If there was ever a nation unlikely to celebrate an independence day, it’d be Thailand, which was founded in 1238 and has managed to keep Europe’s damn hands off it ever since, which you can’t say for any other country in Southeast Asia.
So Thai food didn’t seem all that patriotic for my Fourth of July luncheon with Andie, but Brother Jimmy’s was closed and she had read a blurb on this Thai place in Time Out New York.
It’s called Land. It opened back in March and the chef, David Bank, previously slaved over the hot stoves of the Mercer Kitchen, the informal yet swanky 200-seat restaurant at the Mercer Hotel in Soho.
It’s been a while since I’ve eaten at a restaurant for The Project that’s been as overall good as this one. The place is clean and small but not cramped. The long, thin space has only enough room for about a dozen two-seat tables, but it has high ceilings and the whole front of the restaurant opens to the sidewalk in fine weather to let in the breeze and sun.
The streamlined decor includes putty-colored plastic chairs (with a booth stretching nearly the length of the restaurant on the other side of the tables). The red brick walls have little lights nestled in squared-out nooks. The small tables have a fake wood-grain pattern that somehow works. Andie appreciated the cigar-sized brown brick rests for the silverware.
The service was speedy. We received our dishes only after about 10 minutes after our order. The dish I was served wasn’t right but our server noticed the gaffe before I had a chance to flag him down. He whisked it away and a minute later had replaced it with the correct dish.
The price was right. The prix fixe lunch was $7, astoundingly cheap for Manhattan, and included an appetizer and an entree of satisfying proportions. I ordered two spring rolls and my favorite Thai dish, Pad See Ew, a mix of meat, seafood or tofu (I usually get the tofu, but I tried the beef variety today), flat rice noodles, egg, broccoli and cauliflower, and a sweet soy sauce. Andie got the vegetable dumplings for an appetizer and, for her main dish, the drunken noodle with chicken, which included wheat noodles, tomato, basil, water chestnuts, bok choy and chili sauce. We added a pair of Thai iced teas to the tab, a generous portion served in a glazed earthenware jar, for a mere $3 each.
The place was doing a bang-up business, turning over tables quickly, and we’re talking lunch on a national holiday. Here’s hoping not too many more people find out about the place, causing the fine prices to rise.
Land
- 450 Amsterdam Ave. (between W. 81st and W. 82nd Streets)
- (212) 501-8121
- Meal 19/52: two spring rolls and beef Pad See Ew ($7, prix fixe) and a Thai iced tea ($3).