Obao - NYC

This place is a Thai Viet Asian fusion restaurant. I had a couple of Thai restaurants on my list of places to try. This was not one of them, but it was close enough to our hotel. And again, when you're tired, convenience trumps reputation.

Not that this place had a bad rep or anything.

We went at night, so the restaurant was rather dim. There were candles at all of the tables, and other than a few tables near the entrance, the restaurant was full. That was a pretty good sign, though it also meant we had to sit near the entrance and have the cold wind hit us every time the door opened.

To start, we ordered some drinks. My friend really likes Thai iced tea (he enjoyed it in Thailand and has been looking for some of equal quality since), so he got that. I ordered pineapple juice.

Thai Iced Tea to the left, Pineapple Juice to the right

The pineapple juice was sweet. Most of the time, when I have pineapple, it's sour and not so enjoyable. I've only had sweet, delicious pineapple juice one other time before at a festival. This was almost as good as that. 

(My friend said the Thai iced tea was pretty good here.)

Pad Thai

For our mains, I had the shrimp pad thai (what I usually order). They only had a shrimp option here, which I don't mind, but may be problematic for those who don't want it (I'm sure they could substitute, but they'd probably charge the same amount, and shrimp pad thai tends to be a bit more expensive that chicken, beef, or tofu options). 

The pad thai was served in a wok-like bowl, which was nice for presentation purposes. It came with a soft egg in the middle that I wasn't too fond of, but everything else about it was fine. $11 during dinner, $10 during lunch (with a free starter at lunch too).

Obao Chicken with Coconut Rice and... some kinda sauce

Obao Chicken with some soup

My friend got the Obao Chicken special, which is listed as $8 on the lunch menu, but he was charged $10 for it as a dinner option. They have 20 of these a day apparently and no more than that. I'm not sure if it's a gimmick or if they actually make only 20 each day, but it was pretty good. The chicken had a lot of flavour and it went well with the coconut rice.

The service here was pretty good. Our waiter was attentive without being too chatty, and they brought out a portable heater to keep us warm since our seats were right next to the door. 

I liked it, and if I lived in NYC, I'd come back.

Rating: ½

I don't like it when restaurants charge different amounts for lunch and dinner for the same food item, but I still enjoyed my meal here.