“ThaiNY” Portions, But Some Dishes Have Big Flavor

Doug, Milos, Paul and I were in the mood for some Thai food a week or two ago, so we headed over to ThaiNY. I’d seen this place walking to work and the lunch menu posted online looked great – $7 for an appetizer and entrée. I was sold.

The inside is pretty cool with a modern twist, and the service was fast which I appreciate when you’re on a one-hour lunch break. Picking the appetizer was the hardest part for me, but ultimately I went with the Tom Yum soup and Chicken Pad Thai for my entrée – no surprise there. Doug ordered the shumai (the best appetizer at the table) and Rice Noodles with Broccoli and Beef, Milos had the Tom Ka soup (it’s a coconut-based broth) with the Spicy Noodles and Beef, and Paul also tried the Tom Ka soup, but paired it with the Chicken Pad Thai.

Unfortunately I was not a huge fan of the Tom Yum soup – the broth was good but it didn’t have any shrimp in it and the vegetables were hard, clearly not cooked long enough. However, my Chicken Pad Thai was excellent – spicy, sweet and peanutty. It’s definitely my favorite Thai/pad thai spot in the work neighborhood thus far and I can’t wait to go back and get more. And while the rest of the group all thought the portions were small, I thought they were just right for lunch. Thoughts from the rest of the table:

Milos Sugovic, Foreign Correspondent (kinda gross, and not helpful)

• Coconut Soup – Tasted like fermented breast milk.
• Spicy Noodles – Decent. Go to Spice, it’s better.
• Ambiance – Didn’t see any roaches, so I guess pretty good.

Doug Feingold, Columbia Correspondent

I wish my meal was simply the shumai. I love shrimp; it is one of my favorite foods, so when I noticed a shrimp dumpling appetizer my eyes lit up. I often find these dishes are a shrimp tease though – offering tiny bits of shrimp with globs of some sort of artificial cream cheese – but this dish delivered the goods. It was straight shrimp in a dumpling, very tasty.

Unfortunately, my main dish was not so literal. While I was hoping for chunks of beef with broccoli florets in a lo mein type dish, my meal didn’t come close. The bulk of the plate was those broad, slippery noodles. Not only were they a challenge to get on the fork, but they had zero taste. Eating a chunk of them was like swallowing a scoop of flour. Moreover, searching for the beef chunks was like sifting for gold in an 1850′s San Francisco stream, and the broccoli portion was the stems. The STEMS! – What happened to the tops, why not just throw that in?

Needless to say, I went back to the office and ate pretzels.