Not every eating place on Restaurant row is the real thing. Some are, well, touristy imitations of ethnic eateries. But Bangkok House, a year old walk down Thai spot, falls squarely into the authentic column.
This sleek, modern restaurant, with its brick walls, French doors, white table cloths, plants, flowers and three small TV screens showing DVD scenes
of Thailand serves not muted, Americanized versions of Thai classics but authentic, up-front flavors.
Under the same Bangkok-born father and daughter ownership team as the more established, nearby Yum Yum on 9th Avenue, this cool Asian boasts a monster-sized menu that lists the expected (Pad Thai and Mee Grob) and some creative specialties like duck red curry, shrimp jungle curry and duck tamarind. In all the Bangkok House dinner menu offers eleven appetizers, three soups, four noodle dishes, nine salads, fifty entrée possibilities, five fried rice choices (when is the last time you had crab or pineapple fried rice?) and six desserts. Soups and desserts start at $3.95 and no dish tops $16.95. Those are time-warp prices even in Middle America but on 46th Street along Restaurant Row in the middle of the Broadway Theater District, they are rather startling.
Yet, all these facts and figures would be meaningless if the food was ordinary or worse. It isn’t. The spicy dishes here create culinary fireworks and the
less-than-spicy ones (there are many more of them) are smooth, velvety delights.
Try that Mee Grob and Pad Thai. They are not Thailand’s national dishes by chance. The first is a subtle, sweet and savory starter of crisp caramelized rice noodles, sticky sweet tamarind sauce, shrimp, bean sprouts and lettuce while the Pad Thai is a harmonious everything-but-the-kitchen-sink blend of silky rice noodles, sautéed eggs and diced tofu, turnips, scallions and bean sprouts sprinkled with a handful of peanuts and laced with either shrimp or chicken. The latter can be eaten as either an appetizer or an entrée and will appeal to Chinese food lovers.
Four steamed spinach dumplings are another recommended, non-threatening Chinese-style starter while yum seafood, with its chili and onion kick will appeal to those who want something more assertive.
That’s equally true for three lively entrees: stir fried seafood basil, alive with bell peppers and plenty of garlic, onions and basil; sliced, deep fried duck red curry or breast meat with sweet pineapple cubes and Thai fruit as a counterpoint to that hot, red curry sauce and a snappy shrimp jungle curry with three typical Thai ingredients, lemongrass, lime leaves and chili plus bamboo shoots, eggplant and vegetables. More benign, though no less satisfying were fresh, fluffy scallops in a mild, mellow ginger sauce.
Finales include a little seen taro mousse with a sticky rice base, crisp, crackly fried banana cylinders with a scoop of green tea ice cream or best of all, a ripe tropical mango fanned out on a plate next to a clump of contrasting sticky rice.
360 W. 46th St. (btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.), 212-541-5943.
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