To say looks are deceiving is an understatement. Think about it: You are told you will be dining in the best restaurants of their kind and then are directed to shopping centers that clearly need facelifts or, at the very least, a fresh coat of paint.

You will probably believe that the directions you followed to the eateries were incorrect. But, then, you step inside of each and you are in foodie heaven. Specifically, there are two local restaurants to which people are flocking that, at first glance, you’d probably pass right by.

First, take Lotus of Siam (www.saipinchutima.com), 953 East Sahara Avenue at Commercial Center. This Las Vegas foodie favorite since it arrived in 2000 is a very small, unassuming restaurant with a reputation that is the direct opposite of its appearance. 

Frequented by all the great chefs who come to Las Vegas (Mario Batali and Joël Robuchon among them), Lotus of Siam offers really good food at really good prices. In fact, Jonathan Gold of Gourmet magazine called Lotus: “The single best Thai restaurant in North America.”

Owner-chef Saipin Chutima — who was nominated this year as a semifinalist for a James Beard Award as the Best Chef in the Southwest — and her husband Bill pride themselves on not offering run-of-the-mill fare. For example, if they offer that Thai food favorite of Americans, Pad Thai, Bill says they do because “people expect it,” but urges a visitor to try some of their special northern Thai dishes.

Before coming to Las Vegas, they lived in Norwalk, California, where they owned Renu Nakorn. Bill explains, “It was near a dairy farm and the odor became too much.” 

Whatever the reason, although their restaurant had been well reviewed in California, when they came to Las Vegas, Saipin and her approach to her native cuisine were almost instantly endowed with the status of legend. That status came after — literally — a lifetime of hard work.

Like other girls in Thailand, at the age of five Saipin was brought into the kitchen to learn to cook by her grandmother. She enjoyed it but went to work in a beauty salon. At 17 she went back to cooking as an apprentice in a kitchen belonging to the grandmother of a young man who hung around there. She and the young man, Suchay (Bill) fell in love but their romance was interrupted when he went to New York to study for seven years. They eventually married and the rest, as is said, is history.

Lotus is so wildly popular that in the evening reservations are a must. One person we know says she found it the first time by going into the shopping center and seeing the line of limos dropping people off. The owners will tell you that if you want to come for dinner during, say, MAGIC (the fashion industry’s bi-annual convention), “you should make reservations a month in advance.”

So, what’s all the fuss about? Well, first, the emphasis on Northern Thai cuisine means different dishes, different flavors. It’s still Thai, but bears the influence of Burma and Laos. And, Bill notes, “We spend money on good ingredients, the best we can possibly get from Thailand and Los Angeles.” 

Spices are crucial in this cuisine and the American diner may be introduced to some heretofore unknown. Of these, Galangal comes to mind. This relative of ginger has medicinal value — it aids in digestion, blood circulation and helps treat arthritis and stomach inflammation — and a delicate kind of anise-y scent. Of course, ginger and garlic also figure prominently.

Just about everything is prepared in the restaurant. An amazingly tender Khao Soi Braised Short Rib sits on a bed of Northern Thai egg noodle that Saipin makes from scratch. (In fact, one of the servers told us, “She makes great spaghetti.”) This is served in curry sauce, coconut cream and garnished with sliced red onion, lime and pickled vegetables.

It is at this point on the culinary tour that Bill brings out the wine list — 34 pages, 450 kinds of wine (mostly stored off-premise) with eight pages of just Rieslings. This could be why Wine Spectator has given the restaurant its Award of Excellence every year for the last four. Robb Report praised its food and noted the wine list is “surprisingly deep.”

Bill explains, “When you eat a lot of hot food, the Riesling helps to deal with the heat because the sugar in the wine provides balance.” Those we sampled were light and very refreshing. 

And, by the way, if you don’t like food that is spicy, just tell the server. It is all cooked to the diner’s specification.

In addition to the dishes pictured here, we also sampled the delicious Tom Kah Kai, a Bangkok-style soup of sliced chicken with coconut milk, straw mushroom galanga, lemon grass and a touch of lime juice and the Nam Kao Tod, delicious crispy rice mixed with minced sour sausage, green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, and lime juice.

