409 8th Avenue (between 30th and 31st Streets)
New York, NY 10001
(212) 268-2752
menu
I preface this with the huge warning that I am a total Thai food snob. I rarely eat Thai food anymore because the best pad thai I’ve ever had was homemade by people who grew up in Thailand (and therefore impossible to get unless I attempt to duplicate the recipe myself) and most restaurants f*ck it up (too much sugar, not enough stuff, wrong noodles…).
Having said that, I must also add that my boyfriend had not previously had Thai food because of my reluctance on this end. I hadn’t found a restaurant yet that warranted my going back; this one was recommended to me by a friend who worked in the area who also has pretty high standards for Thai food, so off we went.
I know this place is pretty out of the way unless you’re in the area. It’s way over in Midtown West, and has really cheap lunch specials, so I’d suggest going for lunch. However, as MSG is right there, and a pretty nice movie theater that’s usually empty sits a few blocks away, on this particular date night, I trekked my butt over there, holding two tickets to the nearby movie theater.
When we got there around 6, the place only had another table of 2, so we had our choice of seats. By the time we left around 7, the place was pretty full for a Friday night in this part of town, though not packed.
The simple decor didn’t distract nor displease. The waitstaff was competent, spoke clear English, and was very nice and attentive though not overly so (better service than your average Asian place, but not as attentive as a non-Asian place, which was fine, our conversations went uninterrupted).
Since I’d read positive reviews about the fried calamari, and I always order beef satay at any Thai place I sample for the first time (for comparison), we chose these as our starters.
The calamari, we both remarked, was incredibly fresh, as though they’d just farmed them from the sea. The tangy, slightly sweet chili sauce they’d provided complemented the softness of the squid nicely with a slight lift of heat towards the end.
The satay was marvelously soft and tender, though the sauce left something to be desired. It was less peanut and more lightly spicy thousand island dressing, which annoyed me greatly as I always look forward to the peanut sauce. I also thought it odd that in the other small dish pictured on the plate, they had put 3 small pickled cucumbers. I love pickled vegetables, and though I was happy to see the portions weren’t huge (because we’d ordered a lot of food), I was amused that they’d even bothered to put only three.
For our main courses, I’d chosen to stick to my usual and favorite Thai dish; [shrimp] pad thai. $8.95 for a dinner portion isn’t a bad deal- most other places I’d been to charge around $11.95 for chicken and usually $1 more for shrimp pad thai. I was pleased to see that my dish was actually fairly large, and that the peanuts and bean sprouts had been placed on the side for me to mix myself. The lime was juicy and supplied enough juice to saturate the entire dish- the way I prefer it- and I was eager to dig in, though the noodles looked a little too saucy to begin with, saucier than I recall pad thai being.
I wasn’t disappointed, however, as my first bite disappeared into my mouth down to my belly. The noodles were chewy, just the right bite to them, and soaked in flavor. A pool of oil quickly formed on the bottom of my plate, but I eagerly ate until I was full with still a half dish to go. My shrimp were cooked perfectly, not too long nor too little whatsoever, and had enough flavor to them that I did not neglect them. My only complaint was that a touch too much sugar was added, making the noodles almost sickeningly sweet about 3/8 of the way through.
As my boyfriend had previously not had Thai food, I suggested he get the Thai pineapple fried rice (with chicken). He really enjoyed this dish and commented that he would have to bring his coworkers here to eat sometime as they work in the area. This is the highest compliment he can pay a restaurant- not only that he would go back, but that he would deign to suggest it to people or bring them there to eat. There were cashews, tomatoes, egg, and a few other things in the rice that balanced out all the flavors and textures to bring out a whole new experience in one’s mouth.
We were pretty full and actually wound up packing half of each dish away for tomorrow. For dessert, we took a walk over to Burgers & Cupcakes to see what was up with those cupcakes.
Yvo says: Not a “go out of your way for” kind of place, but dinner came out to $43 for two people (including my Thai iced tea and a coke, and all the food pictured) with a generous tip. Inexpensive, so if you’re in the area and crave fairly decent Thai food, it’s worth checking out. I would definitely go back if I was in the area and wanted Asian food or inexpensive eats. Yummy!!!
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