I was fortunate enough to get free courtside tickets to the Women's Final at the US Open on Saturday night. After having already been to the Open earlier in the week, I knew how expensive the food was there and was determined to get food somewhere else. Queens is probably best known for its delicious ethnic foods: Chinese, Thai, Indian, Ecuadorian, etc. I have always wanted to do a food tour of Queens, but this was not the time. I had thought about going to the famous Sripraphrai but after reading that the food wasn't as good as it used to be and that it was cash only, I decided to look for a new thai place. I had read about this place in the NY Times recently about how authentic it was and it wasn't too far off the 7 train, so I thought why not? It's a few blocks away from the 7 train stop in Elmhurst/Jackson Heights in a pretty quiet and unassuming street. If I hadn't read about this place I would have never found it.The place is small, clean and cute. The menu had a pretty good list of authentic and your usual suspect thai dishes. We were kind of in a hurry to make it in time for the match, so we didn't really order with too much thought. I wish we had more time and more people to order more food. I had read about some mussels dish, but I didn't see it on the menu, which was a bummer because I love that thai mussel dishes usually use plump New Zealand mussels. Instead I got my usual chicken pad thai ($8). I know, as someone who likes food, its kind of a cop out to order pad thai when there are so many other great thai dishes, but in all honesty, a really good pad thai is just as good as any dish. Aarti got the garlic eggplant with tofu ($8). The waitress had asked how spicy and surprisingly Aarti had said "medium". But given our previous experience in more authentic thai places, when you say spicy, it's really is spicy and it can be borderline inedible. The food came out relatively quickly given that there were 4-5 other tables.
Aarti took the first bite of my pad thai and she said it was amazing. So I gave it a bite and it was fabulous. Just the right amount of sauce and not too sweet. A lot of times pad thai can be too dry or there is something off about the sauce, but this was perfect. My only complaint was that there wasn't enough. A lot of thai places gives you an entire heaping plate of food, but this place gives you probably the right amount that one should eat for dinner. Aarti's dish was also very good, and just like she had anticipated, it was pretty damn spicy for "medium".
Unfortunately, we had to get out of there pretty quickly, but I really enjoyed my meal (total bill was only $17!! and they take credit card...and AXP to boot, which is kind of rare in these mom and pop restuarants). While the food was great, Queens is just a bit too much of a pain for me to come here often. I have to take 3 trains to get there and the local 7 train is just brutal. I would definitely eat here often if it was even remotely close to me (if it wasn't for the location I would have given it 4 forks but in a way it's location is also what makes it different. sigh.). But if I ever find myself in Queens, I would have no hesitation to come back. I would love to come back to Queens more and try even more of these cheap and authentic places.
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