Sugar Beets Thai Visited 4/1/2011 3.25 Forks

Sugar Beets Thai 227 Roebling St., (between 2nd St & 3rd St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

 I was craving cheap Thai food but didn't want to go to Cheers Thai, which is the only barely respectable Thai place within walking distance to my apt.  There were a few other slightly further options that I was willing to try and Sugar Beets Thai was one of them (the other being Siam Orchard). 


It's really South Williamsburg and there is not near much it. When you walk in, you get this feeling that used to be some storefront and the current owners didn't really make good use of the space.  It's actually a pretty large space but there's only 10 tables at most and a completely unused upstairs.  The entire right hand side of the front part of the restaurant is totally empty, which was weird.  Ever since I've been back from Thailand I've been on this fried rice kick, although I have yet to find a good fried rice place here at home.  I usually feel like a loser for ordering fried rice, but this one had crab ($10), so I figured I would give it a go. Dan got the glass noodles with tofu ($8) and we split the steamed Thai dumplings ($5).  The dumplings came out and they looked like shumai on steroids  They were huge and while there were only 4 on the plate, it was the same amount of food as 6 dumplings.  Taste-wise it was actually pretty similar to a shumai and it had some good flavors to it.  The noodles and rice dishes were equally enormous in portion size (which did not stop me and Dan from completely over-eating and finishing our dishes).  My fried rice was good and there was definitely visible pieces of real crab meat, so that was refreshing.  But I was disappointed that it didn't have a fried egg on top of it and they added these huge slices of cold tomatoes and cucumbers which didn't really add anything to the dish. My other gripe was that the slices of onion were too big too, but I finished my entire meal, so clearly I must have liked it on some level.  It was pretty light tasting and not oily like some fried rice dishes you get in Chinese places.  I didn't try Dan's dish but it looked like your standard glass noodle fare and the tofu was fried, not steamed.

The service there was a bit touch and go.  I know that waitresses at many Asian places have a very quiet and soft spoken waitstaff, but this was beyond ridiculous.  I could barely hear her and I have super sonic hearing!  This is one of those typical, decent, cheap, neighborhood Thai joints and if it were closer I would definitely consider going here more often, but since it requires me to drive here I'm not sure how often I will be back.  Total bill was $15/pp.