Ammata Thai Kitchen — Restaurant in River Vale

We went to this beautifully decorated Thai restaurant for its lunch specials, and we weren't disappointed.

The food and service were great, but you should ask about the spicing, which is given on a scale of 1 to 5. Both of the dishes we ordered had 1 star next to them, and we were happy with the moderate heat level.

My wife ordered Boat Noodle Soup with a salad ($12), and I was intrigued by a special made with bamboo, Spicy Young Bamboo ($10), which came with a mound of rice, and I asked for a vegetable spring roll to start. Brown rice was available.

Another appetizer you can choose with a lunch special is a hot-and-sour soup.

The soup contained tender pieces of beef and egg noodles in a dark broth. My vegetarian and gluten-free dish included crunchy bamboo, fried tofu, cauliflower, carrot, string bean and Thai basil in a tingling sauce.

We loved the food, our water glasses were kept full, and we found the lunch specials to be delicious, filling and satisfying.

We were seated at a table in the window, and noticed a tray of food the restaurant put out on the sidewalk next to a bench. I didn't get a chance to ask why it was there, but that added to the allure of the place.

Was it to show passer-bys the type of food served there or some other kind...

We had high hopes for this place but we left a bit disappointed. We ordered the crispy betel leaves, lon of seafood, tom yum shrimp, khao pad (fried rice) with shrimp, pad thai with pork belly, palm sugar ice cream, and thai tea ice cream. The lon of seafood was amazing. Tom yum shrimp was decent, you can’t really go wrong with tom yum soup. The crispy betel leaves that had really good reviews were a major let down, it was way way wayyy too sweet. Both entrees were disappointing. The khao pad was tasteless and the shrimps were overcooked so it was very soft. It was not worth $19. The pad thai was small and also tasted very meh. It was just sweet, and lacked the flavors of a good pad thai. Also the noodles were overcooked and mushy. As someone who’s had a lot of Thai food in the US and also been to Thailand a dozen times, I couldn’t figure out what kind of Thai food this was. Both desserts were very good though. Not sure we would be back. Service was great. Food took a while to come but it was a Friday evening and the...

The service seems inconsistent with other reviews but my experience with my server was excellent. She was attentive and checked on us regularly so it might be different when is busy. When i arrived the restaurant wasn't packed. The food came out perfect and with in a good time frame. The papaya salad was amazing 😍 and the bentel leaves were unique and both dishes had a sweet and tart taste to them. I highly recommend if you haven't tasted it. I ordered the duck curry 🍛 🦆 which wasn't spicy 🔥 and it was more in the sweet side because of the pineapple. The duck was the softest i ever had and it was worth the price. I ordered the crab fried rice 🦀 which was tasty and flavors delicious. It had the seafood flavor it should have. Good Thai food is hard to coke by but this restaurant hits all the notes. If you are looking for authentic and savory and sweet this...