This is probably the edgiest place I've tried up here, and while that's not really saying much, it was pretty impressive and exceeded expectations. I convinced a co-worker (didn't take a lot of effort; she was hungry) to give this place a shot for a lunch pick-up order this past Thursday. Full disclosure - Thai is not one of my go-to ethnic food genres. It's a LITTLE too spicy for me generally speaking, has a lot of crunchy shizzle in its dishes that I could do without, and spice mixed with basically peanut butter (cough cough Pad Thai cough cough) is just not something I've been able to embrace. But it's by no means a hated food - I just have to be in the mood for it, which is pretty rare.
I took on the assignment of picking up the food. It's a pretty generic storefront; having never been on this road before, I actually missed it the first time because it's a building or two off of Route 33 and I didn't have a good visual even though I was actively looking for it - FYI for any other intrepid explorers out there. The interior is very reminiscent of a Chinese takeout place, with a giant menu dominating the area above the counter, with one or two pro forma booths to sit in if the spirit moves you. Probably just me, but I was really into the font they used for the menu - it gave off a Tempura Sans vibe from my childhood. And for what it's worth, everyone there was very friendly. I belatedly got a notification as I was pulling into the parking lot that the food wasn't slated to be ready for another 10 minutes, but I waited maybe three minutes once I got in. Not bad at all.
We got the Crispy Tofu app (I think $9ish) to split, and I just decided to go for it and ordered the Gra-Prow Fried Egg entrée ($15 or $16), not having a clue what I was really getting into beyond the egg. The Tofu is something I wouldn't get again; definite miss. The sauce it came with was pretty interesting; it reminded me of the sweet/sour sauce that typically accompanies a Firecracker Shrimp entrée at a restaurant that's trying to earn a little ethnic street cred, but it also had crushed up peanuts on top so there was a salty nut vibe to it as well. The texture was MUCH more gelatinous than I expected. I would have liked it a lot better without the peanuts, but that is apparently how the Thais roll. The Tofu itself was super, super bland - definitely needed the sauce or something similar for the palate, but I'm mystified that anyone would voluntarily eat it plain; it's like literally chewing air.
I was a big fan of the Gra-Prow Fried Egg. It has a lot of chunks of onions and peppers that I had no interest in consuming, but it was pretty easy to eat around those. The chicken was excellent - super flavorful and scrumptious. It WAS spicy (and I got the lowest level of that), and I had to actually go into our kitchen area to retrieve a few napkins to blow my noise. If you have a cold and are trying to clear the sinuses a bit, there are worse ways to do it. One co-worker who'd never had Thai before was curious and sampled a very small piece of chicken - she quickly went to get some water, so if you're a novice SE Asian cuisine consumer, be aware. What the Tofu lacks in taste, the chicken makes up for, and then some. I also was surprised that I didn't mind the bamboo shoots; they weren't distractingly crunchy or slippery on the palate, and were a noble accompaniment to the dish. And of course the egg was a star as well - how could it not be?
This is not something I'd get on a daily or even weekly basis, but it's certainly going to be part of the rotation going forward. If you're in North Rockland and looking for a respite from mediocre pizza and delis, you could do far worse than this. read more