Wild Ginger
Address:
51 Grove St.
City:
New York, NY
Zip:
10014
Phone:
212-367-7600
Site:
Visit the restaurant site
Map:
Map
Cuisine:
Thai
Area:
Greenwich Village
Entree Price:
$10-15
Review:
One of my frequent dining companions has passed up the chance to dine in some of the city's most delicious Asian restaurants, appalled by their bad fluorescent lighting and lack of decor. But one look at Wild Ginger and he couldn't wait to go in.
This two-year-old Thai eatery gets an A+ for aesthetics, with its soothing waterfall, comfortable and attractive wood furniture and subdued luminescence.
Fortunately, the cuisine lives up to its surroundings – the food is uniformly excellent and extremely well priced. An appetizer of greaseless, mouthfilling crispy seafood dumplings set the culinary mood well. One can also begin on a lighter note by splitting an order of the mango shrimp – a pair of mango shells topped with beautifully flavored crustaceans over sweet shredded papaya in a decidedly not-too-cloying sauce. Duck with red curry was a first-rate rendition of this often-disappointing dish; the duck slices were unusually meaty (although still fatty) and the addition of copious chunks of eggplant were an added bonus. Sweet and sour sea bass was equally successful; the fish's batter was light as can be, the bass had real oomph and the sauce provided a nice complement.
Many other dishes looked wonderful as they passed by our table, and we can't wait to try some of them. After all, we're now wild about Wild Ginger.
Review By: Brian Scott Lipton