the newly opened Charm Rice and Noodle restaurant. Both are by the same management team, a family business that has been active in Pasadena-area restauranteurs for three generations. At Patakan, the rice and noodle dishes are all enticing, as are interesting soups and the selection of seafood dishes. With the high quality of the food here, it's amazing how the prices stay so low, two people will eat their fill for far less than $20.