On Saturday night, my roommates and I decided to hit up a new Thai place in the neighborhood – Osha. Â The two things that attracted us to Osha was the fact that it was new and it was BYOB. Â With a couple of bottles of wine in hand, we arrived at Osha and unfortunately found ourselves waiting for 30 minutes. Â While we were on the fence whether or not to stay and wait, everyone walking out of the restaurant commented on how great the food was. Â One guy in particular actually walked out of the restaurant, looked at us and yelled “Excellent! Â I’ve been here three times in one week!”
Based on a recommendation from our new friend outside, we decided to start with the spare ribs. Â These however tasted more like short ribs and had a delicious ginger and pepper taste. Â They were also falling off the bone. Â We also went with the calamari (I know, that’s shocking coming from me) and I have to say, while the sweet chili sauce was good, it wasn’t my favorite. Â I prefer my calamari to not have as much breading.
On to the main course – I’ll let you guess what I went with.  Yup, chicken pad thai.  I enjoyed the pad thai, it had the perfect amount of tofu and went super easy on the egg.  It could have been a little bit more peanuty for me.  The other dishes at my table were great.  One of my roommates got the Duck Noodle, and while the dish was more on the soupy side, I found the duck to be wonderful.  My other roommate went with the Drunken Noodle, or the Kea Moa (pronounced Key MEOW, unlike Al’s butchered pronunciation ”key mow ah”).  This was the best Kea Moa I’ve ever had – it was just the perfect level of spice for me and had a great combination of flavors.  Next time I’m at Osha, I’m going with the Kea Moa.  I’d also be interested in trying the shrimp rolls for an appetizer since my friend outside mentioned they were excellent.
Overall, great time at Osha. Â Servers were friendly, the decor was funky (we loved the hanging photo frames without any pictures in them), the food was good and the price was cheap – only cost me $15 for dinner, apps, tax and tip. Â I’ll be back.
The Basics Name: Osha Location: 1711 2nd Ave (between 88th and 89th) Who to bring: Friends, Date Price: $$ Cheap Overall: Not the best Thai of all time, but certainly a new fave. 4 stars.
Just had dinner at Osha on a whim after walking by. Was busy on a holiday Saturday night for good reason. While the popular spring rolls were good, the true stars of the evening were the 2 main courses we ordered. The chicken with cashews was full of meat, nuts and an extremely tasty brown sauce with just enough spice. The salmon in mango sauce was delicate and full of flavor. Prices are dirt cheap, the room is interesting and trendy and the service was more than adequate. I will be back again.