Brooklyn's 5th Ave and Smith St both have a couple of very authentic, high quality Thai restaurants; these may be noisy, not the most comfortable places, but the food always satisfies. Long Tan, on the other hand, is neither that authentic (It's very westernized Thai) nor is it always satisfying. There are some excellent dishes at Long Tan: flaky and subtle curry puffs, spicy Asian slaw, lean and flavorful kangaroo teriyaki, 2 flavor fish are some of the standouts. There are some dishes which hold a lot of promise, but are not quite there, like their Pad Thai which is made correctly with the intensely tasty dried shrimp, but is a little too sweet. And then there're the disasters: no one I know has ever been able to go through a whole serving of the hot and sour soup here, it's way too sour and way too hot, there's no balance of flavors and it pretty much kills your taste buds for the rest of the meal; the shrimp dumplings are tiny, overly deep fried bits with a bland and mushy filling; the green papaya and green beans salad comes swimming in a tart dressing and that's basically all you can taste.\r
Long Tan is the most comfortable of the local Thai spots, a good place for a leisurely dinner, and they make some interesting cocktails. The service is also normally very efficient and pleasant. I just wish they'd get their menu right.
Pros: service, comfortable space, some great dishes
Cons: some really poor dishes, expensive
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