Both restaurants are self-consciously tributes, not just in the selection and execution of dishes, but in their designs, which are engineered as meticulously as any television set and are meant to be transportive. This, unlike the growing clutch of “nu-Thai” restaurants in the city, in which the backdrop is often a more derivatively “cool” furnishing, leaves Plaza and soon Speedboat walking something of a tightrope: if the food and drinks don’t live up to standard, the entire experience will collapse like a house of cards.