We had a sensational dinner at Ammata Thai. It was our first time and we liked it so much that we already booked reservations for next Sunday. I highly recommend this beautiful restaurant. Service was very friendly. Everything was bursting with flavor and there were so many different dishes that you don’t see at regular Thai restaurants.They have a basic menu and an adventurous menu. We ordered from the adventurous menu. We shared several appetizers including an excellent crispy lightly tempura battered betel leaves with grilled shrimp, shallots, roasted coconut, ground peanuts, cilantro, and scallions, with a chili lime dressing (You pile that on to the crispy betel leaves); lon of crab dip (which was more like a soup) with big chunks of jumbo lump crab meat, coconut milk, shallots, lemongrass, sweet chili, kaffir lime leaves, and crab roe. We also had a crispy pork belly salad with sweet pepper, pineapple, shallot, scallions, dried shrimp, and cashew nuts in a spicy lime vinaigrette. I also had honey ribs; fried marinated St. Louis pork ribs with spicy honey pineapple glaze, scallions, pickled cucumbers, and fried potato chips. For entrees Mrs. P crispy fried butterflied branzino with tumeric oil, shallots, cashew nuts, green apple and fresh pineapple salad. I had an awesome Southern crab curry with huge chunks of jumbo lump crab meat, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric, betel leaves, and roasted cauliflower. Everything went great with a 2015 Chakana red blend.
I found out about this place from a nice write up from the table hopping column in NJ monthly (link below). I also have a link to their menu.
https://njmonthly.com/articles/eat-drink/table-hopping/ammata-in-river-vale-modern-thai-that-stays-true-to-traditional-flavors/
Which dish is photo #5 & 6?
Photos 5 and 6 are the crispy fried butterflied branzino.
Nice! Never seen that preparation before.
We had another spectacular dinner at Ammata Thai. We loved it so much that we had to come back a week later. Everything was bursting with aromatics and flavor. Besides the awesome crispy betel leaves and Southern crab curry we also had a crispy duck and lychee salad with ginger, green apples, shallots, cilantro, cashew nuts, scallions, in a chili jam lychee dressing. I also had excellent fork tender Southern braised short ribs with a beautiful complex sauce of chili paste, turmeric, shrimp paste, kaffir lime leaves, and roasted cauliflower. Another excellent entree we had was Kaeng Kua Supparod which contained beautiful shrimp and mussels, red curry paste, coconut milk, fresh pineapples, shiitake mushrooms, and kaffir lime leaves. It all went great with a Primitivo wine.
… again!
We had another sensational dinner at Ammata Thai. Besides the always awesome crispy betel leaves, crab dip, Southern crab curry with big chunks of blue crab meat, and spicy Southern braised short ribs, we had Isaan Khao Tod- crispy rice, ginger, Isaan pork sausage, mint, shallot, scallion, bean sprout, roasted peanut, cilantro, spicy lime vinaigrette, and fresh vegetables. We also shared Phad Phed shrimp- stir fried shrimp with red chili paste, green peppercorn, Thai eggplant, red chili, string beans, Kaffir lime leaves, and Thai basil. It all went great with a Gigondas wine.
Pretty spectacular!
Is the 2nd to last one the crab curry?
The 2nd to last one is the crab dip (which is more like a soup but still delicious and full of crab meat). The 3rd to last one is the crab curry. The chunks on the right by the spoon is the crab meat, and on the left is the cauliflower. There was plenty of crabmeat. I have better pictures in my previous post (the 3rd and 2nd to last pictures).
Yes, except the crab meat is already out of the shell. It’s a lot less messy to eat 
Holy cow that is far up north! I’m not sure if I’ll ever make it up there but it looks really fantastic. I hate how all the Thai restaurants in our area have the same menu… places like Lotus of Siam just ruined me.
Yes, It’s even 45 minutes further up North from us but totally worth the trip. This would be a great place for a HO Down if it was more centrally located for everybody.
In Vegas?
It’s sweet delicious blue crab but very messy and excuse my crassness… it will burn your bum.
Yes, this is also sweet delicious chunks of blue crab, out of the shell, and not as messy, (but might also burn your bum depending on how spicy you ask them to make it)
Yes the Vegas one. Got that place is just incredible. I’ve been to a few “must go” places in NYC but that place just blew all of them away.
Paging @celeryvictor! He loves that place along with a lot of my L.A. food buddies. It’s top of the list when we go.
Have you tried the fried shrimp shell dish and the puffy fried rice one? I still think about those.
