Bangkok Thai Restaurant is nestled on 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge. One night a friend and I were on our way to speak to someone about a tattoo in Sunset Park. As we drove by Bangkok, we both decided that we should make a pit stop at this place on the way back because we were both hankering for some Thai. Usually when I want Thai food I make my way to SEA in Williamsburg but I didn't have 3 hours to burn to wait for a table in the freezing cold.
As my friend and I walked into Bangkok we're greeted by an older gentleman who barely spoke English. We walked past a bar and a glass display case with hand made jewelry and clothing from Thailand. There was a camera nailed to the wall that must have been at least 25 years old. No koi ponds or a DJ spinning house music at this place . There wasn't any fancy designer seating or funky menus. My friends this place was a hole in the wall. A definite sign of good food and cheap prices.
The gentleman who showed us to our table was also our waiter. The menu had a big selection. I hate big menus. It shows that you do not have seasonal ingredients and your restaurant is boring because basically this is the menu take it or leave it. I usually leave it and go somewhere else. I also tend to order the simplest dish reason being is because if you screw up on a simple dish how great can your most perplex dish be? We start out with a few appetizers. Thai fried calamari with sweet chili sauce and Thai fried spring rolls. One thing I can not stand is the word "calamari". Calamari is a word used for fried squid in many European languages around the Mediterranean such as Greece or Italy. It has no business being put on an Asian menu. For entrée we both had ordered the shrimp pad Thai. Yes, two morons ordering the same dish. But I quickly persuaded my friend to order the same as me after giving her my rhetoric about how if you can’t cook the simplest of dishes you should be shunned from the culinary community.
Our appetizers had arrived. I started off with the springs rolls, bland, greasy , basically they sucked. Even the sweet chili sauce could not save this dish. Strike 1. Thai fried SQUID! Ha up yours calamari! I honestly thought they served us onions rings. I don't know where they got this squid from but it huge. Cut into rings and deep fried. I have to say they were good. I asked my friend if she tasted beer but to be honest with you she wouldn't know her ass from her elbow when it came to food tasting. If it wasn't for me she would be on a strict diet of peach Snapple, coffee, and diner hamburgers. The calamari was soft and crispy at the same time. Cooking squid is simple, you either cook it for 3 minutes or 30 minutes anywhere in between you're just have a bunch of rubber bands.
I could not stop laughing at the 1981 video camera nailed to the wall. This place had a certain kind of charm. Not charm like walking into Masa at the Time Warner Center where the tasting menu is $800 for a party of two. More like a feeling of it's a local place, with good food, good prices, and good service. Our Pad Thai had arrived. Smelled pretty good and was heavily garnished with peanuts. The shrimp were small and dingy. I had to take a few bites before I could honestly give my opinion on the dish. At first I tasted nothing, second bite all I tasted was sweet, third bite was more savory (don't ask me how), finally on my fourth bite it all came together. This pad Thai was a winner , it did not beat out Sea's pad Thai but it definitely crushed Planet Thai's which I rated number 2 on my list of best pad Thai's. Although the shrimp was extremely dry the dish over all was great. My friend had also agreed with me about the shrimp but remember what I said about her ass and elbow.
For dessert we decided to split something. We decided to go with the Thai ice cream. Coconut ice cream scooped over sticky sweet white rice. A pretty weird combo until I tasted it. This dessert was good. Really good, better than anything on the menu. The texture of the sticky rice and ice cream was perfect and the taste was not too over bearing and sweet. The bill came to $49 with a tip. Over all Bangkok is a good spot if you don't want to set up a tent in front of SEA and camp out until your table is ready.
Edited by A.J.
http://www.bangkokinbrooklyn.com/aboutus.html
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