Having been to Bangkok and north to Chiang Mae in Thailand last February, I fell in love with the people and their food. So when a friend suggested we have lunch at Sri Pra Phai in Woodside, I jumped at the chance.
Voted New York City’s number one Thai restaurant, it is hidden away on 39th Avenue between 64th and 65th Streets (only one block off Roosevelt Avenue). Since I am not familiar with the neighborhood, I followed my instincts and took the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to Northern Boulevard and then went in and out of the side streets until we found it - and several open meter spaces too.
The “trip” was well worth it. The spacious, airy, well-designed two-room restaurant, filled with sunlight, even has a large outdoor garden in the rear. It is used in the warmer weather for dining al fresco.
There are three menus, but most impressive was the large spiral bound picture book featuring each of the dishes. It has color photos of the appetizers, noodle dishes, soup, over rice, and a la carte choices.
With nearly 40 appetizer choices, we decided to order the steamed chicken dumplings, which were light and tasty. We also indulged in the papaya salad with dry shrimp and peanuts, but the dried mushroom salad with chicken, yellow squid and ginger sounded good too.
Then we explored the multiple choices of noodle dishes. We selected saut/ noodles with chicken and yellow squid. Our friendly, helpful waitress asked us how spicy we would like our dish, and we chose mild. It was a little too hot for me so when we selected a soup dish we asked for it to be less spicy.
There are 12 soups to choose from, and the waitress told us the portions are large enough to share. So we ordered the mixed vegetable soup with shrimp, shrimp paste and dry shrimp in a clear broth - delicious! We then turned to the a la carte section and looked through an amazing array of 52 choices.
These included several whole fish prepared in different sauces, as well as vegetable dishes with fish, duck, pork, beef and chicken. We had the steamed tilapia filet with soy sauce, ginger and scallions. It was so tender it fell off the fork.
Each dish is reasonably priced - our main course of tilapia was only $8.50, the soup was $8.50, and the steamed dumplings were $4.50. Not only is the food freshly cooked and tasty, but a super bargain. Our bill for two with two Thai beers was less than $40. The low prices may be why they do not accept credit cards — the only negative thing I can say about this great find, right near the 61st Street stop on the No. 7 line.
Sri Pra Phai
64-13 39th Avenue
Woodside
718-899-9599
Open 6 days 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Closed on Wednesday
No credit cards
Wheelchair accessible
Vegetarian dishes available
