They Weren’t Kidding When They Named It “Bangkok Tasty”

I had been craving Thai for days, and on Sunday night decided to head over to Bangkok Tasty, one of my favorite Thai restaurants in Astoria. I had been a few times before, but was looking forward to reviewing for the blog.

Even though it was 10 p.m., there were still a few people in the restaurant, and it was a nice, intimate atmosphere. As we ordered our drinks and meals, it was evident that another waitress was listening in - no sooner did our waitress walk away, our drinks appeared. I ordered a Thai Iced Coffee, which is coffee and coconut milk, while Ben settled on a Thai Iced Tea. Not too many restaurants have the iced coffee, so it is always a treat.

We decided to back away from the fried calamari and venture out and try something new instead. We had tried the fried vegetable dumplings in the past, and they were good, but figured, hey, let’s be brave. Big mistake. We went with the fried crab meat dumplings. When they came out, immediately Ben and I were perplexed. They looked like little corn meal patties, fried. I was expecting your typical pork dumpling, with crab meat. Still, I was willing to give this a try and dipped the concoction into the sweet chili sauce. To me, it tasted like an overcooked egg omelet. I couldn’t even taste any crab meat. Ben and I never leave food behind - at least one of us always will nibble at something, but this was left on the table. However, I noticed as the waitress brought our dishes out, she struggled with another waitress to pull a table close to ours so we would have room for the appetizer and our entrees. She actually was giving us time to finish the food we ordered, which is a rarity since I feel like at a lot of restaurants it is more of an “are you done” type atmosphere. While we told her not to struggle moving the extra table closer to ours, I really thought it was a nice gesture.

Per usual, I got the chicken pad thai. Every time I order from here, it’s as if the plate plays a trick on me -I always think it’s a small portion, but I always manage to take some food home with me. In fact, I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch yesterday and it heated up quite nicely. To me, the pad thai is excellent, but I will warn you - this is one of the few Thai places I’ve been where you can actually order your pad thai extra spicy - and ordering it as normal will bring out quite a spicy dish. Since I’ve learned my lesson the past couple times I’ve been here, this time I ordered it “really mild.” Ben had a scallop and vegetable dish in a chili sauce, and while I’m sure it was good, I couldn’t sample it because it was way too spicy for my liking. He, on the other hand, loved it.

For an appetizer, two delicious drinks and two entrees, dinner set us back 40 bucks - including a generous tip - not bad, considering I got a lunch out of the deal too. While I wasn’t a fan of this appetizer, I’ll still be making a return visit to Bangkok Tasty, but I’ll be getting my calamari.