SEA in Williamsburg

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Last Sunday, we had what felt to be a rather typical New York Sunday. After a bout of vintage clothes shopping at Beacon’s Closet in Brooklyn’s hipster friendly neighbourhood Williamsburg with our friend Chelsea, we headed for a good local spot for a bit of grub.

We went to SEA on 114 North 6th Street for “The Thai Experience”. Some of you may recognise SEA from the beginning of Garden State supposedly in L.A., especially by the distinctive pool area at the front.

SEA is part of a chain of three restaurants around NYC specialising in hip, trendy spaces serving Thai in a tranquil environment. The restaurant in Williamsburg is a beautiful, spacious room, and a good place for a Sunday lunch. Theoretically, anyway. The food and slightly rushed service let it down a bit.

We had some really delicious starters but unfortunately the mains didn’t live up to expectation with the general lasting tastebud impression being one of disappointing blandness. Still, the starters were rocking.

We had the Triangle Curry Puffs, which were curried chicken and potato wrapped in pastry, served with side of cucumber salsa.

We had the really delicious Tup Tim Fritters, which were crispy chicken and shrimp dumplings with a sweet and sour sauce. Yum!

And we also shared the Jade Seafood Dumplings, which were not only visually appealing but really tasty. The dumplings were steamed crab meat & shrimp wrapped in green wonton served with curry sauce.

My main course was the best of a mediocre bunch. It was the Red Sea Duck, a crispy half duck in red vinaigrette-tomato gravy sauce with stir fried mixed veggies and a mountain of rice. The duck was nice and crispy but the sauce was a bit too rich and gooey. Not bad though.

Niall’s main was the Pad Thai – so that’s chicken and shrimp with rice noodles, eggs penut, bean sprouts and scallions. In his own words, it was “average”.

Our friend Chelsea has been to SEA a few times before and always enjoyed it. She said that hers was definitely more bland than usual. She had the Spicy Thai Herbs Fried Rice with eggs ginger, basil, scallion, and chili paste.

The final bill came to around $70.00 which included a few Ice Teas. Overall, it was an enjoyable lunch, but I think that was more to do with the company and surroundings than it was the food. SEA doubles up as a club/late night bar, so perhaps it would be a better spot for a few drinks and nibbles.

Still. They have perhaps the coolest loos I’ve ever seen. The Lavatorial Review would’ve had a field day. They were little pods that the doors swung out of and they had little tvs inside where you could keep an eye on the restaurant. And in theory, your date. See if they were looking through your mobile while you were in the loo etc. Kind of cool but also kind of creepy.

Just in case you get the L train out to Bedford Avenue on your next visit to NYC and fancy some Thai food, here’s a google map for SEA.