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| - A new Thai street food restaurant in Little Italy. The interior tries to imitate the 'Soi' (Thai for side street) vibe and does an excellent job. I found it to be similar to Nana in decor but much more welcoming due to the openness and natural light. The staff was also very friendly.
We started off with Thai iced tea and received complimentary shrimp chips. The Thai iced tea was good and it wasn't too sweet but the quantity was lacking for the price ($4.50), much smaller than KSR or Pai. All their dishes are sharing style and cost $10, while sides such as steamed/sticky rice are $3.50.
We had the crispy omelette, fried chicken wings, papaya salad and shrimp ceviche salad. The crispy omelette is egg fried in hot oil to achieve the crunchiness and topped with scallions and a side of hot sauce. While it was something new, the consensus was that it was really just egg. The fried chicken wings were lightly seasoned and unbattered, served with strands of deep fried lemongrass. The thai papaya salad was fairly standard, bright with sourness and a kick of heat. The shrimp ceviche salad was a few shrimp marinated in a spice blend laid over a slaw. Calling this a ceviche was misleading, as it appeared the shrimp were already cooked and then marinated. Overall, the food quality was decent but there were no standouts.
Now my main issue with this place....price. While they are trying to go for a sharing concept with the small plates, the high pricing seems contradictory to the concept of street food. Even comparing to other tapas-style places like Guu or Sabai Sabai, the price was quite high. The pricing was also inconsistent - portion size was similar for all the dishes regardless of their contents ($10 should not be the same quantity of papaya salad and chicken wings). I think if they use tiered pricing and reduced prices to around $6-$8, this could be a winner. But the way it is, go in a with a big wallet or expect to leave the way we did...hungry.
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