Eat Rice in NYC
7219 Roosevelt Ave
Jackson Heights,NY
7188039001
Food 7
Ambiance 6
Service 5
Overall 18
Good For cool casual cheap dinner and drinks, good for small groups
We went here early Friday night at 7 pm for some good Thai comfort food.
We were immediately surprised by the funky decor as we were not expecting anything more than some good Thai food in your typical Thai restaurant. Sleek white banquets. White shaded lights. Plastic but cute wheat grass throughout. The overall effect was understated modern. We seated ourselves in the half empty restaurant. The menu is straightforward Thai cuisine with a nice selection of mock cocktails that are sake based , a decent selection of wines by the glass and several beers. We started with steamed appetizer combo, $7.95, of crab shumai, shrimp shumai, dumplings and gyoza. This was a delicious and simple selection of well seasoned goodies. Hints of ginger,garlic and green onioned goodness. My husband continues with a $7.95 large ShrimpTom Yum Soup which was a beautifully seasoned and not overly spicy version of the classic with a fairly generous amount of shrimp. I had a $10.95 chicken and shrimp pad thai. A little more sour and liquidy than normal pad thai but a truly generous and tasty portion of perfectly cooked juicy shrimp and chicken with rice noodles. The portion was really big enough for 2.My husband had a powerful pot of mint tea and I started with a $6 dollar lychee martini and finished with $5 warm sake. The martini was not overly sweet and a nice rounded option. The sake was a truly generous small bottle of good quality sake for the price.
Service was adequate.
Would definantly recommend this place both as a destination and if you are in the neighborhood for good Thai in a sleek atmosphere with well priced drink options.
Aside from Novo, Jackson Heights doesn't have much in the way of funky spots so I am glad to have finally discovered this place.
The Quest continues....
Showing posts with label Jackson Heights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jackson Heights. Show all posts
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Shangri La
Shangri La Restaurant
7415 Roosevelt Ave
Jackson Heights, NY 11372-6529
(718) 424-8900
Food 6
Ambiance 4
Service 6
Overall 16
Good for a casual cheap weekday meal for small group of friends or a couple
So my husband and I checked out this place last week Wednesday for some authentic Tibetan cuisine. Although it has a selection of Chinese,Nepalese Indian and Tibetan food, I am assuming it is owned by Tibetans as Dali Lama pictures were prominently displaced. I have only had Tibetan food once before at another Jackson Heights restaurant and was underwhelmed. I figured for these prices, most meals under 10 dollars, I would give it another whirl. Shangri La is a medium size restaurant with another smaller area for takeout orders. Wednesday night our meal was accompanied by a live singer. I am not sure where he was from although the music reminded me of some Indian songs I have heard performed. A little loud for the space, but I always enjoy live entertainment with my food. The restaurant is nothing fancy. Simple tables and chairs with a few decorations on the wall. The ceiling needs serious repair and the floor is basic bathroom brown tile. Not quite a hole in the wall but certainly not the place to go to if you are looking for ambiance.
The menu, serving a variety of dishes from 4 countries is extensive but not overwhelming. Each country gets its own page of about 12 dishes. They also offer, surprisingly, some cheap wine by the glass(5 dollar) and really cheap beer (3.50 Heinekan!). We decided to experiment with the Tibetan Butter tea- which thankfully before serving us 2 whole portions our waitress suggested we try a small amount first. It tasted like a buttery soup. Good for warming the belly in cold weather. Not particularly good for my tastebuds as a meal accompaniment. We opted for the sweet tea, a basic black tea with milk.
We started our meal with pan fried Tibetan chicken dumpling. Half moons of fresh thin dough stuffed with fragrant chive garlic seasoned ground chicken ,expertly fried. They reminded me of really good Chinese dumplings, except fresher and better seasoned. This first dish defiantly left us anticipating the rest of our meal. Most of the Tibetan dishes were beef heavy, very few chicken , seafood or vegetarian options.We opted for a classic Tibetan house made noodle with beef, spinach and mushroom and a beef stew with daikon and spinach served with rice. We also sampled a Tibetan steam roll- tingo. I was surprised to find my noodle dish essentially a soup- which was not described on the menu. Contrary to the well spiced dumplings, I found the soup very light on flavor, even after adding hefty doses of soy and chili sauce. Also when my soup arrived, it was missing mushroom and spinach. When I asked our smiling waitress if maybe the wrong order had been brought out, she informed me that the kitchen was out of spinach and had substituted small bok choy instead. She was happy to get extra mushrooms to supplement in the soup. While it was a little annoying she did not inform us of the spinach substitution and that my dish was a soup, she was very helpful throughout. She ended up giving me an ample side portion of nicely seasoned mushrooms. My husband's dish was more to my liking,although again it could have benefited from greater seasoning. Both were ample portions. We also both loved their version of Tingo. The one other time I had this , I was really unimpressed because it tasted like unseasoned dough. I had initially not wanted to order the tingo because of my prior experience. Thank goodness we did. Their tingo was a light airy dough subtly salted and truly delicious. I was tempted to get it to go and experiment with it as a breakfast bread.
