Kittichai - NYC

Kittichai is one of those restaurants that are most appropriate for a dinner with your girl friends - or a date for any guys who are trying to impress their girlfriends. The setting is extremely chic and in my opinion, only something that girls would really appreciate. Once you walk up to the restaurant, the outside has has a wall of bamboo that I loved. It's something that immediately transports you from a relatively quiet street in Soho, to some place exotic. Once you walk inside, you are greeted with a wall of orchids held in glass jars and, for some reason, koi fish in a birdcage-fish tank.

The food was equally impressive. My friend ordered a Thai iced tea and it came out as a "DIY" drink, with the Thai tea, simple syrup, and condensed milk in separate glasses so you can mix and adjust to your desired level of sweetness. Call me childish, but I love playing with food so my friend and I were quite entertained by this.

Thai Iced Tea

Next up was our tuna tartar appetizer. I didn't really think the "limestone tartlets" tasted like anything (it kind of reminded me of fried wonton skins?), but the tuna tartar itself and the accompanying ginger/lime sauce was pretty good.

Meing Tuna Tartare limestone tartlets, peanuts, ginger and lime

My friend and I were actually here for Restaurant Week (back in February), and for the starter, I got the sauteed mussels. I don't usually like mussels, but their version was pretty good and an extremely large portion. I hate wasting food, but I really couldn't finish it. I'm glad though because the prawns I got for my entree were HUGE. These were amazing. I loved the citrus red curry sauce and added the remaining sauce to eat with my rice.

Wok-Seared Tiger Prawns with a citrus red curry

Flourless Valrhona Chocolate Cake with fresh cream

For dessert, I got the chocolate cake - which came wrapped in a banana leaf. I'm not sure what the banana leaf had to do with the cake, but it was pretty decent. Although not really what I expected. The cake was a little on the dry/crumbly side - which surprised me since flourless chocolate cakes are usually pretty dense and rich.

My friend ordered the banana spring rolls, the burnt honey ice cream was definitely the highlight of that dessert.

Banana Spring Rolls with burnt honey ice cream

Kittichai would be a great place to take out of town guests and visitors to impress them with a "glamorous" NYC restaurant.

One of my other favorite restaurants in the city for impressing visitors with a similar vibe is Buddakan. Other than the delicious food and drinks (Tranquility remains my all time favorite drink), the setting in the main dining room is gorgeous, and each section has its own theme (one of them being the "Library"). It's also actually pretty easy to eat for a reasonable price at Buddakan if you order their rice/noodle dishes!

Kittichai: 60 Thompson St (btwn Spring & Broome), New York, NY.