The Pint-Sized Palate — A Kid’s Take on New York Food

Thai It Up!

By Churchill Stone

Sappe, 240 W. 14th St.

My sister and I love Thai food. My mother loves it too and my father lived in Chiang Mai, so it’s popular with our whole family.

So when a new Thai place opened up on 14th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, we all wanted to go. It was a rainy Sunday and we went by earlier in the day to make sure the place would work for kids, including my toddler brother.

It was a little odd to have a new restaurant on 14th Street because it’s mostly just fast-food places and a couple bakeries. Sappe sits between a tattoo place (Red Baron Ink), a liquor store (North Village Wine and Liquor), and right under Screaming Mimi’s vintage clothes. But you definitely notice it because the outside of the restaurant is painted bright yellow.

We got there at 6 p.m., a little wet and with big appetites. Inside, it was already super-crowded and very busy. Sappe (pronounced “Sep”) means to eat happily. The restaurant has one very large room with lots of tables, all full with people eating with friends and family, and talking loudly. It reminded me of our school cafeteria but with lots of colorful Thai posters, disco lighting and peppy music. At the back there is a window where you can see the kitchen. There were people of all different races and ages; singles and families. Our server ushered us past the large room into a smaller back room where kids can’t bother couples on dates (but we were able to do that in the small room anyway).

They do not give you chopsticks or knives at Sappe because Thais do not use those. They only give you a spoon and a fork. That way you can always get sauce from the dish.

Us kids started with Thai yuzu lemonade. It was not your typical lemonade; it almost tasted like flowers and had a few petals floating on top. The taste was a little more grown up, but I liked it. My mom told me that the lemonades were $15, almost the same as cocktails.

Unlike other Thai restaurants, they had many different types of skewers. There’s a whole skewer menu including pork, pork belly, chicken, and beef —and we tried them all. Our favorite was the Moo Ping, which was the pork skewer — so tender and juicy. My sister and I love this dish and Sappe’s was the best I have ever had.

Then I had the Mama E-La which is egg noodles with glazed beef on top. It was spicy for the kids, but I liked it a lot. My sister and I got our own sticky rice so we were happy not to share. This rice was not as sticky as I’m used to, but still very good (and I know what a good sticky rice is.) Sticky rice is good to eat if your Thai food is too spicy.

The adults had some other dishes that were mostly green vegetables and mushrooms. We were warned that they were super spicy so us kids were less interested. That said, the plates were all clean at the end of the night!

But we wanted dessert. The Mango Sundae was very good and kid friendly — mangos, sweet sticky rice, and vanilla mango gelato with condensed milk. We also had Buk Prao which was a large coconut with jackfruit and sweet sticky rice inside and coconut gelato on top. Delicious. Finally, we tried the Chao Guay which was chewy jelly bubbles with gelato and brown sugar. Even though these desserts were not typical, all the kids at the table were very happy.

Sappe says they want to be like Thailand in the 1950s with the “ambiance of a train station.” On the way out, I saw couples and groups of friends lined up along 14th Street, excitedly waiting to be seated inside. Sappe is definitely different from other Thai places where I have been, but I think that makes it better, and possibly one of the best.

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