02.21.08
Review of Kittichai, Thursday January 2008
60 Thompson St. & Spring/Broome St., 212-219-2000
Great for: large parties, romantic trysts, lovely drinks, a great introduction to Thai food
Our friend decided to do her birthday dinner here, and got a special prix fixe deal for the 14 of us. They gave us 3 appetizers; 2 fish, 2 meat and a vegetarian entrée; and 2 desserts to share. It was a really generous menu, I was surprised that they’d give us so much. Especially since they brought 4 plates of everything.
The first course was Kittichai fish cakes with cucumber and red onion chutney; Grade A “Meing” tuna tartare, limestone tartlets, peanut, ginger and lime; and Northern Thai beef salad, Chinese long beans and roasted sticky rice powder. The Boyfriend didn’t love the fish cakes, but he generally hates all fish-type things that aren’t actually fish – I liked them a lot. The tuna tartare was great and so was the beef salad, all of which we wished there was more of. The limestone tartlets just seemed to be little chips, not rocks, and they were quite yummy.
The next course was crispy whole fish in lesser ginger curry; pan-roasted line-caught fish fillet, holy basil, wild ginger and green peppercorn; and sautéed gai-lan with garlic and ginger. We were in raptures over the whole fish, which was something white, fresh and fork-flakable. The odd-sounding sauce was also fantastic and not too gingery. I remember my Chinese mother forcing me to eat gai-lan, aka Chinese broccoli, when I was younger, and hating it because it was always giant, bitter and hard to chew. At Kittichai, they make it so crisp and flavorful that I loved it. Luckily for me, everyone else was a bit puzzled by what the hell it was, so I got to eat most of it. The pan-roasted fish and its spicy sauce were pretty good but a bit disappointing next to the excellent whole fish.
Next, we had the lemongrass chicken hot pot with kabocha and black mushroom in black pepper sauce and pineapple braised short ribs in green curry, Thai eggplant and sweet basil accompanied by steamed jasmine rice. The short ribs were all right, a bit sweet for my taste, not really anything special. The chicken, on the other hand, was great – tender, tasty, it made a chicken-hater like me tempted to steal the last piece. (I usually only like chicken in fried or wing form.)
We were stuffed full of yummy food at this point, but when they brought dessert we ended up finishing both the flourless Valrhona chocolate cake with fresh cream and the banana spring rolls with burnt honey ice cream. I detest bananas, so didn’t try the “spring rolls”, but the other people told me they were ok. The chocolate cake completely made up for it though; it was really good. I liked the way they presented it as well.
The drinks here are well-mixed. I had or tried the muddled grapes, strawberry pear margarita, gin saketini, pear-almond martini and blackberry cognac. They were all quite good, although I did not like the cucumber slices in the saketini. The muddled grapes and the strawberry pear margarita were the most popular at our table.
The decor of the place is lovely. It looks kind of pan-Asian/New York downtown sexy, and I told Boyfriend I’d love to come back for a date. The waiters are quite hot and much friendlier than you’d expect them to be. They took good care of us. Sometimes I’ve found that service when I’m in a big party is inattentive, which I think is because they know big mixed parties tend to be bad tippers. The waiters made sure we all had drinks and cleared our small individual plates whenever they were too dirty. Overall it was a great experience, and definitely a good choice for large parties so you can try lots of different dishes.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $115 per 14 people with about 3 cocktails for prix fixe large party menu
Noise level: good, we didn’t have trouble hearing each other
Chance of walking in: medium.
