As you walk up to the wooden building with circular windows that look like portholes and see the river water only about 100 feet away, you expect to enter a typical Delta seafood restaurant.

But inside Busaba on the Delta, chef Busaba Voraritskul is standing over a wok while flames leap up past the side. Steam fills the kitchen as she puts her homemade sauces and spices into each and every Thai dish that she cooks.

Having cooked Thai food for more than a decade, Voraritskul takes pride that her recipes aren’t the incredibly spicy dishes people associate with Thai. Instead, she focuses on “pleasing herbs and spices” — but people can still add their own peppers and chilis if they want that extra kick.  

The restaurant opened in late April at Vieira’s Resort, a camping and fishing destination in Isleton.

Voraritskul and her husband, Roger Fox, have previously owned similar Thai restaurants on Cherokee Lane in Lodi and at Vino Piazza in Lockeford.

While they kept many of her famous Thai dishes, they also modified the menu to appeal to the locals.

Still, the restaurant’s best seller is the pad talay, a Thai dish with six black tiger prawns, scallops, calamari and stir-fried vegetables with Thai jasmine rice.

There are a variety of Thai dishes, including pad Thai, pan-fried salmon, cashew nut stir-fry. The dishes range in price from $11.95 to $16.95. There is a variety of vegetarian options, and Fox points out that the food is healthier than some other Asian cuisines  because it is cooked in a lot less oil.  

Busaba originally was born in Thailand, and then came to America to go to college in Oklahoma. In 2002, she decided she was tired of her job as a financial controller for a company in Stockton.

“I got bored sitting in a cage in the back of an office. I said, ‘I’m a bird, I want to fly,’” she said.

She went to Thailand and learned from the family that has been cooking for Thailand’s royal family for generations. She designed the menu around what she likes to eat, like the green curry. 

Her emphasis on making the dishes pleasing to eat translates to the appearance of the dishes, which often feature a variety of edible garnishes.

The new location also serves breakfast, with items like chicken-fried steak and eggs benedict, and lunch and dinner with Delta staples like cod fish and chips, and calamari steak sandwiches. They also have a fully stocked bar with daiquiris and pina coladas. 

“This is the Delta out here. You aren’t going to change the Delta. It’s going to change you,” Fox said.

Contact reporter Maggie Creamer at maggiec@lodinews.com. Read her blog at www.lodinews.com/blogs/citybuzz.