I was recently in New York City, and a group of friends and I ate with at my favorite Thai restaurant, Sripraphai in Queens. They have expanded since I last visited, which is great because the restaurant is very popular. The menu is available here, but may be a bit outdated.
One of Sripraphai’s strengths is that they have a refrigerated case filled with Thai desserts, instead of only having a couple of dessert options. We ate so much on this visit that we did not have room for dessert, but past standouts included custard with pumpkin, banana sticky rice, Thai marzipan, and coconut rice squares.
Another of Sripraphai’s strengths is that the restaurant really will give you spicy food. The soups tend to be hotter than the entrees, so a “Thai Spicy” soup can scald those who don’t enjoy very spicy food.
We had an excellent salad (which is pictured above), fried soft shell crab with mango sauce. The crab was crunchy, and went well with the tangy sauce. We also had the shredded green mango salad with squid, shrimp, and chicken. We generally fight over the (off-menu) garlic and pepper shrimp, so we requested two orders of it. I am not a fan of their pad Thai, but someone wanted it, so it was ordered.
The noodle dishes I usually order are the rice noodles with ground beef and onions, or (spicy) rice noodles with beef and basil. The curries are great at Sripraphai, including, the red, green, yellow, and jungle curries. The duck with spicy sauce and eggplant was good, as usual, as was the tom zap soup with Cornish hen. In the past, tom zap was only available on the menu with beef offal –which it still is– but we used to substitute seafood for the beef. The fried red snapper with ginger sauce was excellent, and it is the first time we have ordered it at Sripraphai.
We spent about $20 a person including tip, but we did order an extra dish, and several people were drinking Thai iced teas.
Make sure –unlike us– to leave room for dessert. You may need something sweet after all that spicy food.
Sripraphai is walking distance from the 61st Street stop on the 7 train.
Sripraphai Thai Restaurant
64-13 39th Avenue
Woodside, NY 11377
(718) 899-9599
One Response
Ate there again a week ago. They have expended it yet again–it now has a larger patio. The food was great, including the whole fish with basil and chilies and the custard with pumpkin.
-JAY