Room Service’s Crispy Duck Salad is Quacktastic

Room Service is one of the many Thai joints open on 9th Avenue, slightly north of what I call “Yum Yum row,” more commonly known as 46th street. It’s not wholly different from its neighbors — they all have similar lunch specials, most within the Midtown Lunch price range — but when I’m in the mood for a salad, instead of hitting up some deli, I often turn to the crispy duck salad at Room Service.

I just want to start by saying this is not a fancy duck dish. The duck won’t be pan seared to a perfectly pink medium. This is a $7.90 Thai salad, so if you’re expecting something more than that, this may not be the dish for you. However, if you’re in the mood for a salad that doesn’t skimp on crispy pieces of duck on an extremely flavorful and multi-textured bed of ingredients, please read on.

The crispy duck salad at Room Service was very colorful and included a small amount of mixed greens, soft and sweet pineapple chunks, halved grape tomatoes, sliced red onions, chopped scallions, toasted cashews and thai basil. The salad was topped with more crispy duck skin than actual pieces of duck meat, which was just fine with me. Bring on that ducky goodness! The lime dressing had a little kick to it, but it’s certainly nothing unmanageable. Savory, yet sweet, this is my kind of salad.

My one quibble was the over-abundance of red onions, which were a little overpowering. I ended up picking some out as not to offend the people with whom I had meetings in the afternoon. Although this time I ordered my salad to go, I’ve eaten this dish at the restaurant, which I would recommend, if you have the time. My non-scientific comparison leads me to believe the dine-in portion is larger than the medium-sized to-go container.

Room Service, 690 9th Ave (btw 47+48th)

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