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“Kittichai”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Asian	Soho	Moderate	Great

the chicken into the shells and pop them in your mouth. This was a bit awkward to do without dropping food on yourself, or the table. The chicken filling was fine, but it tasted like a Tex-Mex Chili—red and fiery, and not remotely Thai. We preferred the crispy jasmine rice crackers with coconut chicken and shrimp relish ($7)—a sort of Thai version of chips and salsa. The glossy, airy rice crackers were the perfect vehicle for scooping up the warm dip made of creamy coconut milk doused shrimp and chicken. Yes the dish has a TGI Fridays vibe, but it works nonetheless.

 

When our appetizers arrived, the meal got a lot better. I loved the crispy rock shrimp—fat, golden shrimp wrapped in greaseless batter, still juicy inside, served on top of thick circles of Thai eggplant in a vibrant pool of chile-lime juice ($11). The Thai-marinated beef salad with Chinese long beans ($12) was also delicious—bright and perky, with a gentle but insistent heat. The salad of banana blossoms with artichokes in a roasted chile pepper vinaigrette ($11) was also wonderful, though, truth be told, it resembled a can of cat food, poured out onto stunning flatware. (And let me say this about the flatware—all the plates here are gorgeous and handcrafted from clay. These are dishes that make you very sad that you are not a kleptomaniac so you could at least have an excuse for lifting them.) Now, back to that banana blossom salad—it was wild and quite tasty—the banana blossoms and the finely minced artichokes play off eachother well. The flavors—nuts, spice, and citrus—were subtle yet strong, and it was quite easy to lick the plate clean, not unlike a cat.

Entrees were uniformly very good, and some were excellent, like the crispy whole fish served with lesser-ginger sauce (a ginger that is lesser in heat than regular ginger) ratcheted up with Thai hot basil ($27). The fish, which arrived fried and whole with its jaw frozen in a wide smile, was stripped of its sweet flesh and crisped skin in moments, leaving only a clean skeleton and open-mouthed head behind as evidence of its existence. My friend Andrew even ate most of the tail. At one point he had a fin sticking out of his mouth and a smile on his face. Rare. The braised short ribs in green curry with sweet basil ($20) was also yummy—a gorgeous hunk of meat, marbled with lusciously melting fat, plated with the most beautiful assortment of wok-seared eg ... [more, click below]

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Posted: July 11, 2004

Other restaurants in Soho :
+ Balthazar   + Savoy   + Blue Ribbon   + Lupa   + Public   + Kittichai   + Lure Fishbar   + Barmarche   + Porcupine-- CLOSED   + Ama   + La Esquina   + Jerry's- Closed Now   + The Tasting Room   + Papatzul   + Shorty's.32   + The Monday Room   + Ed's Lobster Bar   + Aurora   + Provence   + Tailor   + Hundred Acres   + Delicatessen, By Guest Reviewer Julie Besonen   + The Mott   + The Dutch   + Cherrywood, by Guest Reviewer Dara Pollak   

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