Sripraphai - Review

Intro
Sripraphai - Recommended
64-13 39th Ave
Woodside, NY 11377
Phone: (718) 899-9599

After leaving my job and starting a new one, I've been craving great Thai food - who would have thought the middle of nowhere NJ would have great Thai food. I was figuring I had to revisit my favorite Thai experience ever - Sripraphai in Woodside. Still a very solid Thai experience although not as spectacular as I remember. Overall I give the restaurant a 80/100.

Our Menu
1) Fish Cake *
2) Chicken Satay
3) Fried Chives Dumpling **
4) Drunken Noodles ***
5) Pad Thai *
6) Thai Noodles with ground fish meat, curry sauce & fishball; served w. fresh vegetables **
7) Sautee Chinese Watercress *
8) Coconut Cake **
9) Hot Taro, Coconut Milk, and Glutinous Rice

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) Fried fish cake that had a little spice to it. On it's own it was OK, but was tasty combined with the side sweet, sour salad of cucumber and cucumbers.
2) An OK chicken satay. Suprisingly very, very moist chicken but really not that much flavor.
3) After visiting Taiwan, I've had my share of garlic chive dumplings. These were delicious and unlike any I've had before. Basically, fried glutinous rice stuffed with garlic chives. Crispy, chewy yet soft and incredibly satisfying. Great garlic chive flavor too.
4) One of my best memories of Sripraphai were of the drunken noodles. These definitely did not disappoint - though not as awesome as the first time. They basically use similar noodles to the chinese beef chow fun, using wide chewy noodles. Where it's different is in the intense flavorings - salty, spicy, a little sour - it kicks massive ars and is worth the trip imho. The tender flavorful beef puts this thing over the top.
5) The pad thai was good, but a little disappointing. The last time I visited Sripraphai, the pad thai was great. This time the flavors were pretty muted. The shrimp was cooked perfectly though and it was still a good pad thai.
6) Another great noodle dish here. This time they use thin noodles dipped into a rich flavorful curry broth - the same spicy, sour goodness going on here. Add the crunchy pickled veg and the weird, but great texture of ground fish and you get a hella fun dish.
7) I love chinese watercress and they do it up solid here. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but they definitely had some different seasonings - maybe galangal.
8) A great dessert here. Chewy glutinous rice topped with a sweet paste and shredded crunchy coconut. An awesome dessert.
9) An ok dessert, but I was sick of glutinous rice by this point. Like a warm sweet taro soup filled with chewy glutinous rice.

Overall Restaurant Experience (80/100)

• Food 8.3/10 – Some great Thai dishes, but some average to below average ones as well.
  
• Service 7.5/10 – Food came out real quick, but it took a little bit to get someone's attention in the beginning.
  
• Atmosphere 7.5/10 – A much bigger place than it was when we first visited a long time ago. I'm pretty sure they bought the place next door. Now they also have a nice patio in the back as well. Crowd is completely different from our initial visit. Our first visit was all Thai people. Now, it's gentrified! We got there at 1:30pm on a Sunday and had no problem with seats - plenty of empty ones. Pretty convenient to get to also as it's only a 15 minute drive from the 59th st bridge. Plenty of parking on the street.
  
• Price 8.5/10 – Most dishes are $8-12 and you got pretty large portions. As usual with most Asian joints, bring plenty of peeps so you can sample more food.
  

Closing Comments
Not sure if it was because we arrived for a late lunch, but it wasn't as great as I remembered from our first couple of visits. Still some dishes were pretty awesome and I would definitely go back for the drunken noodles and try some other dishes. Who would have thought nowhere NJ could kick so much ars for Thai food.