The Thai That Binds, Part I

Although they have a few passable exceptions, I've always considered the Lower East Side and Chelsea to be Manhattan's two restaurant black holes. Both have somehow been sucked into the trap of putting decor over flavor, but the throng of stylish customers rarely seem to mind. Was I missing something?

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't too thrilled about checking out the vaguely Thai Lovely Day, despite its low (especially for the neighborhood) prices and very, very attractive servers. (Actually, the presence of hyper-attractive servers is sometimes a bad sign, as it makes me wonder if the management's priorities aren't on the food; the fact that they kept a bundle of chopsticks on the table wasn't a good sign, either--they don't use chopsticks in Thailand.) Lovely Day's model seems to be to keep a limited menu of fairly standard Thai fare (pad Thai, etc.), while throwing in a few unimaginative Western dishes (pork chops with mashed potatoes, for instance), but keeping the prices low in exchange (most dishes are $9 or less). But if you're just going to put out a few dishes, you really ought to do that well, too.

I tried the hobo noodles ($8.50), a soggy mix of wide rice noodles, bell peppers, basil, red peppers, and a way-too-sweet sauce. I found myself squeezing the lime from my Negra Modelo (Incidentally, wtf? Just because it's from Mexico, it needs a lime?) to add some much-needed tang to the dish, but it still wasn't enough. One of my companions' pad Thai ($8.50) wasn't much better, suffering from the same glut of sweetness.

We also got some fried tofu and some snapper balls (no, not those types of balls), the former of which was disappointingly dry and chewy, the latter of which was actually quite good and fishy. But seeing has how the snapper isn't on the regular menu (it was a special), the prospects for the rest of Lovely Day's fare don't seem too lovely.

Lovely Day (map)
196 Elizabeth St., nr. Prince St.