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Manhattan Notes -
Restaurants
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Friday, 09 January 2009 01:19 |
Spice 60 University Place
Thai, Pan-Asian
Upon entering the small restaurant, you’ll notice that the interior is very different from the normal Thai restaurants around New York City. Rather than decorating with traditional Thai art, Spice is very modern and is only accented by yellow and white round lights. Everything else is very simple. Due to the proximity of this restaurant to NYU, there are a lot of students that frequent the restaurant and it is always crowded during dinnertime. Due to the high volume of the restaurant, Spice is changing their location to 13th street after the New Year. My major complaint about the ambiance of the restaurant is that it was way too dark. I understand that they were trying to set a mood, but when it’s too dark to read the menu without holding a candle directly above it then that’s a problem. I could barely see what my food looked like, which isn’t a huge deal but I like seeing the presentation of the plates.
Speaking of the food, even though I could barely see the food, I could certainly taste it. I ate with a friend and unfortunately did not have a large enough appetite to order any appetizers (although I hear that the summer rolls are not that good). I ordered the chicken panang curry and my friend ordered the chicken pad see ew (flat noodles). My main tic, before I even tasted the curry, was that there wasn’t nearly enough rice for the bowl of curry. The pyramid shape was attractive but you will have to get a second little pyramid to actually finish the meal. The curry itself was quite sweet with a nice spicy kick. The chicken was well prepared and the addition of peppers was nice although it probably would have been better if they used green peppers instead of red since the curry was already sweet enough. The portion size was quite large and I couldn’t finish the entire bowl. The pad see ew was a great portion for one person and spiced very well although it was a touch on the sweet side (seems to be the trend for Spice). The noodles were firm without being undercooked and the chicken was thinly sliced and a little on the dry side although the sauce makes up for the dryness. Despite these small complaints, the food overall was very satisfying and the service was exemplary. We were seated very quickly and our waitress was very attentive to us (although it wasn’t too hard since we didn’t order too many things). I especially enjoyed the fact that she left the kettle of tea since I am a huge tea drinker. The meal was also relatively cheap coming out to about $22 for two people including tip.
I give it a 3.5/5
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