OPEN FOR BUSINESS – BANGKOK HEIGHTS

By Led Black

After bodegas, Dominican restaurants, barbershops and salons, the next most common business Uptown is Chinese restaurants.  Cheap Chinese food spots are ubiquitous in the neighborhood.  Don’t get me wrong, a lot of these places serve up really good food, some even make a mean serving of tostones but for the most part they are really take out places and are definitely not date-friendly.  Believe me fellas, if you take a girl to one of these hole-in-the-wall places on a date you will not be getting any that night.  The lack of other Asian restaurants with better ambiance has been glaring.  That is starting to change.  Bangkok Heights, nestled on the corner of 181^st and Pinehurst, dishes up authentic Thai food and has a very intimate and cozy vibe.  The brick walls, the sensuous color palette and the candles imbue the space with a sexy yet Zen-like aesthetic.  The food is absolutely incredible; spicy, flavorfully nuanced and reasonably priced.  The Pad Thai, Thailand’s most famous dish, is spot on but I prefer the Pad Kee Mao which is less sweet and has a little more of a kick.  You also have to try the House Fried Rice, which is bursting with flavor and is out of this world.  Another good thing about this place is that they do not have a liquor license yet, so the restaurant has a B.Y.O.B. policy for the time being.  So make sure you stop at Cabrini Wines, which is across the street and has an excellent selection of wines, and pick yourself up a nice bottle of crushed grapes.  The service at this eatery is equally impeccable.  As soon as I took the bottle out of the bag, it was whisked away and came back uncorked and accompanied by two wine glasses.  Needless to say, this is an excellent spot to take a date – great food, sexy low-key atmosphere, bring your own bottle and you won’t even break the bank.  What more could you ask for?  Oh yeah fellas – you might even get some…..

For more info: www.bangkokheightsnyc.com/