Earlier this week, Caryn suggested all of us girls grab dinner at A+ Thai. Â She had reviewed it on the blog a few years ago, but I had never been. Reasons why we decided to give it a try was because 1) it was still BYOB and had only a $5 corkage fee and 2) you can get $25 restaurant.com gift certificates to apply to your bill for just $10.
Unlike Caryn’s first visit to the restaurant, I found the service to be quite good. Â While the place was small and almost every table was taken, they didn’t seem to get annoyed when I told them we had to wait a few minutes for our friend to get there who had gotten out of work late. Â Instead, they opened our bottle of wine, and let us relax for a bit until McKenna arrived. As soon as she was seated, they came over to get our order – so not nearly as much of a wait as Caryn first experienced (see below for the original review). Â We also didn’t have to chase our waitress down for the check and she didn’t get snooty about us using a restaurant.com gift certificate, and all in all, dinner took about an hour and a half (and we were leisurely about it), much different than Caryn’s 2.5 hour experience.
The food was delicious – I got the pad kee mao, or drunken noodle which is typically spicy. Â I decided to get it mild – good thing I did because the regular way it is served was really spicy! The pad thai that I sampled from our friend Alicia was a bit on the sweeter side, but all four of us liked our dishes and cleared our plates.
With the gift certificate factored in, dinner was about $12.50 a person – not including the bottle of wine we brought with us. If you are looking to catch up with friends, I definitely recommend checking this place out!
Original Review Posted September 17, 2010
Last night I wanted to catch up with some high school friends, so we decided on dinner and drinks. Luckily I walked by Thai restaurant A+ the other day and noticed an ever-so-important sign touting “BYOB, no corkage fee.” Well, that sealed the deal for us.
Located in Midtown, it was an easy location for us to meet up and despite the small size of the restaurant, we were quickly seated (and by that, I mean I assume we were…I arrived late). They were quick to come over and ask if we wanted them to chill a second bottle of white wine and they immediately uncorked the first bottle, so I thought so far so good.
But then it was a solid well. 30 minutes before we finally grabbed a waitress’s attention so that we could order our meal. I like not being rushed through a meal, particularly when I haven’t seen my friends in a while, but this was a bit excessive. We ordered a chicken pad thai (mine), shrimp pad thai and a massaman curry with chicken, as well as edamame. We thought that would act as a little appetizer for us, but it was actually served after our entrees. Oh
As far as the food itself went, I don’t think we had any complaints as we all cleared our plates. I really enjoyed my chicken pad thai and found it to be an excellent balance of sweet and savory with a good helping of crushed peanuts. It was definitely one of the better pad thais I’ve had in the city, but I do wish that it had more tofu and egg in it (unlike Laura, I like some good egg pieces in my pad thai).
Again we waited a long time after we finished our meals for the check (we had to track down the waitress for this as well). All in all our dinner took 2.5+ hours which was fine since we weren’t in a rush, but I would not recommend this place if you are on any kind of schedule. Apparently it wasn’t just us either, as I’ve read several reviews complaining about the same issue. But, when you factor in BYOB and delicious food, I personally think it’s worth the wait if your plans allow it. I would go back for the same kind of evening – catch up time with friends – but you’ll need to bring flexible friends along so no one gets frustrated. Of course when there are so few BYOB spots in the city, beggars really can’t be choosers.
The Basics Name: A+ Thai Location: 1007 Second Avenue (at 53rd St.) Who to bring: Long lost friends, a great date Price: A dollar or so higher than most places, $$-$$$ Overall: BYOB and good food beats service in my book. 4 Stars.
