Midtown Lunch

It’s always frustrating when a craving for Thai food hits me because as most of you know our options for that cuisine are mediocre in the Financial District. Bennie’s Thai Cafe is the best of the few options we have, although there was one I had yet to try because it’s off the beaten path and I tend to forget about it. That would be Budtharasa (also known as Bunrasa) on Washington St. (btw. Carlisle & Rector) over in the weird area of Irish bars, tourists and fancy hotels below the World Trade Center site.

Chris had christened it his go-to Thai spot in the FiDi after he had the chicken curry back in 2009. Since then, the scaffolding covering the front has come down and they have a lunch box for $8 that I thought was my ticket to checking this place out.

One of the most noticeable things about this place was not the food coming out of the kitchen, but the fact that the staff I saw was exclusively female. I took this as a good sign of the food to come. You can get your lunch from the steam table that houses Americanized Chinese and a few Thai items over rice. Also of note is a sign for $7 pad thai with either vegetables or chicken.

The lunch box offers pad thai, chicken curry or sate, green Thai curry over lo mein and a few other items that come with rice and spring roll. I ordered the spicy basil chicken box and walked over to pick it up.

Some of you are going to look at the picture and think it’s not a lot of food, and you would be right. It was enough for me, especially with the two spring rolls, but if you’re really hungry it’s probably best to not get the lunch box because it seems you get stiffed a little in the rice department. That being said, the chicken part was actually spicy and not dried out, although there wasn’t actually any basil involved. If you like green beans, though, you’re in luck!

The main reason you may not want to get the lunch box because the spring rolls are fairly awful. Inside mine was shredded carrot and glass noodles and they didn’t seem to be freshly fried either. I finished the chicken and rice, but only powered through half of one of the spring rolls, and that was only because of frequent dipping in the tiny container of sweet dipping sauce.

If you work over on the far side of the FiDi and want Thai food, I’ve had far worse, but for once I’d recommend going with the steam table or else ordering one of the lunch boxes that is sans spring roll.

Budtharasa/Bunrasa Thai, 109 Washington St. (btw. Rector & Carlisle) (212) 577-6003