Lovely Day = lovely
FINALLY ate at Lovely Day tonight with Ena, my best friend from middles school and high school at HKIS. Will write about it tomorrow if I survive tonight hahahahaha. This is just a reminder to myself!
UPDATE: Hi lovers. I had a lovely weekend, and part of it had to do with Lovely Day.
Originally, we intended on trying a little Italian place called Mangiami, but it was completely empty.
Ena and I waited about half an hour for a table at peak hours on a Saturday night. [Note: Lovely Day only takes reservations for parties of 6 or more.] I heard whispers about the rude waitstaff, but I didn’t find the servers/hosts rude at all. They were accommodating and rushed all at once.
The dining room must sit up to 20+ people at a time. It’s not a big restaurant at all. The decoration is very unique because it seems like a shabby chic “Grease” diner with 50s floral wallpaper. There are booths, 2-top square tables, and 3 to 4-top round tables. I really like the eclectic decoration that might all but make sense with the Thai cuisine. The restaurant is frequented by a bunch of hipsters, artists, and yuppies probably due to the well-priced menu and funky décor.
Lovely Day only accepts Amex or cash. Ena forgot her wallet at my apartment, and I only had $39 on me so we were a bit economically strapped. I don’t like prices influencing the way I order food, but luckily the restaurant is relatively cheap and YUMMY!
I ordered Shrimp Green Curry and rice. By the way, I LOVE LOVE LOVE coconut-based curries. Ena ordered the Thai Fried Rice. My curry was creamy, sweet, and really spicy. Burned my taste buds a few times. The curry also had bamboo shoots, Thai basil (yum!), eggplant, and carrot. The serving of 5 pieces of jumbo shrimp was a pretty good bargain for a $9 dish in NoLita. Ena’s Thai fried rice was good too but paled in comparison to my green curry and rice. Fried rice is fried rice, so it’s not really something to fawn over. It was different from Chinese fried rice in that I think it had some shrimp paste mixed in. Stinky shrimp paste is probably one of the reasons I love Thai food.
Historically, Asian families take day-old rice and add oil, vegetables and meat. This avoids waste! My mom does that and us kiddies love it. Also, there really isn’t a recipe for fried rice, but in the states it usually involves egg, peas, carrots, and corn. Boring, but it does the job?
Naturally, I ordered dessert. The Crispy Banana Roll. I don’t even know what to say. Please, just order it for the sake of your future happiness. It’s essentially 2 fried egg rolls but with a banana filling. With Il Laboratorio del Gelato vanilla ice cream on top, how can anything go wrong with this dessert? Don’t eat it too slow or the fried roll part will get soft. I love crispy things!
The check came out to $30 including tip. The crowd that we waited with before dinner had multiplied 3 or 4 times by the time we left the restaurant. Obviously, Lovely Day is doing something right.
*If anyone were to ask the way to my heart. Food would undoubtedly be the answer.
