Late Night at Cafetasia East

Totally starving after doing some heavyweight drinking in the neighborhood on a typical Thursday night, my brother & I went to Cafetasia East (85 Avenue A between 5th & 6th streets) an old favorite of ours.  We arrived shortly before midnight & the staff were pretty much closing up shop.  Luckily, they were nice enough to seat us.

Cafetasia East Revisited

Cafetasia East (85 Avenue A between 5th & 6th streets) has slightly updated their 12:30-5PM Happy Hour Menu, so I’ll give you the lowdown.  I went there with my Dad a few weeks ago & as usual it wasn’t busy at all.  The first thing that we noticed was that a pint of Sapporo was raised a buck to $3.  Not surprising or a bad deal at all.

Cafetasia East

After mocking Cafetasia (85 Avenue A between 5th & 6th streets) earlier for being ‘just another’ Thai restaurant on the Ave., I went there today with a friend for some Happy Hour (more like Happy Day! 12:30-5pm) food.  I can’t remember the name of the spot that used to be here, but Cafetasia did a really damn good job with the remodel.  It was pretty empty, but I could imagine this place would be jumping on a busy night. We sat down & ordered a $2 Sapporo draft (no, that’s NOT a typo; $2!) while we looked through the menu.

We started with the Spring Rolls (forgot to take a picture) which were nothing like I’ve ever had.  I’m used to Spring Rolls being very crispy, but the ‘shell’ on these were more doughy (I immediately thought doughnut) & they were served on top of a sticky sweet sauce (which was pretty good).  I just couldn’t get my head around the dough texture though.  NOT what I had expected.

I opted for the grilled salmon with 3 flavor sauce (I got the sweet & spicy but I couldn’t identify the third, sour maybe?)  I like my salmon a bit on the medium side, but I wasn’t going to complain here.  There were plenty of vegetables & the sauce had a little bit of heat to it, not too overpowering.

Dan got the vegetable red curry, a spicy coconut-based broth again with loads of veggies including a very strange Thai eggplant (at least that’s how our waitress described it) that he seemed to like.  I tried some of the broth.  Really spicy with a hint of sweetness, pretty damn good!  I’m going to try to see if I can replicate this at home (minus the funky vegetables which I’m sure I’ll never find).

Our meal came out to less than $20, not bad at all.  I’m just glad to have somewhere new to go to for lunch!

Update; Further Coverage. New review here.

Thai at 85 Avenue A

Cafetasia has slid right in at the old Kim’s Video location at 85 Avenue A recently.  Following in the footsteps of another Asian-themed restaurant that failed miserably & possibly ignoring the closing of Kion down the street on 6th between A & B.  Maybe they just haven’t got the point (or expect more NYU traffic this far east).  This is Cafetasia’s 2nd location (the other being at 38 East 8th St.)  Expect them to compete with Mini Thai Cafe down the street on A & plenty of other Thai restaurants on 1st & 2nd Avenues. We’ll see how this one fares…

Update: Here’s my review.
Update: Further Coverage