Bangkok Kitchen — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

YOUR SEARCH FOR THAI FOOD in Albany is over ----

While traveling with brother from Florida to Mass (via upstate NY) we were discussing what to eat for lunch. We were tired of the sack lunch and greasy burger joints along the road. I googled "Thai food near Albany NY". Bangkok Kitchen popped up along with a few others. we decided because of the whole "situation" to call and make sure these places were open as it was a bit out of our way sort of speaking. My goodness , a very friendly and welcoming voice greeted me "personally" . I found it a bit humorous that she thought of me like old lost friend. " Yes were open, pleased to see you again soon ." No need to call any others, we were Bangkok Kitchen committed.

We arrived about an hour later and were immediately given a very warm and infectious greeting by Lala. Later we came to learn that she and her sister (Karry) own the restaurant. Karry would be our server for the majority of our dining experience. Not to be outdone by Lala, Karry was equally inviting and very patient with two out of towners...I digress.

Karry got our drinks and answered our many questions also while providing the right amount of time to look over the menu and its abundant offerings.

Our lunches for the day included, Som Tom (papaya w/shrimp) salad, Tom Yum Gai, Steak Terryaki (miso and house salad incl) and a house special Crispy chicken Thai basil with two sides of rice.

We were blown away with intricate flavors, aromatic blends and the friendliest customer service I've had Stateside during this entire "situation". I don't know what the salad dressing is but my goodness, I wanted to pick the plate up and lick it clean, it was that good. In fact the entire lunch was so good, that we decided to order dinner to go and proceeded accordingly,

Dinner included orders of Pink Lady and an American Dream Roll. We decided to take Karry up on the appetizer recommendation (although) this name escapes me at the moment. OMG all of this was so good! We are up here for a few weeks and trying to figure out how to justify a 2+ hr roundtrip drive to visit a few more times :)

PS - I Love Thai! I have been to Thailand 8 times, live in SE Asia, so I have had my share of good, bad and wonderful "Asian" food. This is hands down one of the best I've had. The sushi presentation even in a takeaway box....exceptional. They obviously love what they do and it comes thru from the moment you enter, until the moment you leave, you can truly feel the "we are...

First. Bangkok Kitchen is not actually IN Albany. I mean maybe you know that already because you live in Albany. I don’t, but I LOVE Albany and when I get a few days I drive over from Vermont to be in an actual city and partake of the restaurant scene that is going on here. Because there is, actually, a restaurant scene. Bangkok Kitchen is on a strip, in a suburb, miles away in Latham. But! It definitely would be worth your time to drive out.

This spot has The Best Vibe! Great energy. The minute you walk through the door you know it’s going to be a nice time. The decorations are SO FUN and bright and lively. I sat at the bar and it is big, roomy, lovely, with TVs over it. I kind of love to sit at a bar and eat a leisurely lunch (on my days off!) and watch either ESPN or someone flipping houses. Everyone I interacted with/observed working at Bangkok Kitchen was, frankly, in a GREAT mood. And that alone says A LOT about a business. Particularly a restaurant. When people are happy at work? That’s the kind of place I want to spend my money at.

The menu is huge and so much stuff sounded so good that I decided to eat as many smaller plates as possible! Which is what I like to do anyway. But the appetizer/soup/salad menu was, frankly, enormous. I DO like variety.

I had the summer rolls. Which were DELICIOUS, but not wrapped quite tight enough, which made it a two hand proposition to hold everything together in order to get a bite.

I had the Lucky Fish appetizer, which was excellent! Fresh little squares of white fish battered and fried and served piping hot with a delicious sauce over the top.

I had the Salmon, Mango, Wrap (also has avocado). All the ingredients sounded great, so I ordered it. It came in crispy, fried wonton wrappers. I kind of wasn’t expecting deep fried. But! CRAZY GOOD. Also filling, which slowed me down! I couldn’t keep on eating things.

There were plenty of actual, Thai entrees I also would have liked to try.

I, personally, would stick to the Thai and cooked items on the menu. I saw some sushi dishes go out and could see the fish was not cut with much precision. Although if you like those big, complicated type sushi rolls (I do not) those...

Ordered takeout on a Thursday evening. Our order was hot and ready on time. I had a Chirashi entrée and was very pleased with the quality and cuts of sushi, the fish was fresh and they didn't skimp out on the rice - its one of the better chirashi's I've had in the area. They honored my food allergy requests on the chirashi dish. However, I received neither the miso soup nor the salad that is supposed to come with the dinner (also there is a discrepancy between the paper menu which states that you receive BOTH soup and salad, and the online ordering system which makes you choose one or the other, buyer beware!). At 23.95 for a dinner, the soup and salad SHOULD have been included. My husband had the mango curry, and even though we ordered it at the maximum spice level he still needed to add hot sauce. The pad thai received great reviews! Our fourth dish was yaki udon. Typically yaki udon is stir fried, but this came in more of a traditional soup-like udon sauce. I was very disappointed to see that there were mushrooms in the dish that were not listed on the menu (I LOVE other vegetables and was glad for more of them, but unfortunately have a mushroom allergy). Lesson learned, next time I will indicate "no mushrooms" on every single item I order EVEN if they aren't listed as an ingredient on the menu. The dishes I was able to try were good enough that I will likely be back eventually, but there is certainly room for improvement. Check for all items in your takeout order BEFORE you leave the restaurant.

Update: gave this place another try, this time in person. We were promptly seated and served. We tried the tuna gyoza appetizer, which is amazing, a must try. We also ordered a sushi boat for 2. Once again, the quality of the sushi here didnt disappoint. This time our sushi boat came with soup and salad for each of us. I had green tea ice cream for dessert and the portion was generous! Ive upped my review to 5 stars for the dine-in experience. The waitstaff were all prompt, friendly, and welcoming. Im glad we decided to...