While the space and the food were not perfect, I appreciated the kind service, excellent prices and overall tasty food. Check this place out if you are in the neighborhood and looking for a cheap meal deal.
The Quest continues.......
7415 Roosevelt Ave
Jackson Heights, NY 11372-6529
(718) 424-8900
Food 6
Ambiance 4
Service 6
Overall 16
Good for a casual cheap weekday meal for small group of friends or a couple
So my husband and I checked out this place last week Wednesday for some authentic Tibetan cuisine. Although it has a selection of Chinese,Nepalese Indian and Tibetan food, I am assuming it is owned by Tibetans as Dali Lama pictures were prominently displaced. I have only had Tibetan food once before at another Jackson Heights restaurant and was underwhelmed. I figured for these prices, most meals under 10 dollars, I would give it another whirl. Shangri La is a medium size restaurant with another smaller area for takeout orders. Wednesday night our meal was accompanied by a live singer. I am not sure where he was from although the music reminded me of some Indian songs I have heard performed. A little loud for the space, but I always enjoy live entertainment with my food. The restaurant is nothing fancy. Simple tables and chairs with a few decorations on the wall. The ceiling needs serious repair and the floor is basic bathroom brown tile. Not quite a hole in the wall but certainly not the place to go to if you are looking for ambiance.
The menu, serving a variety of dishes from 4 countries is extensive but not overwhelming. Each country gets its own page of about 12 dishes. They also offer, surprisingly, some cheap wine by the glass(5 dollar) and really cheap beer (3.50 Heinekan!). We decided to experiment with the Tibetan Butter tea- which thankfully before serving us 2 whole portions our waitress suggested we try a small amount first. It tasted like a buttery soup. Good for warming the belly in cold weather. Not particularly good for my tastebuds as a meal accompaniment. We opted for the sweet tea, a basic black tea with milk.
We started our meal with pan fried Tibetan chicken dumpling. Half moons of fresh thin dough stuffed with fragrant chive garlic seasoned ground chicken ,expertly fried. They reminded me of really good Chinese dumplings, except fresher and better seasoned. This first dish defiantly left us anticipating the rest of our meal. Most of the Tibetan dishes were beef heavy, very few chicken , seafood or vegetarian options.We opted for a classic Tibetan house made noodle with beef, spinach and mushroom and a beef stew with daikon and spinach served with rice. We also sampled a Tibetan steam roll- tingo. I was surprised to find my noodle dish essentially a soup- which was not described on the menu. Contrary to the well spiced dumplings, I found the soup very light on flavor, even after adding hefty doses of soy and chili sauce. Also when my soup arrived, it was missing mushroom and spinach. When I asked our smiling waitress if maybe the wrong order had been brought out, she informed me that the kitchen was out of spinach and had substituted small bok choy instead. She was happy to get extra mushrooms to supplement in the soup. While it was a little annoying she did not inform us of the spinach substitution and that my dish was a soup, she was very helpful throughout. She ended up giving me an ample side portion of nicely seasoned mushrooms. My husband's dish was more to my liking,although again it could have benefited from greater seasoning. Both were ample portions. We also both loved their version of Tingo. The one other time I had this , I was really unimpressed because it tasted like unseasoned dough. I had initially not wanted to order the tingo because of my prior experience. Thank goodness we did. Their tingo was a light airy dough subtly salted and truly delicious. I was tempted to get it to go and experiment with it as a breakfast bread.
While the space and the food were not perfect, I appreciated the kind service, excellent prices and overall tasty food. Check this place out if you are in the neighborhood and looking for a cheap meal deal.
The Quest continues.......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)