being no stranger to Ridgewood for the past 10 years or so, i've always wondered why there were no proper thai restaurants in a town with so many others. kailash doesn't count, although it's a decent enough indian/thai place. a few years ago, Malee opened, with little fanfare. it's quite good for the most part, but their menu is painfully limited.
but in the past year, 2 more thai restaurants opened up. first it was A Taste of Thai on broad street. and more recently, Ridge Thai at 50 chestnut street.
Ridge Thai is a nicely-decorated 24 seat storefront restaurant. the menu is typical of thai restaurants in this area in number of selections and depth. a recent meal included beef salad, a dish with chicken, bamboo shoots, peppers and chili, and pad thai (the tried-and-true baseline).
generally speaking, pad thai comes in two types: the gloppy sweet mess type, and the light and delicate type. i'm a fan of the latter, and that's just what Ridge Thai is serving.
the beef salad was exploding with spice, acidity, and herbs. a super rendition of this dish. ordered "thai spicy", the dish was probably 7 on a spiciness scale of 1 to 10. very hot for most i'm sure, but certainly not "thai spicy" to my mind.
our chicken dish wasn't as flavorful as i had hoped, but was certainly not a failure. in fact, most restaurants might have killed this dish with an overly-sweet sauce, but Ridge Thai shows restraint in that department.
the portions are big, which i suppose is a plus for some people. the entrees come in at about 15 bucks or so. the 3 dishes above came to 44 bucks before tip.
the restaurant is BYO and has better-than-average stemware. there's a parking lot across the street that will charge you 2 dollars, assuming it's not full. not a bad deal. no delivery.
this one's a keeper.
ridge thai -50 chestnut street -201.493.9929
