Midtown Lunch

There have been many times where food from Saha Thai on Centre St. (btw. Grand & Broome) has been featured on another site that features lunch, and I’ve vowed I would go check out their cheap specials. And then I don’t. It’s in that weird no-man’s land that’s not quite Chinatown and not quite Soho, and it’s often easier to just hit up the $4.75 Chinese buffet place a couple of blocks down Centre before getting there. I’m sure a lot of you Soho office workers eat at or order from this place (if you’re not going to Peep), so I resolved to finally make my way to Saha.

It was shockingly almost empty during prime lunch time so I’m guessing they do a lot of business in take out or delivery. I normally order the same two or three dishes at Thai places (prik khing, pad kee mao, spicy basil fried rice) so I decided to switch it up and order that standby of pad thai ($7.95). The lunch specials are as cheap as $6.95 and they don’t come with any frills of a crappy soup which I was OK with.

At first it looked like my pad thai only took up half of the takeout container, but there were also noodles underneath the pile of bean sprouts. When I ordered I specifically requested it spicy and was asked on a scale of 1 to 5 how hot I wanted it. Because I am a spice fiend, I said 5 without even thinking, and well, they didn’t hold back! Dare I say this was too spicy? Even if you like it hot, I would say go for a maximum of a 4 or even a 3. There was actual sweat on my face as I ate.

This was a pretty good version of this noodle dish. The white meat chicken was about as good as it could be, and there were bits of egg, tofu and green onion scattered throughout. I liked that the noodles weren’t drenched in an overly sweet peanut sauce, and also weren’t all clumped together or greasy, but I could have used some crushed peanut or something in there. All in all, I’ve had far worse renditions for a higher price.

If you work nearby and want some cheap Thai this is a solid option even if it’s hard to distract yourself from all of the cheaper Chinese food nearby.

Saha Thai, 227 Centre St. (btw. Grand & Broome), (212) 966-7886