Topaz Thai

Our neighborhood, Hell's Kitchen, has a lot of Thai restaurants, most of which offer lunch specials (some even on the weekends). Most of them don't just serve discounted entrees, but also toss in a free appetizer or salad. We're really used to that, so when we went with family to Topaz Thai, which is located over in the center of Midtown near Carnegie Hall, we were surprised to find that their lunch special was just a cheaper main course but no extras were thrown in.

There was a basket of shrimp chips on the table (I guess that could be considered an appetizer?) but I didn't try them. They looked kind of oily and stale. A did try them though, and he can confirm that they were in fact oily, and even if they weren't stale, they certainly weren't crispy.

When trying a new Thai place with a lunch special, A and I will often gravitate to the rice and noodles, so we can more easily compare with other places we've been. I ordered the Bangkok fried rice, which was fried rice with chicken (what I picked), basil, onions, green peppers, carrots and scallions. This was pretty good. The portion size was filling and the taste of the rice was good. Similar to other places, I found that they used less vegetables and basil in the rice than in the noodles, and I still can't figure out why that is.

A got the drunken noodles, which is a common order for us. These were flat rice noodles stir-fried with chicken, basil, Chinese broccoli, carrots, onions, green peppers, and a "bean sauce" (according to the menu). The basil was much more present in the noodles than the fried rice I got. It also had a decent kick of heat despite being a lunch special. Most Thai restaurants tone things down for lunch specials in case people can't actually take the heat.

The food at Topaz was pretty good. Since we're spoiled by Thai choices near us, I'm not sure when we'll be back to Topaz, but they're one of the only Thai places in that area. If only they also included free dumplings!

Topaz Thai is at 127 W. 56th Street (between 6th and 7th Aves).