NYMagazine published The Queens Top 20 this summer and we aimed to ride out from Brooklyn and devour our way through the list. I really wanted to go to Mumbai Express in Floral Park...but our butt pleaded 'no' (its a 2 hour bike ride one way). So we opted for Thai. Going through our options, I nixed Sripraphai off our ride because it has 10 million reviews on yelp and I dont want to buy into the hype. Plus, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." (Whats up Don).
In the end we chose Ayada in Elmhurst: 1hour bike ride each way, total of 22 miles.
I used googlemaps for our bike route...and learned 3 important things.
1. Queens is f-ing retarded/ I should have the read the map more thoroughly. They list every street by number. So there is for example 69th St, 69th Pl, 69th Av, 69th f-ing Blvd...all right next to each other.
2. There are no bike lanes in Queens. So we rode along the underpass majority of the way. Fortunately drivers in Queens are not aggressive and no one honked at us, but it was still a little scary being on such big roads.
3. Because there are no bike lanes, we technically didnt have to take the excessive route that I drew on my arm (cool tattoo idea though). I guess googlemaps suggested that specific route because it was flat and we didnt have to go uphill. But taking Greenpoint and continuing on to Woodside (albeit lots of uphill downhills) is a straight shot and Im glad we took that way home.
Ayada Thai
77-08 Woodside Ave
Elmhurst, NY 11373
I dont eat Thai often, but Ayada definitely doesnt taste like the menus from Smith St. We had the drunken noodle (order Thai ice tea to cool down the heat), papaya salad (super spicy and that was what they considered as 'medium spicy') and my favorite: a whole fried snapper topped with mango that was priced at $25 (Everything else on the menu costs like $7). Pricey - yes. Worth it? Totally. Yum.