It really was a perfect dining experience hosted by owners who really care about their patrons. Asked why they’ve not moved to more luxe quarters on The Strip (although they’ve been asked), Bill replies, “Here we do it for ourselves. We are the owners and we make all the decisions.”

Saipin says, “When people leave with a smile and want to come back, then I am happy.”

The other restaurant is new to the dining scene and is the subject of quite a bit of buzz about town already garnering a nod as Best New Restaurant semifinalist in the 2009 James Beard Foundation awards. Arburiya Raku, located at 5030 West Spring Mountain Road, #2, is in a strip mall at the northwest corner of Spring Mountain and Decatur. This Japanese charcoal grill outpost offers no sushi, no soda except regular Coke and — with seats for 31 diners — the kind of intimate atmosphere that is rarely found in any restaurant, much less one in Las Vegas.

Celebrating its first year this month, Raku’s self-taught Chef Mitsu Endo offers a menu of surprises — as noted above, no sushi, along with 25 sake selections (including the three sake specials of the month), and myriad culinary surprises. 

You want iced tea? They offer an unusual and very tasty roasted green iced tea. Need salt? Try one of the three homemade versions made from either shitake mushroom, seaweed or the very favorite of the Luxury Las Vegas crew — salt made from green tea powder. Really, I ask you: How often do you go into a restaurant and reach continually for the salt, pour some into your palm and, then, delicately eat it? 

Open Monday through Saturday, 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., Raku, like Lotus of Siam, is a chef’s favorite. Raku is frequented by such culinary luminaries as Paul Bartolotta — who is particularly fond of the more exotic dishes like meat intestine and beef tendon — and Joël Robuchon. One night, restaurant manager Rie Koleff reports, “Michael Mina came in. He didn’t have a reservation. We found room for him but told him we’d need the table in an hour. He took it and finished eating in that one hour.”

So, yes, reservations are suggested (702-367-3511).

In addition to salt, Chef Endo also makes six soy sauces and his own tofu. The soy sauces range from very light to fuller flavored and are used according to the type of food being served. The tofu is painstakingly prepared for three hours. The result is creamy and, with the right garnishes to suit the diner’s taste, very good. 

Tofu figures prominently in Japanese food and here is no exception. We tasted the Fried Homemade Tofu in Hot Broth. Delicious. But that wasn’t all we had. We also enjoyed the Sashimi Salad with lovely pieces of salmon and hamachi (yellowtail) with spinach.

From the Robata Grill, we were treated to a sampler of chicken breast wrapped in chicken skin; lamb chop; Tsukune-grilled ground chicken that looked like a sausage; tomato wrapped in bacon (bacon figures prominently on the menu, as does fois gras); Kobe beef filet with wasabi; grilled duck with Balsamic soy sauce; and — the most fascinating dish of all — that is described on the menu simply as “potato with corn.”

But, this is not potato WITH corn. It is potato IN corn. Chef Endo won’t tell how he does it, except to say it’s not like coring a pineapple, but when served, the potato is surrounded by perfectly intact kernels of corn that look like they’re still on the cob. Only, the cob isn’t there. It also tastes terrific.

As a kind of aperitif we were offered — and accepted with alacrity — Hon Mirin Aged Sweet Sake. It was served with a splash of heavy cream floating on top and it was just scrumptious. 

The restaurant’s décor, too, is lovely. Chef Endo handmade so many elements — from the wood tables, to the basket-weave ceramic wall behind the bar, to the sake cup holders that are light as air. (“What kind of wood did you use?” he was asked. In reply he shrugged and laughed, “Home Depot.”)

Then there is the restroom. It features a modern, floating sink and, on the ceiling a trellis with flowers and greenery. The sound of birds chirping is lovely as are the fresh rose petals scattered in a corner on the floor.

But, of course, it is the food that makes the restaurant. And here it is all prepared lovingly and in-house. Some ingredients come from as far away as Hokkaido, but everything is fresh and tasty. 

Prices, too, are eminently reasonable. In response to a question, Rie Koleff told us that the highest bill she’d seen was about $250. And, when you take into account that the most expensive item on the menu is the Bite Size Fois Gras Bowl at $15, that is not easy. Her explanation — “They had a lot to drink.”

There is no doubt at all that we will be able to drink a toast to Raku on many more anniversaries after this first one. And that is a good thing.