Life's a breeze at... Breeze

Monday night, I met BL for our monthly-ish catch-up dinner. I've had a near-insatiable craving for Thai food recently, so we hit up Breeze, a Thai-French fusion restaurant on Ninth Avenue.

The restaurant is very cool-looking, with interesting light fixtures and bits of decor that brighten the room. Bizarrely, the menus come in CD/DVD cases and the drinks list on an old record, indicating that there's some sort of music theme going on... but that's really the only indication. Otherwise it's just a Thai restaurant.

We placed our order with the friendly waiter, and soon BL's Coconut Chicken Soup emerged. It was hot and steamy, and BL seemed to enjoy it. I only remembered to take a picture halfway through, though, so while it looks as though they only gave him a half bowl, I promise it's just an optical illusion! Mwahahahahahah. Or something.

This dish is half full. Or half empty?

While BL was finishing up his soup, our entrees arrived. BL had chosen Thai style shrimp fried rice. He only ate a bit of this; apparently, it was thoroughly underseasoned and therefore simply "meh."

A dome of mediocrity

My own selection was the tofu/eggplant with Thai basil sauce, which came with a side of standard jasmine rice. I had gotten this once before at Breeze, on an occasion I had forgotten to blog (oops), and it was delicious, so I was psyched to get it again. Especially because I was RAVENOUSLY hungry, which you know always leads to disaster. It was very tasty, packed with yummy tofu and soft, creamy eggplant and some auxiliary veggies like onions and peppers, and I ate the whole thing (see also: "always leads to disaster"). As it turns out it was a wee bit oily, because now I have a pretty powerful ohhh-I-ate-too-much-heavy-food stomachache.

Yummy Thai veggies

White rice, take II

And that was it-- fast in, fast out, we were on our way. And while we didn't have the greatest meal we've ever had, I like Breeze, and I'd definitely go back. It's good Thai food, a bit more creative than usual, in a cool atmosphere, for prices that aren't exorbitant. That to me means Breeze is a classic three-Offset-Spatula joint.

Breeze
661 Ninth Avenue, between 45th and 46th Streets
212-262-7777