New places to dine open in Potsdam and Alex Bay
Two new restaurants opened recently, one in Potsdam and one in Alex Bay. We visited each of them for lunch to see what they're all about.
THAI CUISINE RESTAURANT
29 MAPLE ST.
POTSDAM
274-9088
Finally, it's open.
The long-awaited Thai restaurant in Potsdam quietly unlocked its doors less than two weeks ago. Without fanfare, word got around overnight, and they were packed — PACKED — for lunch and dinner the very next day.
Thai Cuisine Restaurant is family-owned and operated by some folks from Vermont. It's obvious that they are experienced restaurateurs, because they had little problem handling the throngs of people who showed up at their new restaurant literally overnight.
The ambitious menu (more than 75 items) proclaims "Authentic Thai Cuisine," with curries, noodle dishes, soups, salads and appetizers. Most everything is available in lunch or dinner portions. There are a good number of duck and seafood specialties, too. Lunch and dinner are served any time of day.
We were part of the lunch onslaught the third day they were open. The unexpected crowds could have spelled disaster for most any restaurant in their first week — but these people had it all under control.
Fresh made-to-order spring rolls consist of lettuce, carrot, celery, cilantro and bean sprouts, chicken or shrimp (we got shrimp), wrapped in softened rice paper. This tasty Thai standard was appetizingly served, cut into six pieces for easy sharing. A thin, vinegary sweet and sour sauce accompanied.
Our server said the dumplings are made there (as opposed to being purchased from a restaurant supplier). You can get them pan-fried or steamed. We went with steamed. These little treats were stuffed with ground pork, water chestnuts and bok choy.
Larb gai is a well-known Thai salad of chopped lettuce with minced chicken, onion, scallion, cilantro, lime juice, chili powder and ground roast sweet rice blended with kafir lime leaves and lemongrass. It's drizzled with a slightly spicy sweet vinegar "dressing." This was a carefully prepared dish that we'd come back for in an instant.
My eating associate loves Thai curries, green curry being his favorite. You can call your degree of spiciness; we called number three, just one step short of the max. The heat had a good bite without overpowering the ingredients — your choice of meat or fish along with string beans, bamboo shoots, red and green peppers, basil leaves, peas, carrots and coconut milk.
Pad Thai is the cheeseburger of Thai cuisine in America. This unique-tasting noodle dish was done right, a toss of rice noodles, bean sprouts, cabbage, scallions, ground peanuts and our choice of squid (chicken, pork, tofu, shrimp or scallops are also available).
Homemade Thai sweet iced coffee was definitely not your truck stop coffee. This refreshing beverage is like an iced café au lait except the sweet coffee sits quietly beneath the cream that takes up a third of the volume. It reminded us of a superb coffee milkshake.
We were served in one way or another by all three waiters/waitress. The organization of seating, taking orders, delivering food and getting and paying the bill was complicated, but it somehow worked — and you never felt neglected. The food arrived a bit haphazardly, not at all in the order it was ordered, but that didn't matter. It was a lunch of well-prepared, authentic Thai food, full of fabulous flavors and textures at a cost of $32 for two.
These people have it together. Even though it was only their third day in business, we'd have to say, overall, the experience was excellent. At this point, don't expect a half-hour in-and-out lunch. But it won't be very long until that will happen
Thai Cuisine Restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
RILEY'S BY THE RIVER
46-48 JAMES ST.
ALEXANDRIA BAY
482-7777
WWW.RILEYSBYTHERIVER.COM
There's a beautiful new building at the far end of the main drag in downtown Alex Bay that houses Riley's By The River, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. It's owned by the Thompson family, people with years of experience in the restaurant business in this riverfront tourist town.
They opened in mid-May, but didn't start serving dinner until last week. We stopped by for lunch on a weekday to check things out.
It's visually appealing inside and out. Lots of dark wainscoting. Large floor-to-ceiling windows affording views of the big tour boats coming and going.
A very accommodating hostess greeted us and seated us. They had not yet begun serving dinner the day we were there, but we asked if there might be a dinner menu to look at. They were temporarily out, she told us, but offered to call her boss and have some delivered.
The lunch menu is their "Lighter Fare" menu, served from lunchtime right into the evening. It consists of all-American middle-of-the-road stuff: burgers, sandwiches, paninis, wraps and salads.
We began with homemade turkey vegetable soup. It had the look of something your grandmother would make, plain and simple with visible strips of turkey, carrots that could have been cooked a little more and noticeably salty broth.
An open-faced Reuben was nicely presented, the salty corned beef sliced thicker than I've ever seen it, the perfect amount of melted Swiss, rye bread softer than we're accustomed to and Thousand Island dressing that we could have used more of.
Pulled pork on a bun was good, served with extra crispy fries per our request.
We asked our waitress if they pulled their own pork in the kitchen. From the look on her face, I don't think she understood exactly what we were asking. But the answer, she found out, was no.
Grilled chicken panini was the best of our three selections. Pieces of grilled chicken and Jack cheese along with sautéed onion, sweet pepper and mushrooms were stuffed into a folded over flatbread. Actually, the flatbread looked more like a thick flour tortilla. It had visible panini grill marks on it, but not the toasty crispness you expect from a panini.
Our waitress was a pleasant college-aged young lady. Unfortunately, she must have missed the waitress training session at the restaurant. There were only three of us at the table, but she had no idea who ordered what. As she was clearing our dishes, she offhandedly commented, "So I guess that will be all today?"
We had to ask if there was anything for dessert. "I know we have fried ice cream." She went to the kitchen and found out there were several more choices, but we ordered the fried ice cream and three spoons.
A baseball-sized ball of deep-fried ice cream arrived. It was in the center of the plate with a mess of aerosol whipped cream around it that looked like it was done by a second grader. We asked our waitress if she decorated the plate and she replied, "No, I would have made it look better than that. ..."
As she picked up the bill folder with my credit card sticking out of the top of it, she asked, "Do you need any change?" To which I replied, "No, but be sure to bring my credit card back."
Lunch for three including two diet Pepsis came to $43 before tip.
There were still no dinner menus for us to look at as we exited the building, but the nice hostess dug into her own pocketbook and found a copy for us to take home. It expands the offerings to include things like chicken Parmesan, prime rib, broiled salmon, sirloin steak and fettuccini Alfredo, all priced in the mid-teens.
Riley's By The River is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
