Saha Thai (Hidden Gem on Centre St.)
Saha Thai Cuisine
227 Centre St. (Btwn Grand & Broome St)
(212) 966-7886
This little hidden gem of a Thai restaurant is on Centre St. right between Chinatown and Soho. FineChinaGirl’s friend recommended a get together here and it did not disappoint at all! The owner of the restaurant will make sure your food tastes great and you enjoy it. She even cooks the food as she started it originally by herself. Dishes ranged from $7-9 and Chef Specials at $12-15, it is fairly cheap and you won’t be regret. Now onto the pictures!
Saha-Thai Crispy Vegetable Dumpling (Fried) w/Sweet Soy Sauce
Doesn’t that look delicious? It tasted delicious too. I’ve never had dumplings that looked like this good. Lots more after the jump!
Prem-On Thai Restaurant
Prem-On Thai
138 W Houston St
btw MacDougal & Sullivan St
(212) 353-2338
Thai food in new york city is always pretty much moderate to expensive. The reason being that it takes forever to prepare for the food, since there’s so much that goes into it. Plus it ends up looking very artistic, unlike the cheap Chinese food that you can get down the block. Hey, you pay for you get. But yes, this cuisine traditionally ranges from sweet to ultra spicy, and soft to crunchy. Here at Prem-On you’ll get a variety of flavors that will blow your mouth away. I prefer a thai place that doesn’t light my mouth up on fire every time. Grrr–
After a quick recommendation by my friend, Roma, I knew I had to come here. She had told me that a friend that she grew up with in Thailand opened up this restaurant. Right there, I give this place a few extra points because it seems to be authentic thai. Now, don’t go crazy on me, but I’ve been to a share of Thai places before and not all of them have Thai chefs or owner. I believe originality plays a vital role in a cuisine. Hands up.
Now, I brought a friend, Vicky, who has never had Thai before. This is good because then she wouldn’t have a bias tongue and it will be a clear indicator if this place is good. Thai food simply cannot go wrong. The only thing that does go wrong are simply in it’s ingredients, which even then is rare.
Upon arriving to the restaurant, I can’t help but notice how a little things reminded me of SEA Thai Bistro. As we were waiting for seats, the lovely Roma was the maitre’d for the evening and she arranged a table for us. I love that girl. I can already see that this place is very trendy and it is packed. That’s a good sign for me.
This is just the front of the restaurant. There’s actually a lot more room than I thought since there’s an extension and an extra back room to the right.
Now appetizers!
Steamed Thai Chicken Dumplings stuff with chicken, shallot, peanut, and radish in a traditional thai rice and wrap
Price $6
At this time, me and Vicky was extremely tired and hungry. We did not know that we have ordered this, and of course we didn’t, but we figured it was part of our Mixed Appetizer since the steamed thai chicken dumpling was supposed to be part of it.
Anyways, long story short, this is my first time having a thai dumpling like this, and I must say it is excellent. It is soft, moist and tender, with a hint of sweetness, and the peanut gives it a giant kick! Yumm! Unlike regular dumplings that are usually fried, this is steamed like a dim sum.
Rating – 5/5 Excellent!! Highly recommended!
After we had that, our actual appetizer came, which was the Mixed Appetizer.
Mix Appetizers steamed chicken dumpling, thai spring rolls, and kanom jeeb served with dipping sauces
Price: $8
Seeing how we were hungry and wasn’t in the mood on spending a lot of money on appetizers, we figured that we would order the sampler and see how that would go. Apparently Vicky did not know what a spring roll was, and when it finally came, she didn’t like it because it was fried. Honestly, this sampler is not that special, and I can say you’re better off ordering something else like a handroll or a duck roll unless you’re not feeling that hungry and wanted to try the thai version’s of dim sum. But I gotta say, the dipping sauces, especially kanom jeeb, went very well with the spring roll. Never again with the samplar. Ahhh. I think it’s only because I had that free appetizer which filled me up.
Rating – 2.5/5
Recommended: No
Next off was the Spicy Thai Crabcake fresh maryland crabmeat stuffed with thai herbs and spices
Price: $7
This is by far one of the best crabcake I have ever eaten before. I know, I know, this is a thai restaurant and I should be eating “thai” food, but I must say, the chef did an excellent job to this dish. The meat was very tender, moist, and succulent with juices literally flowing out when you bite into it. You have to be careful with it because it falls apart quickly when you poke into it. One was enough to get me full, so don’t underestimate this dish.
Rating: 5/5
Recommended: Yes
At this time my Thaiteani, cute spinoff of martini, came.
Price: $9
This is a very strong drink that is loaded with absolut vodka so don’t be fooled by it’s color and cuteness. It certainly made me tipsy on a couple of sips, and I am not a lightweight. I would still recommend this drink, especially if you know what it is and you like something a little strong. If you don’t, then stay away from this.
Entrees
Thai Orange Duck crispy roasted duck topped with a sweet orange, ginger and scallion sauce & comes with a side of rice
Price: $17
Vicky’s pick of the night and that poor girl was already stuffed from all the appetizers. She tells me that this is a very tasty juicy duck. For a girl who’s very picky about food, I believed her, that and I had a taste for myself and it was deee-licious! The duck is oven roasted as you can see, so it’s not fried up or anything like that. Although the presentation is sorta lacking, this is still a very good duck, but not as good as the way how the Chinese make their ducks.
Rating: 4/5
Recommended: Yes if you’re not looking to have anything too entirely ethnic.
Roasted Duck Noodles stir-fried flat rice noodles with shredded roasted duck, red onion, egg and bean sprouts served on romaine
Price: $10
This looks awfully Chinese, because of the rice noodles, bean sprout, and eggs, but there’s duck on this and romaine lettuce which I both love. But when it comes to the flavor of this dish, it meets expectations! The duck is a little dry, but that’s alright because when the chef stir-fried this, the juices and fat got sucked into the rice noodle, which is okay because it gives that greasy ducky taste. I’m already impressed that the dish of noodles is placed on a cute little wok. Very cute. But yes, you can’t imagine how much I like this dish, I really truly do.
Rating: 5/5
Recommended: Hell yes!! I love it! And it kinda breaks away from traditional thai food.
At this time me and Vicky were incredibly stuffed. Heck we couldn’t even finish our entrees and had it wrapped to go. During the whole entire time, the waiter was really really nice to me. I regret not remembering his name, but he’s very sweet and soft spoken. He is like the first waiter who encouraged me to take pictures everywhere!
The only thing I regret was being in food coma. Remember people, ALWAYS TIP YOUR WAITERS IN CASH! I forgot to do that to my waiter and I think he was a little disappointed. Whoops! Totally forgot. Next time when I go there, I’ll definitely give him a little more!
Overall Rating: 4/5 – Very good!
Recommended: Hells yes! I love this place. My friend Roma definitely did not let me down.
I definitely have to come back to this place again because there were so many things that I wanted to try, but I couldn’t! That is why I must come back. Now, to show you how they perform in the city’s health department inspection:
PREM-ON
138 WEST HOUSTON STREET, MANHATTAN 10012
Current violation points: 17/27
Inspection Date: 08/07/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.
2.) Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140°F to 70°F or less within 2 hours and from 70°F to 45°F or less within 4 additional hours.
