Review: Centara Brings Thai Tradition to Stony Brook

Thai eatery Centara has all of the polish you'd expect from a restaurant that's been running for years: great service, ambiance and food that looks as good as it tastes. Yet, it opened four months ago.

Credit owner experience. For on Route 25A in Stony Brook, this is his third Thai restaurant. He previously opened Thai Gourmet in Port Jefferson in 1997 and Sabai Thai Bistro in Miller Place in 2007.

"I know the items that people love," Pattapong said. "The food I put on the menu is popular."

The menu features all the traditional Thai mainstays, including tom yum goong soup ($3.95), a hot-and-sour soup with chili, lemongrass and lime juice, which was pleasantly rustic and spicy. The tom kha kai soup ($3.95) is milder and smoother, with chicken, coconut milk, galanga and lime juice.

The crab roll ($5.95), recommended by server Andy, is a combination of pork and crab inside a crispy tofu wrapper topped with plum sauce that was delicious. The nam sod salad ($7.95), made with minced chicken, fresh ginger, roasted peanut, red onion, scallion, chili and lime juice, was fresh and alive with bright flavors.

But pad thai is the yardstick by which most Thai restaurants are measured. Centara's version of the traditional noodle dish ($10.95) is basic but extremely flavorful. And it's not at all over-sauced, which pad thai dishes can sometimes be. Customers can choose to add more spice to the dish to bump up the heat level, too. Meanwhile, the Massaman curry seafood combination ($14.95), with perfectly cooked shrimp, squid and scallops, pulls off a satisfying balance of moderate heat and rich, curry taste.

Beyond its regular menu, the restaurant also features a variety of specials; one recent Monday evening the specials included duck tamarind, mango curry with chicken, and tilapia with ginger.

Centara's also offers a wide assortment of desserts, and the crispy banana with honey ($2.95) was the highlight of the meal. Two strips of banana wrapped and fried like a spring roll, topped with honey, were the perfect sweet complement to the spicy dinner.

Centara accepts cash and personal checks.

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