lthough it is advantageous for dining establishments to iron out operating kinks before the busy season begins, not many of them debut during the lazy days of summer; towering rents make spending the hot months tinkering with accouterments too pricey a proposal. There are exceptions, of course: the most noteworthy being Salt, which opened its designer doors this summer in a dark cobblestone alley, and 1215, which brought its solid base of Japanese hooks to Davie Street.

And now we have Next Noodle Bar. This newcomer serves up a frenzied blend of Thai and Cantonese, with dashes of Vietnamese and Malaysian. Once you take in the slick space, wrap your head around the menu: a list of a dozen assorted preparations of Pan-Asian dishes might look sparse to you, but all the noodles are made fresh daily - the old-fashioned way - in a large, modern space, separated by glass walls from the demanding Robson Street, near Seymour.

Appetizers include Shanghai wontons, a crisp salad of pineapple, cucumber, jicama and mango cubes, topped with squid and shrimp crackers. Entrées include the Sambal Shrimp, which turned out to be a spicy stir-fry of minced chilies, scallions, galangal and shrimp in a shrimp-paste stock.

The Asam curried fish head is served Next Noodle style, with cubes of deep-fried bean curd in a tomato broth fragrant with anise. The signature laksa is a spicy sweet-sour fish soup with fat round noodles and lots of rice noodles, squares of fried tofu, and slivers of chicken. This generous bowl is barely seasoned, so you really got the flavour of the chicken and coconut milk. The noodle bowls served are fresh-tasting, but only if you order correctly.

One recent meal included the shrimp noodle bowl. The large bowl offered tasty homemade noodles, but there were fewer noodles and more broth than you may be used to. It came with a single tempura shrimp and only a few vegetables, lacking in substance.