Prem-On Thai

138 W. Houston Street (between Sullivan and MacDougal Streets)
(212) 353-2338
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TONY review
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After having this place recommended to me by one of the guys at Xanga, I put it on my list of to-try.  Since I’m very pick about Thai food, I didn’t think I’d get around to it, but recently I’ve been craving Thai like no other (especially after a positive experience at Pad Thai earlier this year).  So, I grabbed my boyfriend, a friend and her boyfriend, and off we went this past Friday…

From the outside, right off you notice how super trendy the place looks.  It’s almost out of place on a block of ordinary sushi joints, a Mexican/Spanish food place or two (notably, El Paso is two doors’ down and has really good paella), with its glass doors and all.  At 7 pm, the place is almost empty, but we all commented that it was still early for most people. 

The bar runs along the left hand wall and looks well-stocked, very sleek.  The hostess seated us immediately (the reservations I’d made via OpenTable were completely unnecessary) and we began our perusal of the menu.  Our final choices:

Thai handroll – oven-roasted pork, rice noodles, in steamed spring roll skin with a sesame chili vinegar sauce
I liked the presentation of this dish a lot, and it tasted pretty good.  The sauce was slightly spicy but not unbearably so, just a nice little kick that rounded out the roll.  I think peanut sauce would also have been a nice dipping sauce.  I would order this again.

Prem-On duck roll – oven roasted duck with cucumber wrapped in a tortilla
I really enjoyed this dish as well.  I only wish it was bigger.  The duck was a bit dry, but it was nothing the hoisin-like sauce on the side didn’t take fix.  My friend remarked that it was like a Thai version of Peking duck.  Very yummy.  I would order this again, if my mood struck.

Our third appetizer definitely had the most interesting presentation.



Chicken satay – skewers of marinated chicken with peanut sauce
A tray bearing our appetizers was carried to our table and set atop one of those waiter’s helper tray stands, with a bowl of fire alongside!  As we watched, the bowl of fire was poured over our chicken satay, and the waiter flipped the satays individually.  The fire went out on its own.  Fantastic presentation which gave the chicken itself a nice char on the outside, great flavor as well.  I’m not sure what they used for the fire, but it was well thought out.  Since they didn’t have beef satay (which is what I always order), we opted for the chicken satay.  They used white meat (tenderloins possibily?) which made the chicken a little dry, but the peanut sauce with a touch of heat more than made up for it.  The chicken was tender inside and crispy along the outside where the fire had kissed it.  I would definitely order this again.

There are other appetizers on the menu that I would like to try, so while I would definitely order all three of these again, it might not be the very next time I head over there. 

I always have to try the pad thai at any Thai place- if a place can nail the basics, you know you’re good.  I was satisfied with my pad thai (choice of shrimp or scallops, I chose scallops which are not normally offered with pad thai); it was solidly enjoyable.  I do note a few things: they served a lemon alongside, instead of the normal lime, but I didn’t find this took away from the noodles at all.  Also, I removed the purple cabbage since I don’t like that; last, the serving dish was lined with a leaf? so when I went to mix my dish together (peanuts, bean sprouts, noodles), some of it went under the leaf, which I found a little annoying.  Other than that, solidly put together- the scallops were semi-breaded but not, and very tender.  It was an interesting application that did not fall short at all.  Yum.

My friend’s boyfriend ordered Gang Keaow Wan- green curry with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, Thai eggplant, with his choice of rib eye or chicken, and choice of various rices (he chose curry rice, which you can see in the right hand portion of the picture).  We all remarked that rib eye, while a fantastic cut of meat, sounded a bit off for this type of dish, but he gamely chose that.  His curry arrived in a coconut, much to the interest of the diners at the table beside ours, and he mentioned that the curry was actually pretty spicy.  He noted that while he enjoyed the dish, felt it could have been better or he would have liked it better had he chosen chicken- the rib eye didn’t quite go with all the flavors. 

My own boyfriend opted for the roasted duck noodles, which arrived looking very much like pad see yu, which is “dry” stir-fried broad white noodles (very similar to a dish in Chinese cuisine), except with duck instead of beef.  In fact, it tasted very much like pad see yu, which isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but we were expecting something a bit more … well, a bit more Thai, or a bit more interesting.  Regardless, my boyfriend enjoyed his dish and commented that he’d like to try different and more dishes in the Thai cuisine (this being only the second Thai place I’d taken him to thusfar). 

Last and definitely not least, my friend opted for the oven roasted chicken massaman, which is a coconut curry with avocado and red potatoes.  She said her dish was very good, and when she was done, she said she was stuffed.  It came with a side of rice (her choice, she chose curry rice), and some naan?, and pickled veggies. 

 

Our entire bill came out to $110, which includes two glasses of plum wine, a Thai iced tea, and all of the food pictured here.  Not expensive at all, despite its fairly trendy location. 

We were all too stuffed to try any of the desserts, though they had a few items that definitely caught our eyes- a tasting of creme brulees, for example, and chocolate souffle, to name a few.  When we declined dessert, they did not rush over with the bill to boot us out, despite the numerous people waiting for tables (it got busy around 8:30 or 9); they waited until we asked for the check before bringing it, which was a nice touch.

A final note: the bathrooms were unisex.  This might be a bit much for some people to swallow.  The door was marked with both men/women, (insert bad un-PC joke here) and when you walked in, there were four stalls, the far two were for women and the near two for men, clearly marked with giant M or W.  The sinks were awesome- I really liked the faucets, I can’t describe them, you just have to go try them yourself. 

Special thanks to Xanga for letting me know about this place!

Yvo says: I believe we all would go back; the food was good, it wasn’t expensive, and the atmosphere, the overall experience was very positive.  The service was attentive and polite (I never went without water), and everything was just right.  The one thing to note is that the person who created the menu seemed to want to have all the regular Thai dishes (pad thai, pad see yu, the curries) but wanted them to be slightly different, and decided to change out the meats in each case.  That explains the pad thai with scallops, the pad see yu with duck, the curries with rib eye, and even the appetizers with slightly off-the-beaten path interpretations of Thai classics- the Thai handroll seemed to be a spin on a Vietnamese appetizer which features shrimp instead of pork.  Sometimes their spin works- sometimes it doesn’t.  The rib eye curry didn’t seem to be as good as it could have been, but otherwise, … definitely go here.
highly recommended