Review: AppeThaizing

Name: AppeThaizing
Address: 727 S Crouse Ave Suite 4, Syracuse, NY
Neighborhood: University Hill
Website: www.appethaizing.com
Menu: View Menu
Cuisine: Thai
Alcohol: Wine and Beer
Hours: Monday to Friday 11 AM - 9 PM, Saturday 4 PM - 9 PM
Parking: On-Street
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Take-Out: Yes
Delivery: Yes

In a similar location to Funk 'N Waffles, AppeThaizing is located in the Campus Plaza alley off of South Crouse Ave, behind Marshall Street. It's the only Thai place near the SU campus and predominantly focuses on take out and delivery when school is in session.

The atmosphere in here is nice - warm and inviting and leans a little bit more to the casual side than elegant. Good color scheme and decor too. Though, I thought it felt a bit more like an upscale chain restaurant, than of a place that I'd recommend for a date. Near the front is a small counter area with stools that have a view of the open kitchen, a small waiting area for take out, and roughly 10 or 15 tables in the back area for seating. At the entrance is a flat screen TV cycling through various dishes on the menu. A little strange, but it was nice to have a visual picture of what some of the dishes looked like.

Overall, the menu is good and most likely has something to entice you if you like shrimp, chicken, beef, fish, or tofu. It's a small beverage selection with a few wines (mostly Australia and California) and beers, and very few other drink options.

The order...

Thai Iced Tea: $2.49
AppeThaizing Rolls: $5.99
Kow Soi: $12.99
Total Money Spent with Tax & Tip: $26.19

Above is the Thai Iced Tea.

Sweet and creamy, but a bit too syrupy for my liking.

Pictured here are the AppeThaizing Rolls: Marinated Pork, Shrimp, Glass Noodle, Carrots, Bean Sprouts and Green Onions wrapped in thin, fried Rice Paper and served with AppeThaizing Carrot Sauce.

The fried rolls were very good: crunchy, thin, and delicious. I loved the ingredients and the carrot sauce (with peanuts) was sweet and tasty. Usually, I'm not big on fried rolls, but these were actually pretty good. I didn't see the point in the salad garnish though.

Pictured above is the Kow Soi: Red and Yellow Curry, with Napa Cabbage, Tamarind, Rice Noodles, and Shrimp.

Presentation-wise, I thought that this was a really interesting dish and even fun. I'll admit that it was a little intimidating at first to have a pile high of dry noodles up to my face, but once they sat in the sauce, they became settled and were a lot easier to eat. Further, the texture between the dry noodles and wet noodles was a really nice surprise. Taste-wise, was a different story. The curry sauce was very spicy and I liked the big pieces of tender shrimp, but the whole dish was very one-note. It was moderately flavorful at first, but nothing lingering during the aftertaste, which kind of made the whole thing taste very bland. And then when you mix a bunch of soggy noodles, it became semi-un-appethaizing. Thumbs down.

Some other notes...

- Service was friendly, but the waitress didn't give back any one dollar bills when change was asked for - which was quite arrogant.

- The floors and menus were dirty. I visited during the Taste of Syracuse weekend (when school is out) and was one of only 4 people in here, so I didn't see the reason for all the uncleanliness.

- AppeThaizing also offers catering, check the website for details.

All and all, I wouldn't rule it out for a visit back. I'd like to try out some other dishes - maybe the Pad Thai or something. Most reviews that I can find online rate this place as perfect or near perfect, but I find that kind of hard to believe. I mean, I'd like to be wrong, but there was nothing there in the main entree that implied that this place was exceptional. I guess I'm not quite a fan yet, but I'd go back and be open to changing that opinion if there was a dish or two that I liked.

My rating of AppeThaizing: