Hamden not only has some terrific restaurants but their diversity mirrors the actual makeup of its population. Hamden has a substantial Asian population (on my apartment floor there are four Asian families, counting my own) and more than a few Asian restaurants. There is a substantial Indian population in Hamden, and a rumor going around that we are finally about to get an Indian restaurant.
One of the more popular Asian restaurants in Hamden is The Terrace, which is located in the little building at the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Pershing Street that once housed Joe Grate’s Barbecue.
The Terrace opened in 2007, and quickly found an appreciative audience, helped no doubt by some positive notices.
The star of the show is Amy Wongwiwat, a Bangkok native who studied at the Paul Bocuse School of Culinary Arts in Paris. She prepares the food, while her husband, Jeff, manages the front of the house. Here is a photograph of the couple, who met in Thailand after both had lived for long stretches abroad.
I was one of the first people to arrive for dinner on Tuesday of Restaurant Week, noting the simple but quietly sophisticated interior.
But before long, the restaurant began to fill, and I was grateful to have gotten a table.
I have been attempting to schedule interesting guests with ties of one sort or another to the town of Hamden. At the Terrace, in addition to my loyal friend Bob, my dining companions were WQUN general manager and morning talk show host Ray Andrewsen and his lovely wife Lynn.
The Andrewsens were not only fascinating guests but serious foodies.
The Terrace boasts more of a wine list than one would expect of a Thai restaurant, but I still find that nothing goes better with Thai food than a well-chilled Singha.
On The Terrace’s Restaurant Week menu, there were four appetizer choices, so we each tried a different one. Lynn selected the house salad,
Ray ordered the vegetarian spring rolls,
and Bob went for the tom yum soup,
leaving me the vegetable soup, which featured a comforting broth loaded with gently cooked veggies. It’s a good sign when the last choice is still such a satisfying one.
The mix-and-match entrées featured six foods which customers could pair with any of six preparations. The featured foods were beef, chicken, pork, mixed seafood, tofu and vegetables. The six preparations were spicy basil, mixed vegetable, ginger, kao pad pineapple, pad Thai and drunken noodles. We weren’t always sure exactly what we would wind up with, but we were pretty confident that anything we ordered would be good.
Our confidence proved well justified. Lynn selected the tofu in a spicy basil preparation,
Ray ordered the mixed seafood with ginger,
Bob went for the chicken with drunken noodles,
still leaving me plenty of options without repetition. I thought pork with kao pad pineapple sounded appealing.
I was right, although I couldn’t quite envision what I was getting. If my recall of Thai nomenclature had been better, I would have known I was getting a stir-fried pineapple rice with pork. It was a delightful combination.
The third-course choices were coffee, tea or the dessert of the day. On this occasion, the daily dessert was spaghetti ice cream,
which everyone enjoyed. Our experience dining at The Terrace left us wanting to explore the regular menu further.
The Terrace, 1559 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden, 203-230-2077
www.theterracethai.com