Wing L
Google
There are a good amount of very good Thai places in Queens, especially around the Elmhurst area. But when it comes to Manhattan and Brooklyn, the pickings of excellent Thai restaurants is more slim pickings and most run in the ranks of good to acceptable, mostly because they Americanize the ingredients or tame down the spice to almost non existence when there should be at least some kind of kick to certain dishes. It is especially hard to find a top tier Thai restaurant around the Bensonhurst, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge area.
Arom Dee Thai that recently opened up at the edge of Bay Ridge might be able to change all that with dishes that reminds my tastes buds of what I was able to get during my travels in Thailand over the years.
My group of 5 ordered way too many dishes to write here without this review being more long winded as it already is so I would just write about a few dishes worth mentioning for various reasons. Just note that the other dishes in my photos are pretty good to excellent for the most part.
Starting with the Thai Ice tea. I was pleasantly surprised to be asked how sweet I want the drink to be. I asked for mildly sweet and that was what I got. For me, this is the first Thai restaurant that let me customize my tea drink. Sometimes I find some places make theirs too sweet for my taste and it is nice to have some say in it.
If there is any dish I would recommend to get if you have to chose one dish from the ones I've tried so far, it would be the Khao Soi. It is among my favorite dish from Northern Thailand, and it is surprisingly hard to find a very good version that would stand up to my memories of the dish. I came across a few that were competent and a few that are just not how a Khao Soi should be, especially with the texture of the noodles. But here, it is almost as close as I could get so far without buying a plane ticket to Chiang Mai to scratch my Khao Soi itch. Coconut creamy flavored curry broth with firm noodles and fork tender chicken drumstick and a contrasting fried noodles on top, I could eat this all day. We were told that this dish was popular enough with the other patrons that on certain days it might be sold out as it takes hours to prepare the broth.
The Pad Thai was slightly on the sweeter side for 2 out of 5 of us but that is probably just a matter of preference. Just wanted to make sure some people are aware of that. Otherwise, it is a very good version of pad Thai with good contrasting textures.
The Pad Gra Prow, we expected it to be the version with spicy minced meat mixed with a ton of Thai Basil topped with a runny egg yolk from a duck or chicken which is the version we are more familiar with. Here there was no egg and the meat was not minced but we still loved the dish. So much flavor with a small kick from the peppers. It is just a different version of the dish that is just as good.
Talking about food with a kick, a table across from us mentioned that her dish was too spicy for her. The owners took it back and said they would see what they could do. Not sure what they did but the rest of the meal the lady was happily eating with a smile.
The desert menu is on the more limited side with only 4 items to choose from but the owners said that they were working to see if they could add more items to that part of the menu. We went on mother's day so they gave us a free desert of some kind if coconut sweet in tin cups and they were amazing. It was also not on the menu but we were told that this might potentially make it to the menu in the future as they were testing it out that night. If you want to which one I'm taking about, look for the dessert with the purple flowers in my photos.
After this meal, I could say for sure I would be back to try out other dishes, and probably to get more of that Khoa Soi. I have been eyeing a few of the whole fish menu items but could not fit it into this meal without over stuffing ourselves so we have that to look forward to. Till next time and welcome to the neighborhood.
