Besides coffee, Seattle-ites seem to love the South East Asian cuisine. The ubiquitous Vietnamese pho joints and Thai restaurants provide excellent cheap eats for cheapskates like myself. As always, some are better than others, so here are the ones that are worth every lemongrass and basil.

Pho Cyclo , 406 Broadway East, Capitol Hill, has a very basic menu of pho, rice, and noodle dishes. Add an order of spring rolls to any of the entrees, and wash it down with a Vietnamese iced coffee to stuff yourself silly.

Than Brothers Restaurant, multiple locations, is a family-run chain of bare-bones pho only restaurants. Seat yourself, then choose between chicken, beef, or veggies to top off your bowl. If you opt for beef, you get to choose again from a long list of edible cow parts that include Vietnamese specialties like tendon and tripe. Pho’ Shizzle!

Kwanjai Thai, 469 North 36th Street, Fremont, is near the end of the main drag or North 36th Street in Fremont. It’s housed inside, well… a house. You might even feel like you’re a guest at the house. The menu is the usual pad thai, pad see ew. Seafood items are market prices so expect to pay more for those. For about $10, you’ll have a decent meal and plenty of cash leftover for a pint or 2 at the many nearby bars.

[photo by: Federico Mena-Quintero]

Whenever I recommend a Chinatown restaurant, I feel obligated to remind the reader that this is C-town so don’t expect good service. The Shanghainese food joint New Green Bo is no exception. In fact, it can even define C-town service. On the other hand, it also epitomizes the typical no nonsense, hole in the wall that serves up delicious food. At first glance of the 100 plus items on the New Green Bo menu is completely overwhelming. Go for what made this joint famous: the steamed dumplings. Many patrons swear by the pork or the crab, but the vegetable ones are just as excellent. An order makes a good appetizer for a large group, but can be an entire meal for a couple. Give the greasy fried scallion pancakes a try as well. If there is still a bit of room left in the stomach, order a plate of mei fun for the table. Stir-fried just right, it’s one of the finer mei fun in all of Chinatown.

New Green Bo, 66 Bayard St, New York, NY 10013
[photo by: The Amateur Gourmet]

When Iben dropped me a line to head to Woodside for Thai food, I was somewhat disappointed at the choice of cuisine since I had dinner a couple days ago. He made a point that it’s imperative for us to show up by 6pm for dinner, and promised the most outstanding Thai food this side of Bangkok. So sure, why not? If for no other reason to drop by Woodside, good food is good enough for me to go. We got to the
Sripraphai a little after 6, and the place was already packed. It reminded me a bit of the old Planet Thai in Willy’B. The 1 hour wait for a table for 4 gave us plenty of time to peruse and drool over the extensive menu. It’s not just pad thai and red curry. We skipped the usual pad thai and curry and opted for a fried snapper (with the head attached), spicy beef kebabs, curried tofu, chinese vegetables, and shrimp noodles. You can get thai food almost anywhere in town, just not this kind of thai food.

[Sripraphai: 6413 39th Ave (Between 64th Street and 65th Street)
Woodside, NY 11377]
[photo by: foodite]

Mexican food is always a great standby when I’m hungry and just not in the mood for any other cuisine. It’s cheap, and so filling that it sits in your stomach long enough to skip out the next meal. With Mexican food, you pretty much know what you are getting. All dishes is some kind or combination of rice, beans, cheese, veggies, and meat wrapped in various sizes of tortillas. While there are so many Mex-joints to choose from, Tacos Nuevo Mexico is the real deal, serving octopus salads, Oaxaqueño tamales, and lengua (tongue) tacos alongside the usual quesadillas, enchiladas, and burritos. In its modest space in Park Slope, Mexican families rub elbows with the usual Park Slope set, chowing down massive portions while glancing up to watch a bit of Telemundo. Do however, resist the urge to dance when a rump shaking tune is blasted off the jukebox. For a complete Mexican experience, hit the bar next door for a michelada.

[Tacos Nuevo Mexico, 489-491 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, btwn 11th & 12th]

Oh, the price of success. The old school pizza joint run by an equally old school pizza making Italian-American has received so much positive press coverage these past few years. Everyone from the The New York Times, Zagat’s, Village Voice, and even the borough-phobe New York has given the pizzeria so much love. In fact, Time Out New York, recently annointed the joint with the Best of Pizza in NYC. Word has it that even NYC guidebooks are heaping praise as well. It is because of all this attention that the wait for a Dom’s Special porcini mushroom slice is now over an hour’s wait. Most of the throng of drooling customers all fit the description of visitors to Midwood. Hey, you know what I mean! It’s as if the Brooklyn natives who grew up eating at DiFara’s have left to find a new pizza crush. As much as I love DiFara’s, I think it’s high time I do the same as well.

[DiFara's Pizza, 1424 Ave. J at E. 15th Street, Brooklyn]
[photo: NYCviaRachel/flickr]